[program_whiz]

All wealth is inherited. Are you proposing each person is cast out and begins again in cave man form with nothing but the unowned land to start with? Everything you have, knowledge, money, inventions, cultivated land, food, your body etc, were created and passed down (inherited) from a prior generation.

Also this idea penalizes someone who's parents died when they were born, who would have paid for every opportunity until they were of age, now they have nothing. Meanwhile those who have parents or some other caretaker to pay for and facilitate all kinds of experiences thrive.

If you really think that's the case, then please stop using all the things you've inherited from prior generations (i.e. turn off your computer, electricity, plumbing, clothing you wear, food grown by others, streets built before you).

[dang]

> If you really think that's the case, then please stop using all the things

Please don't use escalating rhetoric like that on Hacker News. We're trying for civil, substantive discussion here. Playing this sort of card is mildly uncivil in its own right and tends to lead to worse.

[tossedaway334]

I think you are misunderstanding the point that is being made. The point is that inheritance belongs to everyone NOT just a single family. Its not about forcing everyone to begin anew by banging two rocks together, its about allowing the common whole to inherit, not just a select few.

[slededit]

That is nonsensical. Were it true we'd have only the things our ancestors started with. Clearly somebody somewhere created the buildings we live in, invented the devices we use. Or was that merely infinitely inherited too?

Rather I'd argue the vast majority of each generation's wealth is created not inherited. Otherwise we'd all be living exponentially worse off than previous generations as the wealth is diluted by population growth.