Dan,
When the issue came up last year, I was struck at how many of the Washington press types seemed shocked that there was a broad constituency for abolishing inheritance taxes. It occurred to me then that this might be the deliciously ironic payback for all the lawyers, insurance agents, and others who have created a thriving industry out of estate tax avoidance. All the government data suggesting that only 2 percent of Americans ever had to worry about estate taxes were made irrelevant, or at least drowned out, by the professional tax–and financial planners whose entire working day was spent trying to convince people that they needed to do something–and soon!--lest the government take most of everything they’d worked for.
The Inky sponsors an investment conference every year, and one year I was asked to moderate a panel on estate taxation. I could barely keep awake, much less understand the minutiae being discussed by the three lawyers and planners on the panel–but the room was packed, and everyone was taking notes. We had to practically order people to leave afterwards, there were so many detailed (and often anguished) questions for the panelists. These were not, moreover, the obviously wealthy–why would super-rich people line up to seek estate planning advice for free? So there must be a lot of fear out there among the broad middle classes.
Clearly, either the anti-estate tax people are right–the tax is deeply burdensome to millions of people–or millions of people have been conned into thinking that’s the case by their lawyers and insurance agents. If the latter is true, it makes me think that estate tax repeal might actually be a good thing–even if it benefits mainly the super-rich–because it might also push a lot of lawyers and insurance agents to find more useful occupations.
But we’ve drifted away from Noah’s original question, I think. He was wondering whether inheriting wealth more often leads people to lives of higher pursuits than making money, or dissolution. It’s not hard to think of examples of both; the late Philadelphia Daily News columnist Russell Byers comes to mind as someone who didn’t need to work, but did, and accomplished good things until his untimely death. But then there is the other kind, more than a few of which are scattered along the Main Line as well. Which do you think are the rule, and which the exception?
Andy
