That's what we're always told it's about. Work hard, live better yourself and when you die your efforts are passed on to your children. I thought that was a big part of the American dream.

My father was a drywaller. He lived in a dingbat house, drove old cars and never went on vacations. He saved his money and bought houses to fix up and rent out. Says he did it for his children. When he died the federal government took more money in estate taxes than he labored for his entire life hanging drywall. That sucks. The entire estate tax thing was to keep citizens from becoming royalty. I guess that owning 2 houses makes you royalty because the government will steal one of them when you die.

It's the middle class that work hard for a better life that get burned. If your wealthy you get a pass. If you call yourself poor the middle class pays your way. If you just have a bit the gov grabs it.

I'm all for taxing the obscenely rich. Unfortunately they can work the system and get a pass. In an ideal world the very wealthy would find happiness being philanthropists. If I had a lot of money I could see nothing more fulfilling than granting scholarships to children of merit or building something humanitarian.

Certainly not giving it to the government to decide what to do with it. They've proven themselves pretty irresponsible with money.