[Karma Police]

Originally Posted by Doku

With this statement, you agreed that the current estate tax is discrimination, and should not exist as-is. Therefore, you started out on one side of the fence in the argument. The discussion has taken its course, and come to the point where we now agree that it needs to go.

I agreed that the current estate tax "discriminates," in that people in different situations are treated differently. Under that definition of "discrimination," your proposal and every tax known to man discriminates. It's quite clear I never agreed that the current estate tax should go.

Originally Posted by Doku

Again, semantics. Technically, it IS a death tax. "The estate tax in the United States is a tax assessed against the estate of a deceased person, before property (real estate, stocks and bonds, business interests, etc.) is transferred to heirs" You died.

As you said, the person is dead. A person's estate is not the deceased person. Your estate is simply a collection of the property you used to own and debts you used to owe. The heirs bear the tax, and we all know that.

Originally Posted by Doku

I never said that poor people deserve to be poor. Poor people who don't TRY deserve what they get. Same with people who start off rich, and lose it all via stupidity.

If you'll look closely, you see that part of my post was addressed to Baltar, not you.

Originally Posted by Doku

I still fail to see how the "I'm po, and y'all should be po as well. Jus cuz yer daddy is rich don make you no better 'n me" argument makes any sense.

Well, that's not my argument, and I don't blame you for not understanding an argument that isn't being made.

The estate tax isn't going to make anyone poor. Heirs who are exercising individual responsibility (as you advocate poor people should do) will be earning their own living rather than waiting to inherit daddy's millions. If the estate tax applies, it simply means that an heir, who hasn't created the inheritance, will get less of a windfall than he or she otherwise would.

If my parents died with $30 million and I received $15 million, I'd be thankful. I'd be thankful for the $15 million and thankful we live in a country with a modern government, economic system, technological and physical infrastructure, political stability, and many other benefits. As a specific example, I'd be thankful for the SEC's enforcement of laws preventing public companies from defrauding shareholders, which allows confidence in the capital markets and the generation of great wealth.

I'd be thankful for all those things that contributed to an economic environment in which it's possible to accumulate $30 million, all of which require taxes to maintain.