WEBVTT NOTE 16. The Inheritor 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.280 Chapter 16. The Inheritor Ares and heiresses are usually depicted as 2 00:00:08.280 --> 00:00:16.240 irresponsible, idle, lazy individuals who enjoy lives of unearned luxury. This is perhaps 3 00:00:16.240 --> 00:00:22.760 a true characterization of many in the class, but it does not detract from the heroic role 4 00:00:22.760 --> 00:00:29.720 played by the inheritor. An inheritance is simply a form of gift, a gift that is given 5 00:00:29.720 --> 00:00:31.640 given upon death. 6 00:00:31.640 --> 00:00:37.560 Like gifts that are given upon births, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and holidays, it 7 00:00:37.560 --> 00:00:44.780 can be defined as the voluntary transfer of considerations from one party to another. 8 00:00:44.780 --> 00:00:51.160 One cannot, therefore, oppose inheritances and at the same time favor other types of 9 00:00:51.160 --> 00:00:52.160 gifts. 10 00:00:52.160 --> 00:00:55.420 Yet, many people do just that. 11 00:00:55.420 --> 00:01:01.940 Their anti-inheritance bias is spurred on by images of thieves who pass on their ill-gotten 12 00:01:01.940 --> 00:01:04.420 gains to their children. 13 00:01:04.420 --> 00:01:10.520 They see members of the ruling class accumulating fortunes not through honest trade, but through 14 00:01:10.520 --> 00:01:15.980 government subsidies, tariffs and licensing protections, and passing on what they have 15 00:01:15.980 --> 00:01:16.980 accumulated. 16 00:01:16.980 --> 00:01:20.140 Surely, this should be prohibited. 17 00:01:20.140 --> 00:01:24.860 The elimination of an inheritance seems to be a solution. 18 00:01:24.860 --> 00:01:31.160 It would, however, be impossible to eliminate inheritance unless all other types of gifts 19 00:01:31.160 --> 00:01:33.600 were also eliminated. 20 00:01:33.600 --> 00:01:41.160 The 100% tax on inheritance, often suggested as the means by which to eliminate inheritance, 21 00:01:41.160 --> 00:01:43.400 would not accomplish this. 22 00:01:43.400 --> 00:01:49.540 For if other types of gifts were permitted, the tax could easily be circumvented. 23 00:01:49.540 --> 00:01:55.900 Money and property could simply be transferred by means of birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, 24 00:01:55.900 --> 00:01:56.900 etc. 25 00:01:56.900 --> 00:02:01.860 Parents might even have gifts held in trust for their children to be turned over on the 26 00:02:01.860 --> 00:02:06.060 child's first birthday after the death of the parent. 27 00:02:06.060 --> 00:02:12.260 The solution to the problem of illicitly earned wealth, white collar and otherwise, does not 28 00:02:12.260 --> 00:02:18.380 lie in preventing the next generation from obtaining the ill-gotten funds, but in making 29 00:02:18.380 --> 00:02:24.360 Being certain that these funds are not retained in the first place, attention should rather 30 00:02:24.360 --> 00:02:30.980 be focused on retrieving the illicit property and returning it to the victim. 31 00:02:30.980 --> 00:02:37.120 Will it be argued that the 100% inheritance tax is a second-best policy? 32 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:42.600 That since we do not have the power to strip the criminals of their ill-gotten gains, efforts 33 00:02:42.600 --> 00:02:49.200 should be made to deny them the opportunity of passing the fortunes on to their children? 34 00:02:49.200 --> 00:02:51.040 This is contradictory. 35 00:02:51.040 --> 00:02:56.240 If the power is lacking to bring criminals to justice because white-collar criminals 36 00:02:56.240 --> 00:03:03.000 control the system of justice, then clearly there is a lack of power to impose a 100 percent 37 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:05.740 inheritance tax on them. 38 00:03:05.740 --> 00:03:12.400 In fact, even if such a tax could be enacted and enforced, the yearning for egalitarian 39 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:17.880 Egalitarianism, which really animates all such proposals, would be frustrated. 40 00:03:17.880 --> 00:03:24.720 For true egalitarianism means not only an equal distribution of money, but also an equal 41 00:03:24.720 --> 00:03:29.080 distribution of non-monetary considerations. 42 00:03:29.080 --> 00:03:34.660 How would the egalitarians remedy the inequities between those who are sighted and those who 43 00:03:34.660 --> 00:03:40.600 are blind, those who are musically talented and those who are not, those who are beautiful 44 00:03:40.600 --> 00:03:50.880 What of the inequities between those who have happy dispositions and those who are prone 45 00:03:50.880 --> 00:03:52.660 to melancholy? 46 00:03:52.660 --> 00:03:56.280 How would the egalitarians mediate them? 47 00:03:56.280 --> 00:04:01.360 Could money be taken from those who have too much happiness and given to those who have 48 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:04.140 too little as compensation? 49 00:04:04.140 --> 00:04:07.120 How much is a happy disposition worth? 50 00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:13.060 Should $10 per year trade at par for five units of happiness? 51 00:04:13.060 --> 00:04:18.680 The ludicrousness of such a position might lead the egalitarians to adopt a second best 52 00:04:18.680 --> 00:04:25.400 policy, such as the one used by the dictator in Harrison Bergeron, a short story in Welcome 53 00:04:25.400 --> 00:04:28.860 to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut. 54 00:04:28.860 --> 00:04:33.980 In the story, strong people were forced to carry weights in order to bring them down 55 00:04:33.980 --> 00:04:37.000 to the level of the rest of the people. 56 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:42.280 Logically inclined individuals were forced to wear earphones that gave forth shockingly 57 00:04:42.280 --> 00:04:46.760 loud sounds in proportion to their musical talent. 58 00:04:46.760 --> 00:04:51.740 This is where the desire for egalitarianism logically leads. 59 00:04:51.740 --> 00:04:57.120 The elimination of monetary inheritance is but the first step. 60 00:04:57.120 --> 00:05:03.000 It is the inheritor and the institution of inheritance that stands between civilization 61 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:10.840 as we know it, and a world in which no talent or happiness is allowed to mar equality. 62 00:05:10.840 --> 00:05:17.200 If individuality and civilization are valued, the inheritor will be placed on the pedestal 63 00:05:17.200 --> 00:05:18.720 he richly deserves.