When you think of individuals in history who would have supported an estate tax on the very wealthy- perhaps you would think of reformers like Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, or Dorothy Day. You probably wouldn’t think of one of the Captains of Industry (or “robber barons”), Andrew Carnegie.
While much of the treatment of Carnegie’s workers was deplorable, there is no doubt that Carnegie had a different view towards wealth and possessions than many of his wealthy contemporaries. He officially published the “Gospel of Wealth” where he laid out the ideals of giving, philanthropy, and renunciation of greed. He ended up giving away 90% of his fortune, and thought it was not only unwise, but potentially damaging to give his children a large inheritance.
He supported the estate tax, not so the government could receive more money, but so that the rich would be more prone to give away their money to charitable organizations rather than simply pass on the large sums to their children and grand-children. He had a very similar philosophy to modern day billionaire, Warren Buffett, who refuses to give his children any type of inheritance-except a trust fund they have been given to do charitable work with. I was actually listening to an interview with his son recently on NPR, and he was describing how he had to refinance on his average house, because he received no money from his father. However, he was so grateful to his father for not lavishing him with wealth. Buffett has also stated the importance of a Capital Gains tax, because as he sees it now, the tax system is unfairly punishing the middle class rather than making sure the wealthy pay their fair share. Buffett is very interesting; he sent his children to public school, drives an old station wagon, and owns a modest house. He refused to allow his huge earnings to change him from living a simple and normal life.
I wish our politicians would listen to voices like Carnegie and Buffett more instead of the voices or rich greed and privilege. The wealthy gained their money through the system, and they should be paying back a large percentage to that system. If serious changes are not made, the country is going to continue with an upper class that seems to continually gain more, a lower class that is suffering more, and a middle class that is slowly dwindling.
Essence Restored 