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What about stay at home parents? If the right to enjoy the fruit of your labor only extends as far as the individual, then we should be equally worried about the spouse who gets to live in a nice house, eat nice meals, buy nice things, etc. while doing no more work (possibly less, with staff) than her lower class counterpart.

I’m in favor of inheritance tax. But I can see an argument that things just stop making sense when you start slicing into smaller units than the family. I think we’d have to say it’s a meritocracy of families. If families want to support some of the individuals within them out of proportion to their economic contribution, maybe that’s their business.

While it rubs me the wrong way to know that people are out there coasting on the backs of more productive family members, I think the bigger story is some people are out there equipped to be knowledge workers in superstar cities, and others aren’t. This advantage is definitely related to family but isn’t literally inheritance. High earners become high earners well before their parents die. That’s just extra.