Having just set up a trust (to avoid some of the estate taxes), I would still agree with PerryChase and the other poster. Look – I understand both sides of these views, but think that our country is set up pretty unfairly. Estate taxes above a certain amount seem to me to be a reasonable precaution against keeping large estates in family hands who didn’t earn them.
Current law:
* The federal estate tax exemption amount is $2,000,000 in 2006 increasing to $3,500,000 in 2009. The highest federal estate tax rate is 46% in 2006 and decreases to 45% in 2007-2009. The federal estate tax will be repealed on 1/1/10 until 12/31/10. Beginning 2011, the federal estate tax will be reinstated with a federal estate tax exemption amount of $1,000,000 and a maximum estate tax rate of 55%. Currently, bills are pending in Congress that, if passed, would permanently repeal or otherwise lessen the impact of the federal estate tax.
First of all the people who watch American Idol (including myself even though I despise all reality shows – hey it’s a singing competition!) all work. They work pretty hard, get a couple of weeks vacation if they are lucky, and pay taxes. Have you guys forgot that most of the wealth in this country is in the hands of a small percentage?
The people at the top have the power, are the employers and have been structuring the tax system and the benefits of the tax system to their own advantage (including mine) to the detriment of the rest of society. Literally all the wealth created in the last 30 years have gone to the upper brackets – the rest of the brackets have stayed the same or gone down.
Until last week I owned a company. As hard as I worked, I also made the rules. And all the people in the company had to punch a clock and deal with lopsided earning power. Lets face it. Not only were jobs not created or earning power increased for the vast number of Americans during Bush’s tax cut system, but all it did was enrich the wealthy and the rich. We paid our employees at or above (in some cases way above) current price points – but still we made even more money.
I’m amazed at people who have disdain for “the great unwashed”. It’s these people who have the crappy jobs, work their asses off doing menial labor. Have to put up with personalities like some of the voices recently expressed in this blog, et. cetera.
I want my children to stand on their own two feet. That being said, they will start with a HUGE advantage compared to the rest of society. JG your kids go to private school. despite any taxes you might pay they will have lots of material possessions from you. The average kid in this country goes to public school, private school isn’t an option for them economically. The bottom percentage of our society goes to crap public schools, deals with drugs and metal detectors, gangs, violence. My kids also go to private school… Will probably go to an elite university and will have a trust fund in 7 figures. Do you really think it’s unfair to lose half of the estate above some number of million dollars to provide for the rest of society? I don’t. I’m glad to pay it.
The problem we have in this country is too low taxes. We also have the problem that most of the guys at the top are stealing from everyone else. A study was just done that showed that the average of all mergers in the last 20 years have resulted in less then the seperate companies to the stockholders… Some percentage of the people who are employed by the former companies lost their jobs.. The CEO’s and the executives got insanely rich. Without actually having any better performance. What a country!
Keep voting your pocketbook… You have to live with your conscious.
