[pdonis]

> And the way to avoid that judgement is for the majority of absurdly wealthy people’s property to devolve to the state when they die.

That just makes the state the owner of most of the society's wealth--which in practice means the small group of people who control the state own it. How is this better?

[laum]

Because it’s far easier for someone with a great vision about how to use the state’s wealth for everybody’s benefit to get themselves elected to the governing body than it is for them to get themselves reincarnated as an aristocrat.

[prepend]

Is it though? In the US, I think, it’s far easier for someone to make a billion dollars, and thus be able to buy a bunch of land or whatnot, than it is for a president or major politician to be elected with a clear enough vision to do something.

I base this on the number of new billionaires vs the number of major new political initiatives.

I think it’s quite easy to have a vision, but very difficult to filter those through the will of the people. In the sense that a great vision is very subjective and may not be believed by the large number of people necessary to change things in a constitutional republic.

[pdonis]

> someone with a great vision about how to use the state’s wealth for everybody’s benefit

History shows that such people are much, much rarer than people who have a great vision about how to use wealth they have either inherited or built up themselves for everybody's benefit. Or, to put it another way, people with a great vision that will actually work are far more likely to become entrepreneurs than politicians. Bill Gates is eradicating malaria using his own wealth while governments have failed to do so for centuries.