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Originally Posted by jimjamuser
I agree highly with your last 2 sentences. I would extend that to mean that success is a matter of having properly prepared yourself. Then, you try to put your ideas to work for profit in some initial venture. Even good ideas FAIL in the marketplace - there are SO many variables! With most of these variables, you have LITTLE control over. MOST inventors fail their 1st time in the marketplace. ONLY a FEW try over and over until they succeed. Of those few, only another small % succeed in a huge manner. They get rewarded to the tune of millions of dollars - even billions. There seems to involve a lot of LUCK and LUCKY timing in the accumulation of individual wealth. Then, they FIGHT to hold onto that money AND keep it in their FAMILIES. The tax system of any country then becomes their enemy!
The US Estate tax system was DESIGNED (early on) to encourage EVERY generation to be REQUIRED to find success on its own. The US Estate tax was designed to prevent families from passing EXCESSIVE wealth forward forever to their next generations. The income tax System was MEANT to be progressive - more income you pay a greater % to the government. When families pass wealth along untaxed, the ULTIMATE result is KINGS and KINGDOMS - THE VERY problem that the early American settlers were running away from - they FEARED a return to KINGS.
Today the SUPER wealthy have made rules to suit themselves - ways to get around estate taxes - ways to avoid the higher tax brackets. The result is the formation of small kingdoms (you could call them Princedoms also). An example today would be the Koch Brothers, the family of Sheldon Adelson - the Las Vegas big hotel owner, several NYC real estate developer families, and others (some keeping low profiles). One basic principle of government is to TAX the LUCKY individuals and re-distribute (not a dirty word) some wealth from the LUCKY individuals to the less LUCKY individuals. This could be best described as social empathy and fairness. Today the GREED of the LUCKY wealthy ones overpowers their sense of social responsibility and empathy. A wealthy individual that encompasses the American ideals of social responsibility and fairness is Warren Buffet. If ALL the wealthy ONLY had his attitude - The US would be a wonderful COUNTRY. Today the wealthy have allowed their GREED to put the US into a tailspin.
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Pretty sure you were not one of LUCKY individuals which makes your post, though slightly ignorant, understandable.