[phkahler]

Let us first say that if you sold it to someone else there would likely be sales tax involved (in most places) so the idea of giving someone stuff tax-free is unusual. The point of inheritance taxes is not to prevent you passing it on, it is to prevent the building of family empires which tend to screw people (in addition to being another revenue source). But why? The ONLY purpose of government is actually to preserve order by preventing people from being assholes to each other. Turns out people tend to do that if nobody keeps them in check. Now the rich kinda think the purpose is to keep people from doing anything to THEM, but even that still concedes my stated purpose for government. Large accumulations of wealth can be both good or bad, but from where I sit it looks like the super-rich aren't even sure what to do with all their money, so why not? Estate-tax is just another knob to turn in the preservation of society. The only real question is how far to turn it. I'm open to debate from all sides on that issue.