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The Estate Tax
Originally started to fund World War I in 1916, the federal estate tax kicks in at the $675,000 level. Now when you think about the fact that only two percent of estates are actually taxed, relief from this tax seems kind of meaningless to BlueCollarDollar readers. It will benefit the wealthy, who have long been the benefactors of the Republican party. But can you honestly say, with the outrageous valuations on real estate, long term savings, and the hope that the average American might be somewhat rich, that this shouldn't be of concern to all of us.
Leaving what you have to your children cannot be considered selfish even though the philosopher Kant suggested that leaving your estate to everyone is the more just solution. Maybe, but I personally do not trust the government enough to have them disperse my estate to those who truly need it. Besides, my kids are already jockeying for position in the "will" line.
But the instinct to leave to our offspring is almost genetically inbred. We want the next generation to survive and flourish. Granted, we sacrifice throughout our BlueCollar lives, forgoing vacations to send our kids to college, hoping that the betterment of our following generations is going to be for the whole of society a better thing.
I personally can not find any fault with the Republicans on this part of their tax cutting efforts. It would keep family farms and businesses in the family without forcing the liquidation to pay taxes. But on the other hand, in 1998, more than a fifth of the estate taxes that were paid were done so from 374 estates. Sure, the Republicans have their wealthy benefactors in mind, but we might just benefit from it also. Once again, we will keep you posted on this one turns out.
Debt
Is there such a thing as good debt? What do you suppose bad debt is? And what kind do you have?
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