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If I'm going to complain about the Washington Post op-ed page, I ought to recognize that Michael Kinsley is a beast in this insightful column on the estate tax:
[Arthur] Laffer invented the famous "Laffer Curve," which did so much fiscal damage over the past generation by convincing people that tax cuts can pay for themselves. His reason was that taxes discourage the activity being taxed; cut the income tax, and people work harder. But this, surely, is an argument in favor of a tax on inherited wealth (if you accept the premise that we've got to tax something or other). Lowering a tax triggered by your death is not likely to pay for itself by encouraging you to die sooner, or more often.His discussion of how wealth is created is simply elegant. But you've got to love a writer who starts a paragraph, "Oh, small business blah blah blah."
-- Tim Fernholz
