[jeremy_arnold]

I mean there are elaborate schemes to avoid this, but it's not obvious to me that many of them really work short of active (i.e., illegal) tax evasion.

You can, for example, shield stuff in trusts, which is tax-efficient. But when an heir wants to realize gains to buy stuff, it's going to be taxed. All you're doing is deferring, which is fine from the gov's POV as their share of the pool isn't changing, and the pool is in most cases growing a rate that exceeds their borrowing costs.

That said, if Congress wants to make estate/inheritance laws more strict, sure, fine! I think most would be ok with that. Or they could even put a max window on gains realization. But the thing to do there is write an op-ed directly calling for the desired policy, not some sort of alarmist piece about the rich and their "true tax rate".

[ratsforhorses]

Dumb question, couldn't the rich invest their money in their children's startups who then have "an asset that they can build , maintain to then borrow against ("their wealth") doing the same for their kids ad infinitum..? (Ponzi scheme?) Considering that interest rates have been going lower and lower seems like a great scam ... I mean historically it's nothing new the have's beget the have's ...there is an illusion of self determination and simulacrum of democracy but maybe where it hurts is that people feel shocked seeing "le roi nu" (or feel stupid yet trapped for putting up with such blatant truths..)

But to diverge, why not simply increase interest rates for people putting their money in the bank (so they stop buying multiple houses to increase their wealth ( making home ownership unaffordable for most of us) and instead give them similar returns for leaving their money in the bank to lend it to these people who borrow against their wealth...

Is it because higher interest rates leads to the boogeyman inflation?