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David is an occasional blogger, software engineer, Nintendo fanboy, liberal, news magazine addict, voracious TiVo user, and bibliophile. He was born in St. Louis, grew up in southern Indiana, and returned to St. Louis to attend Washington University. He hasn't managed to escape yet. He's a fan of free wine tastings, too many tv shows to name, and eating out. David makes his living developing web applications used internally by his employer. He doesn't blog about work because he's heard too many stories about that causing workplace troubles. There's more on the about page. |
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29 June 2006 - 11:30 am
Warren Buffett, in an interview with Carol Loomis of Fortune Magazine, sums up why the super-rich don't need to keep their wealth into perpetuity. The unstated corollary is that if the rich won't give their wealth away on their own, the government ought to do it for them.
But I would argue that when your kids have all the advantages anyway, in terms of how they grow up and the opportunities they have for education, including what they learn at home - I would say it's neither right nor rational to be flooding them with money.In effect, they've had a gigantic head-start in a society that aspires to be a meritocracy. Dynastic mega-wealth would further tilt the playing field that we ought to be trying instead to level.
Buffett has been quoted in the past as saying "a very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything but not enough to do nothing." This should be the mantra of all of us who support the estate tax.
Posted by on 29 June 2006 at 11:26 AM
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