[zimablue]

What would really make sense -> a wealth tax What we have instead of that -> an estate tax What you need to make an estate tax work -> a gift tax

Wealth taxes and income taxes are kind of orthogonal. Why do you need a wealth tax? For the same reason you need a progressive income tax, power naturally accumulates and without a force pushing against that you slide towards feudalism. It's also important to note that wealth doesn't work like "I earned a pile of gold and if I do nothing I/my children will gradually deplete it". Wealth makes higher returns the more wealth you have, returns /above/ inflation, meaning that if you throw it into a managed fund it will make you money (on average) forever. So it's less like you own a pile of gold and more like you own a boatload of land and rent it to other people to passively get you money (equity same deal but more steps). So half the people are born into the world effectively owning not a pile of gold but shares on the other half! (Try earning a living without land, water, telecoms, probably soon air, which we allow people to own). If you don't think this is bad because of some sense of fairness and morality, accept that it's bad because "those who make peaceful revolution..." - eventually you get the French revolution.