A look at the (possibly) growing trend of rich people not leaving a massive fortune to their kids: Family fortunes

The most recent example I had heard of was Paris Hiltons grandfather deciding to not leave anything to her. Personally, I don’t like the idea of leaving millions, or billions, to the younger generation. More often than not those people become the spoiled brats who provide nothing of value to society. I don’t think this is something that should be enforced but I think it would be ideal if most millionaires did.

On the other hand, and somewhat related, I am in favour of large inheritance taxes for very large estates. I’d set the definition of “large” at over 5 or 10 million, whatever ensures we eliminate the case where the inheritance of a family farm costs the child a lot of money. I don’t believe for a second the typical Republican position that high inheritance taxes are a disincentive to building wealth. In every country of the world people want to be rich – it’s universal.