
The Earth Belongs to the Living - kawera
https://nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/the-earth-belongs-to-the-living/
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chroma
There are plenty of moral arguments both for and against an estate tax, but I
think the economic consequences are more important. If you ask economists
about the desirability of estate taxes, they say, "We don't know."[1] Maybe it
will hurt economic growth. Maybe it won't. But if the tax is 100%, one thing
is guaranteed: Lots of people will evade it. After all, what punishment can
the government exact upon a soon-to-be-deceased parent?

That may not sound like a big problem, but remember what happened during
alcohol prohibition. Criminal organizations made boatloads of cash from the
illicit behavior of otherwise law-abiding citizens. Crime skyrocketed. Respect
for the law plummeted. We see the same thing today (though on a much smaller
scale) with many drug laws. There are a lot of risks that accompany the
criminalization of normal behavior.

1\. Economics of estate taxation: a brief review of theory and evidence:
[http://www.nber.org/papers/w15741.pdf](http://www.nber.org/papers/w15741.pdf)

