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| Letters to the Editor |
Cancel the Revolution
06/01/2005
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Dear Editor:
“Class Conscious” (April 2005) is a fine piece of
socialist propaganda. Chuck Collins seems to assume that we are a nation here to
serve the government and their omniscient views of the public good. If he had
only read to the end of Atlas Shrugged, he would know what giving the government
too much power and resources does to a society. As citizens of this country, we
should fight to retain our property and do with it as we see fit, not bow down
to the whims of politicians and their pork barrel policies.
 It seems that Mr.
Collins is advocating for the improvement of all citizens’ social status, yet he
does not support private foundations seeking this goal. Shouldn’t the Waltons be
able to decide how their money is spent to the betterment of our society, or
should all private foundations consult Mr. Collins to make sure he feels the
cause is worthy? Can someone please tell Mr. Collins that our country was
founded on the freedom to choose, not the freedom for government to make choices
for its citizens.
Tim Yaeger Palo Alto, Calif.
Dear Editor:
Self-styled class warriors like Chuck Collins are so blinded
by their ideology that they miss the point. All the good causes they want to
help, all the wrongs they seek to right, would suffer from the type of
collectivist governmentled “accountability” he espouses. Why? Because
taxation destroys wealth and initiative, and no entrepreneur is going to
voluntarily hand over his fortune to a bureaucracy.
He even insults his own
great-grandfather by saying he owed his success to government regulation! I’m
not sure Oscar Mayer would agree.
Colin T. Brown, CFP TEP The Wealth
Advisory Toronto, Ontario
Dear Editor:
In “Class Conscious,” the issue is the creation of wealth and
what should happen to that wealth. The author seems primarily concerned with
past generational “silver-spoon” heirs. I am concerned about the first
generation creators of wealth and their rightful prerogatives. First, an estate
has been created after multitudinous taxes have been paid. Should the creator of
that wealth not have the right to judge the competency of his heirs to handle it
or alternatively select philanthropic channels? The alternative is that the
government expropriates his money with an estate tax, to let those in Washington
decide how to spend it. These are the same people who have irresponsibly and
dishonestly spent Social Security surpluses to mask the federal deficit.
I
think the estate tax should be abolished. Let the creator dispense as he wishes.
He owns it; he paid the taxes on it. After all, we have experienced a few
generations of wealth transfer and seen the results—no apartheid society
here!
Robert P. Watson South Norwalk, Conn.
P.S. I think the author belittles his great-grandfather, Oscar Mayer. I
suspect his success was due to the quality of his sausages, not government
regulations.
Dear Editor:
As a Worth subscriber, I was extremely disappointed to read
the headline “The Case for a 100 Percent Estate Tax” on the cover and statements
in Chuck Collins’ article, “Class Conscious,” that 1 percent of the population
owning 50 percent of the wealth would create an “apartheid” society. This is
socialist rubbish. The freedoms Americans enjoy from the Bill of Rights do not
depend on the distribution of wealth. My wife and I are not rich, but we don’t
think the government is entitled to the lion’s share of anyone’s estate, no
matter how rich.
Besides the immorality of a confiscatory estate tax, its
detrimental impact on savings and investment should be considered. There was a
1998 study done in the House of Representatives finding that “the estate tax
generates costs to taxpayers, the economy and the environment that far exceed
any potential benefits that it might arguably produce.” It is available online
at www.house.gov/jec/fiscal/tx-grwth/estattax/estattax.htm. If billionaires such as Warren Buffett
are so worried about the concentration of wealth, they should just voluntarily
give their money away.
Vivek Rao Narberth, Pa.
Worth welcomes your comments, critiques and suggestions. Please direct your
letters to letters@worth.com
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