[ExI] The Dogs of Immortality

[Gary Miller]

Kevin Freels said:

>> What concerns me here is that you say "about seeing the government
getting THEIR 45%" as if that money belongs to the government. That person
paid their taxes already. They saved. I don't care how they initially made
the money because that was taxed as income. The point is that they chose NOT
TO SPEND IT. Had they spent it they would not be stuck with these extra
taxes. That's the only thing different they did to cause that 45% tax to
kick in and that's just nuts.  >>

My Response:

The person who dies is not stuck with the taxes.  They are dead.

Their heirs are the ones who are taxed on their windfall.  If they won $3.5
million in the lottery they would be taxed just the same. 

What does it matter that the money used to create that wealth was already
taxed?

Your employer is taxed on the profits he makes that pays your salary.  You
are taxed again, and the people you spend it with are taxed again.

It is that chain of taxation that pays for our civilization.

If you object to it there are other countries such as the United Arab
Emirates which claims a true 0% tax rate, where you can choose to die in
which do not have inheritance taxes. Of course they might not provide the
same opportunities to create wealth or the standard of living which you
enjoy in such a heavily taxed country.

Also if I understand it correctly, if the inheritance is in the form of
investments then they are inherited at face value thus avoiding the capital
gains taxes which the government would have realized if the self-disciplined
investor (miser) had spent most of that money and created good paying jobs
and wealth for others who he lives in the same economy with.

Or you could take the Extropian alternative choosing not to die and donating
most of your money to antiaging research throughout your life in the hopes
of surviving until the singularity and thus achieving a vastly extended life
span. 

And if you do manage to find a way to leave all that money to your children
and trophy wife, they will just end up with their own reality TV show like
"Keeping up with the Kardashians" and marry an over the hill Olympic Star,
star in internet porn with rap musicians, and teach the next generation of
American girls the merits of pole dancing or maybe do like Lisa Marie
Presley marry Michael Jackson and give most of it to Scientology.  And let
us not forget Anna Nicole who never really got to cash in on her beloved's
inheritance thanks to the Texas judicial system and a jealous step son.