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 Originally Posted by boost
random thought: UBI combined with a 100% inheritance tax (and closing all the loopholes) could be an interesting setup. If you know that your child will never truly want for any necessities, then what is the purpose of leaving them an inheritance aside from vanity? In 1000 years people may well look back at generational wealth the way we look at hereditary monarchies.
I agree that eventually generational wealth will become a thing of the past. It mostly has already. After 3 or 4 generations, nearly all generational wealth has disappeared. Anecdote: my family was possibly the wealthiest in all of Washington about 100 years ago, but my grandparents' generation wasted literally all of it. Such loss of generational wealth is extremely common once the generation that didn't earn it has it.
The main drawback to inheritance tax I know of is how it incentivizes consumption (profligately).
Generally we'd want things that incentivize greater savings and investment. We discuss welfare and social programs ultimately because people don't save; instead they spend (profligately). Taxes on savings come in all sorts of types, and they can be thought of as penalizing good behavior to reward bad behavior.
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