I'm going to try and start with a "fresh slate" and stay on the high ground.

Here goes.....

Regarding the tax-cut bill - I'm not the only one who says it's draconian.

http://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/rich-win-big-final-gop-tax-cut-bill-1921224...

I won't post all the figures and charts - the link has several other links in it to follow.

But suffice it to say, this tax cut is blatantly favoring the richest in the country.  The top tier is now being proposed at 37%.  Along with AMT and the gigantic estate tax cut - nearly all the benefit stays at the top and with coporations.

It's sad that followers of our president and the GOP in general are seemingly so blind to this.  Everything they've voted for is against their best interests.

Time will tell I suppose.  But if Alabama is any indication, the country is indeed waking up.

raydawg wrote on 12/13/17 at 17:07:56:

That
Death Tax
Estate Tax
Concept destroys the legacy of families.
It keeps the accumulated gains from being allowed to be kept together, effectively stopping a family from passing down a business and forcing the sale of it. That's a great way for the corporate world to protect themselves from a young upstart.

I'll bet not many people have considered that.
I wonder if I will be allowed to play.

If I give you a million dollars,... have you paid tax on it?...

All money has already been taxed... many times over...
It gets taxed when it changes hands...
If it should only be taxed once... it's been done... and done and done...
Money circulates....  that's how the world works.

Yeah Bot, I am not getting your point either.
Not sure the your example is applicable.

What do you call wealth that is never circulated?

Let me try and explain.

I buy a hundred thousand dollars of stock.
It’s a very good year for the market and my investment doubles.
I know many investments are tax deferred, as I am using that benefit now, and it makes a huge difference in my ability to build that nest egg, however, that is not my point.
I show a profit, though I haven’t withdrawn any money from those investments, if that considered my wealth, and is it taxable as captial gains?
Are my investments taxable upon my death for inheritance or estate tax?

That is “money” that has not circulated, it’s still just paper.
Does that make any sense?

I think we need some type of consumption tax on the federal level, and perhaps a flat tax at the state level.
Presently I think too many hands grab money from the tax cookie jar as it passes through all the hoops.

Without taxes, we would be back to cave man life style.  Biggest club gets the most.

As far as redistribution of wealth, yes it is; and estate taxes are one way to help eliminated the excesses Europeans found the Nobles lived on back in the day.

America is supposed to be the Land of Opportunity, which means social and financial mobility.  As history has shown, a few uber wealthy noble families restrict mobility financially which leads to restriction socially.

Thus, as Europe has shown us so well, the offspring of the wealthy very seldom are hard working productive and innovative, compared to the rest of the population scrabbling to make a "living".  This was the genius behind America, and to a large part the reason for its ascendency into world power.  A vibrant middle class promotes all sorts of growth: usually extreme inherited wealth promotes "only" decadence and excessive waste.  

You can tax wealth before value is actually assigned, VAT of each step of production of  a product is an example.  You can tax wages as workers are paid for production of goods and /or services.  (income Tax).  You can tax the exchange of wealth as a product/service is provided (sales tax).  You can tax the rewards that come from investing in a company (capital gains tax) and all of these are to different degrees, wealth that is earned by the participants.
The Estate Tax is a tax on the passing of wealth from one generation to the next based solely on whether you are born to a wealthy person or a poor person, no effort on the part of the person receiving the wealth.  (I know, getting your digestive system used to Escargot is tough).
Thus, if America is about mobility and innovation rah rah etc, then a strong argument is there for the estate tax as the most American form of taxation.   (The degree an estate can be taxed DOES need to be set at a level that allows for the very human motivation of working to make life better for the next generation, I agree,)

but in practice it is just a cieling that keeps us middle class from passing the estate tax barrier.

Sounds familiar..

So, it's Sold to us as a way to force the rich to keep their money working and benefiting the economy, which I have never seen being something that had to be forced on them, nor do I understand what harm it would cause if they didn't,

And, as it works out, it looks more like a mechanism that protects the old money families from upstart competition. The laws force sales of the successful business that a family is building up before it's quite big enough to threaten them.

Kinda of a stretch of the real topic at hand, but why if you win BIG in Vegas, they take out a chunk for the tax man.....

Yet if you loose your arse, they won't even provide toilet paper?  

I don't like this "It's ours" mentality of the government, it always seems they are spending most of their effort in devising ways to get more of our money....
Instead of thinking of ways how to SAVE money.

Am I alone on feeling this way?

If I ran my life under the same mindset, I would be dependent upon the welfare of others, to provide for me, because I didn't take the effort to ensure my own welfare first, before other pleasures, and such, in my own life.

I mean I am on the threshold of retiring, really getting to choose what I want to do with my life without the constraints of making sure I've chopped enough wood to last trough winter.....

It was often a real bitttch to chop and stack, etc.

I would have rather just went fishing and then went to someplace to get free wood, when I need it, but if we all did that, who would chop the wood, to take to that place, so I could get it from  there???

Maybe a relative of the person who runs that branch of the goverment program......

Who gets such a premium price for his wood, he can afford to sit back and fish, paying others to chop the wood, and take it to the place of distribution.......

Maybe that is that guy sitting along side me, in my retirement, he sure seems young......