Talk:The Millionaire Death Tax

From dKosopedia

--Centerfielder 10:28, 29 May 2004 (PDT) Two things:

1. People tend to think cutting taxes on those making more than they do is not a bad idea because they hope that they will soon be making enough to benefit from that cut in taxes. Similarly, people may wish to believe that their estates will be worth a million dollars when they die, and they won't want their kids having to pay taxes on it.
2. People work hard to pass on something to their kids. Why should it be taxed?

-Joshyelon 13:01, 29 May 2004 (PDT)

True enough. But I still think that it's important to convey the truth: that it's a tax on millionaires. I think people would support the idea that a person inheriting an estate should pay income tax on that inheritance MORE than they would support paying taxes just for dying.

RobLa 21:27, 31 May 2004 (PDT): Perhaps this should be the "Silver Spoon" tax. Make it clear this is a tax on the second-generation elite. The connection that I don't think people make is that this isn't a tax on earnings, since the person who presumably earned it is dead. This is a tax which guards against a permanent upper class.

SlackerInc, 2 June 2004 Unfortunately, CenterFielder is right. A majority of Americans fall victim to the delusion that they will work their way up to become part of the tiny elite that has to pay a "death tax". Rob is right about the deeper rationale behind the tax (other than to collect revenue); but I fear this comes across as too "communist" for many swing voters.

I think what's important here is to somehow drive home the point that it is a zero-sum game (well, more or less, but let's not get too complex here), and thus if you eliminate the estate tax this means a greater proportion of the burden for funding the federal budget will fall on working folks--the shift of taxation "from wealth to work" that John Edwards talks about. What we need to make people understand is that making spoiled kids of billionaires give up a bit of their unearned dough, which will make absolutely no dent their high roller lifestyle, will allow wage earners to pay less. Maybe Democrats can offer a revenue-neutral amendment to the bill for permanent repeal of the estate tax that would instead give everyone a cut in their payroll taxes, something like that.

Joshyelon I just read some data from a Gallup poll:

"As I read off some different groups, please tell me if you think they are paying their fair share in federal taxes, paying too much, or paying too little. How about [see below]?"

 	"Upper-income people"  	 	
  		Fair    Too     Too     No
		Share 	Much 	Little 	Opinion 	
		% 	% 	% 	% 	
	4/04 	24 	9 	63 	4 	
	4/03 	24 	10 	63 	3 	
	4/99 	19 	10 	66 	5 	
	4/96 	19 	9 	68 	4 	
	4/94 	20 	10 	68 	2 	
	3/93 	16 	5 	77 	2 	
	3/92 	16 	4 	77 	3 	

Based on this data, I disagree with you, centerfielder. It seems like around 65% to 70% of americans think that the wealthy don't pay their fair share.

Say, SlackerInc: when you said, "A majority of Americans fall victim to the delusion," where did you get that data from?

SlackerInc, 4 June 2004: I got the idea from this kind of thing (I've seen many other polls like it, but this was the result of a quick web search):

The poll, from polling firms McLaughlin & Associates and Public Opinion Research, questioned 2,000 voters from five states — Louisiana, New Mexico, Iowa, Montana and South Dakota — two of which went for former Vice President Al Gore in the presidential election. 

Up to 70 percent of those polled said they supported a repeal of the federal tax on estates, also known as the "death tax," while nearly 90 percent of those polled said they believed it is unfair to tax assets once and then again when the person dies. 

Your data is interesting, but actually kind of depressing in its own right. Even after Bush's big tax giveaways to the rich, the percentage who think the rich pay either their fair share or too much is markedly higher than it was in Clinton's first year in office. Ugh.

-Joshyelon 22:23, 8 Jun 2004 (PDT) I found a fascinating article about the Millionaire Death Tax: Death Tax Article. Salient quote: "two-thirds of the American public fails to recognize the single most important fact about the estate tax: Only very wealthy people pay it." This meme could fix the problem.