[KevinG]

Originally Posted by Karma Police

KevinG, you're wrong about this.

No, I'm most certainly not. Corporations do not pay taxes.

If you can prove me wrong I ask you to go for it.

Also, taxation isn't about "punishing" people or certain types of behavior. It's about raising revenue, and the only way to raise money is to tax people who have it.

It isn't about punishing people, but it does punish people. Intentions vs. results. You may not have the intention that you will hurt someone physically when you drive but driving can certainly result in hurting someone.

We're spending hundreds of billions in Iraq, and we're running massive budget deficits and creating unbelievable debt for future generations. You might think it's "fair" to make lower income people pay the same as the wealthy, but your theoretical position is useless if they don't have the money to pay.

If you understand percentages you will understand that nobody wants the poor to pay the same as the rich, they simply want them to pay the same percentage. That's fair.

Anyway, I feel this topic has gotten a little offtrack with all the discussion of income taxes. My real question was about the estate tax. The federal estate tax was originally enacted in the early 1900's to prevent a concentration of wealth and power that could threaten democracy.

The estate tax is government-organized theft, plain and simple.

According to the New York Times, about 1 in 325 US families has a net worth of more than $10 million. As a practical matter, the federal estate tax is largely inapplicable to families with less than about $10 million or so (because of exemptions and certain planning techniques used by tax and estate planning lawyers).

You understand that the when the estate tax isn't applicable to a person they simply get hit with the death tax right? When you die the government finds a way to tax you no matter what. It is all government-sponsored theft. It is double or triple taxation. If the estate tax is really for what you said it's for then what's the death tax for?

There's a point at which accumulation of wealth is no longer about taking care of your family or buying nice things--it's about power.

Go ahead, tell us how evil the rich are.

Also, families that have accumulated billions have benefited greatly from the stability and infrastructure of modern government. I think that extreme disparities in wealth fuel distrust, radicalism, and instability. In my view, the estate tax, properly applied, is a useful check on the establishment of a permanent aristocratic ruling class and a pressure valve that promotes long-term political and economic stability.

If you believe this you are not in agreement with the basis of America and Capitalism.