Inheritance

Inheriting wealth seems politically wrong. It's literally the primary means of perpetuating unearned economic inequality, and inequality of opportunity as well. Surely nobody should be able to inherit money: there should be a 100% inheritance tax. Even if this means people giving their children more money while they're alive, that seems better for society than standard inheritance - and surely it's nicer to be able to enjoy your children's gratitude!

But people still want to say things like, "I earned that money, and I have a right to do what I want with it when I die. I have a right to pass it on to whom I like." Even people who otherwise hate the idea of unearned income (like the dole) say this. But why? Especially when they won't be around to care about it. But I think maybe that's the very reason. Thinking about your financial legacy is a way of thinking about the world after your death, and your continuing impact on that world. It is a weapon in the battle with mortality.

If we accept that when we die, all our wealth should revert to the common stock, perhaps it would feel too much like the truth - that we cease to exist. Perhaps we would find it more difficult to go on earning and accumulating, in the knowledge of that coming darkness. It's not the actual legacy/inheritance per se that matters, but the idea, as accepted by society, that we pass what's left of ourselves on to our heirs. That we have heirs. And therefore, do not really die.