About 60 percent of all the wealth in America today is inherited, according to estimates by economist Thomas Piketty and his colleagues. That’s because, under U.S. tax law – which is itself largely a product of lobbying by the wealthy – the capital gains of one generation are wiped out when those assets are transferred to the next, and the estate tax is so tiny that fewer than 0.2 percent of estates were subject to it last year.
If unearned income were treated the same as earned income under the tax code, America’s non-working rich wouldn’t be billionaires. And if capital gains weren’t eliminated at death, many heirs wouldn’t be, either.
from this article
Lucky sperm club is not attainable in this life.
Better luck next time.
Or we could tax the wealthy and actually enforce anti-monopoly laws, inside trading laws and stop letting the wealthy buy politicians.
America seems pretty dumb.
Pretty dumb
Pretty dumb
Pretty dumb
Pre-tee dumb
We could be a really cool society
A healthy civilization
But bullshit is so fertile
and anger feels so good
I thought love conquered all
The natural world doesn't play those rules
and human animals are just as beautiful and brutal
Here's to someday using these human brains of ours
