On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 17:45:47 GMT, "Michael McKelvy"
wrote:

No argument from me. Government has no legitimate claim on anybody's
estate. I suspect this is one of those things that goes back to trying to
screw with the new rich as opposed to the old money families. That's where
our first zoning laws came from, old money families not wanting to live near
new money folks.

Estate taxes are an effort to preserve some semblance of equal
opportunity despite huge inherited fortunes. They should probably be
more like 100 percent to accomplish that purpose.