Instapundit is reading a book about inheritance/estate taxes. In his blurb, he mentions another blogger who has decided that the right thing to do is "fuck the small businessman" .

The more I read about estate taxes the more and more obvious it becomes that they are now just a form of class warfare. In general the people that support them are jealous of people that have a pile of money, and will do anything to drag somewhat wealthy people back down to their level. Of course, once they have been dragged back down to poverty, they will be poor, and will vote liberal.

Mr. Yglesias thinks that rich people should not be able to pass on their money to their children. He actually proposes an inheritance tax, which is somewhat interesting. He suggests that people pay income tax on an inheritance, so if Mr. Wealthy give 5 bucks to a million people, no biggie, but if he gives 5 million to his son, his son will be raped by the IRS. It's only interesting because I haven't thought of it before. It still sucks.

The way I see it, if Mr. Wealthy had spent his money on his children while he was still alive, the money would not have been taxed again. Therefore if he leaves the money in a will, that money was given to the children before he died. The wealth belongs to the kids.

Mr. Yglesias also thinks that families having to sell their business to cover their tax debt is just fine. Why he thinks forcing a family to sell a business to an outsider, likely causing the people who have worked at that business all their lives to lose their jobs is at all humane, I have no idea. He seems to think that all family stores are worth millions of dollars, and the family will be all set. I've got news for you buddy. Most small businesses are worth less than $500,000, and the families will still have to sell them to cover the tax burden. The family won't be walking away with millions. If they are lucky, they will have a few months living expenses. Oh yeah. He has no concern about being humane. After all, the business owners are just filthy rich people. Fuck 'em, right?

This whole debate reinforces my opinion that the way to go is a straight sales tax. It would get rid of the vast majority of the IRS. The current IRS budget is 10.6 billion bucks. A few more cuts like that, and the budget will be balanced. Simply don't tax food, clothes and shelter, and the rich will automatically pay a much higher amount than the poor. It would encourage savings, which would take a load off of Social Security (what's that a 1000 billion agency, or so?).

A flat sales tax would be a beautiful thing.

OK, I promise I won't bore you with politics until next week, maybe. Unless I decide to tune this up.