Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/11/17/inbred-american-brahmins.html
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The repeal effort is aided by the aspirations of dreamers and strivers who imagine that they, too, might reach the estate tax threshold by the time they die.
AKA “temporarily embarrassed millionaires”
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There are only two types of people who are truly free: the super wealthy, and hobos.
So on the plus side the way things are going, soon all Americans will be totally free, as part of one group or the other.
“Hey, don’t touch my bindle! I still got a can of beans in there!”
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and Jack Reacher
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The photos in the linked article make me wonder - when did the business of government become a “Bring your family to work” thing?
What the hell is Mnuchin doing showing a bunch of dollar bills (apparently fresh off the press) to his wife - in the mint?
Being a government official is not meant to be your personal ego-playground (or at least not that blatantly).
If you want to show off to your wife about your name being on the dollar bill, just pick up one of the ones in circulation and show it to her at home. Or maybe you don’t ever see dollar bills other than at work?
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“I’m a drifter with nothing to lose”
Sounds like he falls in the hobo category to me 
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I think all estates should be taxed 100% beyond one or two hundred thousand. Might help break up the oligarchy.
Which is unfortunately pretty much impossible at this point. I’ve played enough Great Dalmuti to know how the deck is always stacked.
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NO! Jack Reacher gets his own category.
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And some fall into both categories
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HOBO?! He’s a NOBO, that’s for sure!
Signed,
Boxcar Ira
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The Harvester my father uses on his farm cost $150,000
The only way for him to not go out of business in the last 2 decades was to 1) invest heavily in irrigation 2) expand as quickly as possible by leasing farmland and buying the biggest equipment the bank would let him buy to farm as much land as possible.
I’ll digress by saying the proponents of erasing the ‘death tax’ always talk about family farms, even the total value of my father’s 3rd generation ND farm (consisting of him and part time help from my uncle and brother) will not exceed a few million dollars. Sadly, the center pivot irrigated land will probably be worth more in real estate or the money generated by converting it to a wind farm.
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For all that the conservative base is hellbent on making wealthy “Coastal Elites” miserable by constantly electing charlatans and dopes, this makes up for it in the long term. Not that this bunch of suckers understands the concept of “the long term”.
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Good point. I just threw a number out there that seemed large enough to me, but I guess I’m still thinking in 1980s dollars. I also wasn’t thinking about land but about savings and invested $$. Anyway, it was just a quick thought and not something I’ve really reasoned all the way through.
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Family-owned businesses, including farms, get special exemptions. Republicans just can’t seem to remember that part.
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That is one disturbing photograph.
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But they give so much back in other ways, right? Or so they claim.
Right? It’s almost like there’s a real person in it somewhere.
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