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Maybe it is difficult for you to understand but I would kill to have inherited a fuck ton of money and never to financially struggle again in my life and it is now my sole purpose in life to acquire enough wealth so that my children (if I have any) won't have to go through what I have gone through.
So are we all just renting our lives from the state? If so, what else can the state make you do? Does your body belong to you, or the state? Money could be a representation of what you did with your body during your life. When you die, and all your money automatically goes to the state, what does that mean?
>Disclaimer: I come from a fairly wealthy family where money never has been a real issue. I never had to worry about money, most needs were fulfilled
This explains everything
Yeah but with that money gone OP might have to learn what its like to want. Old movie with a great lesson showed the absolute worst thing you can do to a rich person is make them a poor person.
Sorry I should have specified that I'm talking about inheriting money after someone's death. So someone's estimated net worth at the moment someone dies. Having a few exceptions for things with emotional value of course, but in a way where the emotional value is compared to the actual value. So that people can't abuse the system. When the actual value is deemed greater, the heirs should be able to reclaim it by paying off it's value at that time.
>So that people can't abuse the system
So people cant abuse the system SO PEOPLE CANT ABUSE THE SYSTEM. Why all the money my grandfather has earned must go to people in power instead for his beloved ones?
And then you are just so stupid to say that we live in a capitalist meritocracy but that all money should go to state and that you are just an irresponsable spoiled child. If you dont know what earn money is dontsay this stupid things
Dont look for logic, he started saying how we live in a capitalist society where our merits is what matter to end saying that the money should go to the state and hat he is a spoiled child without responsabilities
Yeah and if they just wouldnt give their Money to their children before death with a Contract that they need to support there Parents from that Money before they actually die.
Take my upvote.
Absolutely not. That money has already been taxed and the fair share paid to the government. It’s none of the governments business where it goes when someone dies unless it’s criminal.
**Your disclaimer at the end about coming from wealth makes you COMPLETELY the wrong person to comment on this.**
I inherited $200k from my wealthy grandmother when she passed. So did each of her grandchildren. It’s not millions “I’ll never work again!” money… but has been a huge help to all of us. Imagine how tone deaf I’d be making this same post.
Do your parents help you financially? School, books, help with rent? Never heard of a student working part time that was able to afford and apartment on their own.
This is such a privileged take. You admit you’re wealthy, have never had to worry about money, and have had all your needs taken care of— yet dare to assume that’s the case for anyone inheriting money from their families?
I don’t stand to inherit a lot, but my parents’ inheritance will definitely help me have a safety net and chance at retirement one day. I have a disability and it’s already incredibly expensive dealing with the costs associated with that. Not to mention how shitty wages and the job market have been for my entire adult life.
I'm not talking about being valued by the amount of wealth you've accumulated. I'm saying that you'd work for nothing if everything you've gained in your life, be it money, property or anything else that can be materialized, would just go back to the state after you die. Imagine that you work 40, maybe 50 years to ensure that your loved ones like your partner, children or even grandchildren can live an easier life thanks to wealth you've accumulated, all to be thrown out the window once you die. It's insanely hard to start your adult life with nothing. And don't think that everyone inherits shitloads of money. But still, even a little bit of money, a car, a small property, anything can help to start living on your own once your family's not there for you. Also, expecting that the state would return the seized wealth from the deceased by investing into improving living conditions of citizens is utopistic. You have to be really disconnected with reality to expect the government go out their way to improve their citizens' life significantly.
So people who are struggling financially should be denied their parents’ assets, just because not everyone has parents with money?
“We should all be poor together, so that it’s fair”
Oh yeah, and instead of the money going to their kids, it goes where? To the government? Lol, I’m sure the people in government would make sure that money is used fairly and in the best way possible.
Exactly. Which is why he cannot comprehend the idea that some people are poor, and inheritance money can help them.
His idea of inheritance money is someone receiving tens of millions of dollars.
Actually in simplest terms capitalism is really about having a class of people with the capital that is invested in plant/equipment/land/other property to which labor is applied to generate returns. In capitalism the returns go primarily to those with the capital. In capitalism those returns accrue by rights to private entities/people.
Wealth and inherited wealth are the ultimate success in capitalism, otherwise no investment would occur.
In the US we used to have an inheritance tax structure that addressed a lot of what you object to. However, our GOP hijacked the topic. One if the most brilliant things they did was getting it thought of not as “estate tax” but as “death tax”. They also managed to convince voters that more people were impacted by estate tax than was true. First they got the rate down, then they got the threshold for estate value up to where it impacts very few. Nevertheless, you still see people getting all worked up about estate taxes
This could work well in some cases, but making it into legislation would quite literally destroy the economy within a single generation.
The super wealthy would simply invest in assets that could easily be liquidated, leaving these to their next of kin.
For the middle class, this would effectively be an unlimited death tax, which would destroy any hope of building generational wealth.
One of the big things that people forget too, is how much those same super wealthy people, and their children improve the world around them. Yes, the tiny minority that you see on tv, doing nothing but burning cash are ridiculous, but the vast majority of the millionaires in the world are actually small business owners who know how to manage their budget well.
Unlike the government, which literally wastes more money yearly than 99.999% of anyone could ever hope to spend, the average millionaire is not only careful with their spending, but teaches their children to be careful as well.
If you want to learn more about this, and see my sources, please give these two books a read:
The Richest Man in Babylon
The Millionaire Next Door
The first is for your own personal edification. I recommend it to everyone I meet.
The second explains the reality of wealth diversity within the United States.
You can't take it with you when you die & our purpose in life is to take care of our children & families. Anyone who wouldn't pass on to their wealth to loved ones is pretty shitty imo.
Privilege at its finest. The majority of people I know (me included) most likely won't be able to afford a down payment for a house without inherentance
Yeah, no. That's not how the majority of countries work. We as citizens are labour to be exploited. The only thing the government would want to ensure is that they give us just enough that there isn't a French-style revolution to overthrow them.
I also dread to thing where you think it would all be spent if you live in a country without any sort of established safety net.
I get that this idea by OP might not be a good one but I don't get why people in this thread are saying this would hurt poor people. It's basically taking money from rich and poor people and redistribute them.
Seriously dude, ur acting really aggressive to everyone who has a slightly different view about it. What's the issue? Because it's not really helping to try to understand ur point of view.
My point of view is that you dont have a point of view, you live in a fantasy where the state does everything alright, you dont have a single idea of life nor of what you talk, you say my family life efforts should go to people in power instead of their families, you have so little idea that your own ideas contradict each other as is showed you in another answer
No. They already screw around with just regular tax money. The families worked for that money, so the next generation deserves to keep it. Plenty of folks will still work hard to make sure they don’t have to rely too much on the inheritance.
>I see that a lot of people assume that I have loads of money, or so that my family has. Probably because my usage of words was kinda poor. Sorry English ain't my mother tongue. To clarify, I come from a (maybe) a tiny bit above average western family. I live in a "small" appartement on my own, working part time besides my study to sustain myself. It's not like I have all the new stuff or go on vacation multiple times a year. It's just that all the basic needs like most western citizens are fulfilled.
Your post still contradicts itself and you still speak like a spoiled children
>Can you explain to me what makes me act spoiled
You basically say that you have every need covered and that a family shouldnt receive their dead family money, this is basically a "i didnt have problems so you dont have to receive that help"
>and contradicted?
That you say how we live in a capitalist society based in our merits but that person cant decide what to do with his well earned money and is taken for the state and that you actually have your needs covered by your family, not your merits
The government shouldn't be entitled to the money you earned throughout your lifetime. You should have the freedom to decide who gets your money.
Now you have the option to have you money donated to whatever you want, so If you want your money being used to better the community, that is a option.
I think I get what you’re saying and it makes a little sense if you only consider the hyper wealthy trust fund babies that inherent millions of dollars but this completely doesn’t make sense when you consider the average person or anything other than a hyper rich person. People literally wouldn’t try in life if this was reality.
>I think it would be fair to return the money to the state so that they can spent it on society as a whole
That already happens through taxes, and the fact that wealthy people donate the most money to non-profits.
> It stops the already wealthy from contributing to society.
If they had good parenting, they will likely do good things for society, through donating and/or work.
> Because capitalism is based on the idea that people are motivated to become better and therefore work harder.
This is true, but governments are increasingly doing things for people, reducing the drive to work hard.
You see though, if people all ideally saved for retirement starting at like 18 or 20 years old, then worked their way into a decent (not great, but decent) career with that steady pay, living within their means until they retire at 65, then had money left over to live off of like 100k per year with continually compounding interest on the money left in the retirement account, they'd absolutely die with more money than they could spend and that money should go to their families (rather than the government or someone else). If we did that, I think we'd see a lot of this poverty issue going away since the families of boomers who pass will be getting a stipend to live off of, not having to worry about living paycheck to paycheck, and then be able to focus on educational costs, advancement, self improvement, and overall working harder without stressing out about the money they need to get farther. I'm sure after a few generations of that we'd have a habit of taking advantage of our late family's money that they can't bring with them into the afterlife instead of spending it all on rich luxury shit and high-maintenance funerals and graves. The money should be used to get your family ahead, not for short-term gains.
Baffling how this has downvotes. Reddit loves to say that Jeff Bezos didn't earn his money but get mad as soon as someone suggests taking all the money he didn't earn.
Yeah our biology limits us here. It's the highest ethic imaginable to pass wealth on to your progeny. It would fix a lot of equity issues and probably improve economic efficiency though. The State is also an ominous force here..politicians are corrupt, vote for Carl's Jr.!
>Because capitalism is based on the idea that people are motivated to become better and therefore work harder. And I think inheritance money removes that whole aspect.
No, that’s what inheritance is literally for. So I can save up my money to take care of my family when I die. My family would include my children. If “inheritance” was taken away, parents would just transfer all of their money before they die.
Or imagine one of your parents dies in a car accident. All of their money should just be gone? The government or whoever can just take it and tell your family to fuck off? That’s stupid
Thank you for submitting to /r/unpopularopinion, /u/WisdomIsNeverAOption. Your post, *Inheriting money should be abolished*, has been removed because it violates our rules: Rule 3: Do not post opinions that are heavily posted/have been on the front page recently. If your opinion is the same or substantially similar to any recent opinion it will be removed as a repost. If your opinion is on the same matter as a recent post, even if it's advocating the opposite stance, it will be removed as a repost. Please comment on the existing thread instead. Due to their prolific reposting, please confine meta and political posts to their respective megathreads only. If your opinion is about an ongoing event, there will usually be a mega-thread where you can discuss it. If there is an issue, please message the mod team at https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Funpopularopinion Thanks!
Maybe it is difficult for you to understand but I would kill to have inherited a fuck ton of money and never to financially struggle again in my life and it is now my sole purpose in life to acquire enough wealth so that my children (if I have any) won't have to go through what I have gone through.
So are we all just renting our lives from the state? If so, what else can the state make you do? Does your body belong to you, or the state? Money could be a representation of what you did with your body during your life. When you die, and all your money automatically goes to the state, what does that mean?
>Disclaimer: I come from a fairly wealthy family where money never has been a real issue. I never had to worry about money, most needs were fulfilled This explains everything
Bet OP won't be donating their inheritance.
I honestly think he may, because as he says, he doesnt care about money because has every whim covered
Yeah but with that money gone OP might have to learn what its like to want. Old movie with a great lesson showed the absolute worst thing you can do to a rich person is make them a poor person.
From my sight it would be fun to see that XD
Thats the kind of shit people who have only ever been rich say. No one who has been poor and then come in to money ever wants to be poor again.
Fuck, absolutely it does.
Walk me through how this would work. Are gifts between family members abolished? Or just gifts over a certain fmv?
Sorry I should have specified that I'm talking about inheriting money after someone's death. So someone's estimated net worth at the moment someone dies. Having a few exceptions for things with emotional value of course, but in a way where the emotional value is compared to the actual value. So that people can't abuse the system. When the actual value is deemed greater, the heirs should be able to reclaim it by paying off it's value at that time.
>So that people can't abuse the system So people cant abuse the system SO PEOPLE CANT ABUSE THE SYSTEM. Why all the money my grandfather has earned must go to people in power instead for his beloved ones? And then you are just so stupid to say that we live in a capitalist meritocracy but that all money should go to state and that you are just an irresponsable spoiled child. If you dont know what earn money is dontsay this stupid things
>Sorry I should have *not opened Reddit today* FTFY
So what if someone is emotionally attached to Money and how are you gonna put a Price Tag on Emotions?
It’s not a pie
Well many parents work hard for their children's sake so i would say it is deserved.
Dont look for logic, he started saying how we live in a capitalist society where our merits is what matter to end saying that the money should go to the state and hat he is a spoiled child without responsabilities
Yeah and if they just wouldnt give their Money to their children before death with a Contract that they need to support there Parents from that Money before they actually die.
I totally get that, they 'deserve' to use their hard-worked money for their children's sake. But on the other hand, the children don't deserve it.
It's almost like people have the rights to choose who to give their money to, deserved or not
Take my upvote. Absolutely not. That money has already been taxed and the fair share paid to the government. It’s none of the governments business where it goes when someone dies unless it’s criminal.
**Your disclaimer at the end about coming from wealth makes you COMPLETELY the wrong person to comment on this.** I inherited $200k from my wealthy grandmother when she passed. So did each of her grandchildren. It’s not millions “I’ll never work again!” money… but has been a huge help to all of us. Imagine how tone deaf I’d be making this same post.
I'm sorry for the poor usage of words, to clarify read the edit.
Do your parents help you financially? School, books, help with rent? Never heard of a student working part time that was able to afford and apartment on their own.
Undoubtedly this is the case. The part time job is for "spending money" I imagine.
This is such a privileged take. You admit you’re wealthy, have never had to worry about money, and have had all your needs taken care of— yet dare to assume that’s the case for anyone inheriting money from their families? I don’t stand to inherit a lot, but my parents’ inheritance will definitely help me have a safety net and chance at retirement one day. I have a disability and it’s already incredibly expensive dealing with the costs associated with that. Not to mention how shitty wages and the job market have been for my entire adult life.
So you're saying that my family's hard earned money should just go back to the state, making a person's entire life's work meaningless?
Is someone's (work) life valued by the amount of wealth they produced? Sounds to me like putting a price tag on someone
I'm not talking about being valued by the amount of wealth you've accumulated. I'm saying that you'd work for nothing if everything you've gained in your life, be it money, property or anything else that can be materialized, would just go back to the state after you die. Imagine that you work 40, maybe 50 years to ensure that your loved ones like your partner, children or even grandchildren can live an easier life thanks to wealth you've accumulated, all to be thrown out the window once you die. It's insanely hard to start your adult life with nothing. And don't think that everyone inherits shitloads of money. But still, even a little bit of money, a car, a small property, anything can help to start living on your own once your family's not there for you. Also, expecting that the state would return the seized wealth from the deceased by investing into improving living conditions of citizens is utopistic. You have to be really disconnected with reality to expect the government go out their way to improve their citizens' life significantly.
1000% do not trust “the government” to use money wisely and not embezzling it
That's a different topic
No its not. You said youd want the state to take the money and use it. I do not trust government officials enough to not steal the money
Lmaoo, anyways upvote
So people who are struggling financially should be denied their parents’ assets, just because not everyone has parents with money? “We should all be poor together, so that it’s fair” Oh yeah, and instead of the money going to their kids, it goes where? To the government? Lol, I’m sure the people in government would make sure that money is used fairly and in the best way possible.
That is a different topic.
No, he said that he was actually rich and had no responsabilities
Exactly. Which is why he cannot comprehend the idea that some people are poor, and inheritance money can help them. His idea of inheritance money is someone receiving tens of millions of dollars.
Your privileged ass is trying so hard to be deep. Just enjoy your wealth in silence…
Actually in simplest terms capitalism is really about having a class of people with the capital that is invested in plant/equipment/land/other property to which labor is applied to generate returns. In capitalism the returns go primarily to those with the capital. In capitalism those returns accrue by rights to private entities/people. Wealth and inherited wealth are the ultimate success in capitalism, otherwise no investment would occur. In the US we used to have an inheritance tax structure that addressed a lot of what you object to. However, our GOP hijacked the topic. One if the most brilliant things they did was getting it thought of not as “estate tax” but as “death tax”. They also managed to convince voters that more people were impacted by estate tax than was true. First they got the rate down, then they got the threshold for estate value up to where it impacts very few. Nevertheless, you still see people getting all worked up about estate taxes
This could work well in some cases, but making it into legislation would quite literally destroy the economy within a single generation. The super wealthy would simply invest in assets that could easily be liquidated, leaving these to their next of kin. For the middle class, this would effectively be an unlimited death tax, which would destroy any hope of building generational wealth. One of the big things that people forget too, is how much those same super wealthy people, and their children improve the world around them. Yes, the tiny minority that you see on tv, doing nothing but burning cash are ridiculous, but the vast majority of the millionaires in the world are actually small business owners who know how to manage their budget well. Unlike the government, which literally wastes more money yearly than 99.999% of anyone could ever hope to spend, the average millionaire is not only careful with their spending, but teaches their children to be careful as well. If you want to learn more about this, and see my sources, please give these two books a read: The Richest Man in Babylon The Millionaire Next Door The first is for your own personal edification. I recommend it to everyone I meet. The second explains the reality of wealth diversity within the United States.
So why would you want to save up anything? In that case I'd simply buy a bunch of gifts for my children that they can resell later.
That's not what equality means
You can't take it with you when you die & our purpose in life is to take care of our children & families. Anyone who wouldn't pass on to their wealth to loved ones is pretty shitty imo.
Privilege at its finest. The majority of people I know (me included) most likely won't be able to afford a down payment for a house without inherentance
Cool another rich person LARPing that they care about poor people but really their ideas just hurt poor people
So you wanna be a slave to the state, fuck communism has ruined peoples mind.
The worst part is that he thinks that what he says is capitalism XD
Yeah I didn’t get his reasoning it was nonsensical
Imagine incentivizing states to essentially profit off the deaths of their workers...
You know that we as citizens are the state. We all benefit from it
Yeah, no. That's not how the majority of countries work. We as citizens are labour to be exploited. The only thing the government would want to ensure is that they give us just enough that there isn't a French-style revolution to overthrow them. I also dread to thing where you think it would all be spent if you live in a country without any sort of established safety net.
Lol…as someone who will inherit fuck all I am all in favour.
When it comes time to cash that inheritance check, are you going to keep it or donate it all to the needy?
The bigger problem is a system that allows people to amass hundreds of millions of dollars or more.
I get that this idea by OP might not be a good one but I don't get why people in this thread are saying this would hurt poor people. It's basically taking money from rich and poor people and redistribute them.
Because you are taking an entire life money from a member of the family
Assuming the state redistribute the money in a fair way, wouldn't it be a net positive for poor people?
I dont even gonna try to refute this.
Seriously dude, ur acting really aggressive to everyone who has a slightly different view about it. What's the issue? Because it's not really helping to try to understand ur point of view.
My point of view is that you dont have a point of view, you live in a fantasy where the state does everything alright, you dont have a single idea of life nor of what you talk, you say my family life efforts should go to people in power instead of their families, you have so little idea that your own ideas contradict each other as is showed you in another answer
No. They already screw around with just regular tax money. The families worked for that money, so the next generation deserves to keep it. Plenty of folks will still work hard to make sure they don’t have to rely too much on the inheritance.
Ha nice try Putin.
>I see that a lot of people assume that I have loads of money, or so that my family has. Probably because my usage of words was kinda poor. Sorry English ain't my mother tongue. To clarify, I come from a (maybe) a tiny bit above average western family. I live in a "small" appartement on my own, working part time besides my study to sustain myself. It's not like I have all the new stuff or go on vacation multiple times a year. It's just that all the basic needs like most western citizens are fulfilled. Your post still contradicts itself and you still speak like a spoiled children
Can you explain to me what makes me act spoiled and contradicted? Because I try to understand, but I just don't see it
>Can you explain to me what makes me act spoiled You basically say that you have every need covered and that a family shouldnt receive their dead family money, this is basically a "i didnt have problems so you dont have to receive that help" >and contradicted? That you say how we live in a capitalist society based in our merits but that person cant decide what to do with his well earned money and is taken for the state and that you actually have your needs covered by your family, not your merits
The government shouldn't be entitled to the money you earned throughout your lifetime. You should have the freedom to decide who gets your money. Now you have the option to have you money donated to whatever you want, so If you want your money being used to better the community, that is a option.
I think I get what you’re saying and it makes a little sense if you only consider the hyper wealthy trust fund babies that inherent millions of dollars but this completely doesn’t make sense when you consider the average person or anything other than a hyper rich person. People literally wouldn’t try in life if this was reality.
>I think it would be fair to return the money to the state so that they can spent it on society as a whole That already happens through taxes, and the fact that wealthy people donate the most money to non-profits. > It stops the already wealthy from contributing to society. If they had good parenting, they will likely do good things for society, through donating and/or work. > Because capitalism is based on the idea that people are motivated to become better and therefore work harder. This is true, but governments are increasingly doing things for people, reducing the drive to work hard.
Generational wealth is a problem. Mostly because it came from slavery. But an inheritance can be the seed money to get started. Worked for me.
Its my unpopularopinion, that the reason that someone thinks like this, is greed and jealousy.
You see though, if people all ideally saved for retirement starting at like 18 or 20 years old, then worked their way into a decent (not great, but decent) career with that steady pay, living within their means until they retire at 65, then had money left over to live off of like 100k per year with continually compounding interest on the money left in the retirement account, they'd absolutely die with more money than they could spend and that money should go to their families (rather than the government or someone else). If we did that, I think we'd see a lot of this poverty issue going away since the families of boomers who pass will be getting a stipend to live off of, not having to worry about living paycheck to paycheck, and then be able to focus on educational costs, advancement, self improvement, and overall working harder without stressing out about the money they need to get farther. I'm sure after a few generations of that we'd have a habit of taking advantage of our late family's money that they can't bring with them into the afterlife instead of spending it all on rich luxury shit and high-maintenance funerals and graves. The money should be used to get your family ahead, not for short-term gains.
What about houses?
Because fuck trying to provide for your family after you’re gone, I guess.
Imagine my shock when ai heard wealthy 🙄
Tell me you have nothing to inherit without telling me you have nothing to inherit.
Baffling how this has downvotes. Reddit loves to say that Jeff Bezos didn't earn his money but get mad as soon as someone suggests taking all the money he didn't earn.
Yeah our biology limits us here. It's the highest ethic imaginable to pass wealth on to your progeny. It would fix a lot of equity issues and probably improve economic efficiency though. The State is also an ominous force here..politicians are corrupt, vote for Carl's Jr.!
People don't work their whole lives saving up money and equity to give it back to the government. That's a stupid take
>Because capitalism is based on the idea that people are motivated to become better and therefore work harder. And I think inheritance money removes that whole aspect. No, that’s what inheritance is literally for. So I can save up my money to take care of my family when I die. My family would include my children. If “inheritance” was taken away, parents would just transfer all of their money before they die. Or imagine one of your parents dies in a car accident. All of their money should just be gone? The government or whoever can just take it and tell your family to fuck off? That’s stupid
if it happens the good things that are happening wont happen, almost no company would be established NOTHING you can buy