Comments on: The New Feudalism http://garethjyoung.com/blog/2007/01/08/the-new-feudalism/ A journal on a Bohemian lifestyle: author, entrepreneur, and Zen Buddhist Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:52:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.5 by: gareth http://garethjyoung.com/blog/2007/01/08/the-new-feudalism/#comment-12 Mon, 29 Jan 2007 02:24:25 +0000 http://garethjyoung.com/blog/2007/01/08/the-new-feudalism/#comment-12 Thank you Florian. Gareth's blog appears to have gone international! Thank you Florian. Gareth’s blog appears to have gone international!

]]> by: Florian http://garethjyoung.com/blog/2007/01/08/the-new-feudalism/#comment-11 Mon, 29 Jan 2007 01:59:39 +0000 http://garethjyoung.com/blog/2007/01/08/the-new-feudalism/#comment-11 Hi, I found your blog via google by accident and have to admit that youve a really interesting blog :-) Just saved your feed in my reader, have a nice day :) Hi,
I found your blog via google by accident and have to admit that youve a really interesting blog :-)
Just saved your feed in my reader, have a nice day :)

]]> by: John Hane http://garethjyoung.com/blog/2007/01/08/the-new-feudalism/#comment-10 Thu, 11 Jan 2007 20:09:19 +0000 http://garethjyoung.com/blog/2007/01/08/the-new-feudalism/#comment-10 Being of modest inheritance and modest financial means I dare not take the time to address this fully. The inheritance tax issue is but one of many ways in which "wealth", in the sense of finite resources, is transferred intergenerationally. We tax our children with environmental costs that are impossible to quantify, with housing costs that are more easily summed, and in a thousand other ways. We also dividend our children with investment in technology, culture, society and government. There are some practical issues with a 100% inheritance tax, including small businesses; some general fairness issues (even people who have reached majority may rely on parents for a decade or more for school, housing down payments (see above), etc)); chattels in the grey area (personal property that may be of real sentimental value but also financially valuable) and the inevitable message that those in the middle class should CONSUME. We should find a balance that protects what I see as legitimate interests of the poor and disadvantaged while not creating unnecessary burdens and counterproductive incentives for the middle class. Should vast fortunes be passed down? Ummm. No. When you have a moment google "veil of ignorance" or "Towards a Theory of Justice" by John Rawls. A nice bit of jurisprudential social philosophy to savor on a Thursday evening in January. Being of modest inheritance and modest financial means I dare not take the time to address this fully. The inheritance tax issue is but one of many ways in which “wealth”, in the sense of finite resources, is transferred intergenerationally. We tax our children with environmental costs that are impossible to quantify, with housing costs that are more easily summed, and in a thousand other ways. We also dividend our children with investment in technology, culture, society and government.

There are some practical issues with a 100% inheritance tax, including small businesses; some general fairness issues (even people who have reached majority may rely on parents for a decade or more for school, housing down payments (see above), etc)); chattels in the grey area (personal property that may be of real sentimental value but also financially valuable) and the inevitable message that those in the middle class should CONSUME.

We should find a balance that protects what I see as legitimate interests of the poor and disadvantaged while not creating unnecessary burdens and counterproductive incentives for the middle class. Should vast fortunes be passed down? Ummm. No.

When you have a moment google “veil of ignorance” or “Towards a Theory of Justice” by John Rawls. A nice bit of jurisprudential social philosophy to savor on a Thursday evening in January.

]]> by: gareth http://garethjyoung.com/blog/2007/01/08/the-new-feudalism/#comment-9 Thu, 11 Jan 2007 12:55:03 +0000 http://garethjyoung.com/blog/2007/01/08/the-new-feudalism/#comment-9 I am reminded of a quote forwarded to me some time ago by <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/0/771/814" rel="nofollow">John Hane</a> "The moral flabbiness of the exclusive worship of the bitch-goddess SUCCESS. That -- with the squalid cash interpretation put on the word 'success' -- is our national disease." Letter from William James to H.G. Wells, September 11, 1906. Thanks Bob I am reminded of a quote forwarded to me some time ago by John Hane “The moral flabbiness of the exclusive worship of the bitch-goddess SUCCESS. That — with the squalid cash interpretation put on the word ’success’ — is our national disease.” Letter from William James to H.G. Wells, September 11, 1906.

Thanks Bob

]]> by: Bob J. http://garethjyoung.com/blog/2007/01/08/the-new-feudalism/#comment-8 Thu, 11 Jan 2007 12:01:14 +0000 http://garethjyoung.com/blog/2007/01/08/the-new-feudalism/#comment-8 I think that someone who has accumulated wealth (1) does actually have the right to spend it all on cocaine if he wants, and (2) is much more likely to do so if he can't bequeath it to his children. Why remove one of the more benign aspects of wealth? Also, wealth does not distribute itself according to any kind of merit, so why pretend that it does? Even if we all started at square one, some weak, lazy, unintelligent, unimaginative and (in most of our minds) undeserving people would still wind up with huge chunks of it for no apparent reason. I think the real misunderstanding of wealth is that it is widely perceived as some sort of indicum of merit. It's the myth of the economic democracracy. We'd be better off if we understand like our pets and some primitive peoples that some things, just are. I think that someone who has accumulated wealth (1) does actually have the right to spend it all on cocaine if he wants, and (2) is much more likely to do so if he can’t bequeath it to his children. Why remove one of the more benign aspects of wealth?

Also, wealth does not distribute itself according to any kind of merit, so why pretend that it does? Even if we all started at square one, some weak, lazy, unintelligent, unimaginative and (in most of our minds) undeserving people would still wind up with huge chunks of it for no apparent reason. I think the real misunderstanding of wealth is that it is widely perceived as some sort of indicum of merit. It’s the myth of the economic democracracy. We’d be better off if we understand like our pets and some primitive peoples that some things, just are.

]]> by: Doug http://garethjyoung.com/blog/2007/01/08/the-new-feudalism/#comment-7 Thu, 11 Jan 2007 04:17:54 +0000 http://garethjyoung.com/blog/2007/01/08/the-new-feudalism/#comment-7 Garth - I'm faltered that you found something in my ramblings that warranted further cooment. But, while you're at it, IMHO another important acillary concept to grasp here is precisely what money (or "entitlement") really is: i.e., a claim upon us all. So, in bequething unearned wealth, what one is doing (often inperpetuity) is garnted his descendents indefinite claims upon the rest of our time and property Garth -

I’m faltered that you found something in my ramblings that warranted further cooment.

But, while you’re at it, IMHO another important acillary concept to grasp here is precisely what money (or “entitlement”) really is: i.e., a claim upon us all. So, in bequething unearned wealth, what one is doing (often inperpetuity) is garnted his descendents indefinite claims upon the rest of our time and property

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