Comment by [deleted] on 22/01/2020 at 23:08 UTC

-1 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)

View submission: On Rights of Inheritance - why high inheritance taxes are justified

[deleted]

Replies

Comment by lawfulneutral_ at 23/01/2020 at 00:15 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

The point was that the community is responsible the creation of the wealth. Therefore the community is entitled to receive that wealth

That is dead wrong. Like completely divorced from sensible reality wrong. And there’s two super simple logical facts that prove this collectivist line of thinking totally fails the sniff test.

1. If the community were solely the entity totally responsible for the generation of wealth and individual effort did not factor, *all* the members of that community would be equally wealthy.

but that’s not how it works *literally anywhere.* A minority of individuals generate a disproportionate amount of of the value in the marketplace of that community, because value in the marketplace is generated by *individuals*, not the marketplace.

2. Assuming the community is solely responsible for the generation of wealth and therefore entitled to all of the profit, if the individual who earned the wealth conducted bad business or made bad decisions or had bad luck and lost it all, the community would also be responsible for the losses.

but that’s not how it works literally anywhere. When an individual loses their wealth, the community does not share in the losses (unless you’re a fucking multinational super conglomerate bank and the president is George Bush), because the community was never partners with the individual on any of the investment.

The community *enables* individuals to generate marketplace value. It does not generate that value itself. This is like first page of any economics book ever written material.

The enabling the community does is paid for and expanded through the numerous, numerous taxes, fees, and regulatory expenses demanded of the individual under the threat of force.