Is this an argument against the idea of estate tax or the implementation of estate tax in the United States?
It reads likes the latter, but the more interesting discussion is regarding the former.
It reads likes the latter, but the more interesting discussion is regarding the former.
The general consensus from economists opposes the estate tax. There are a few aspects of its implementation that are particularly problematic, but there's no way to implement an estate tax that doesn't ultimately either (a) lead to these sorts of outcomes, or (b) defeat the entire point of an estate tax in the first place.
The short letter might read like it's arguing against the implementation, but if you're familiar with Friedman's work, he shows why estate taxes inherently lead to such undesirable outcomes.
Not really, in the general case, but definitely not on the topic of the estate tax. It's actually quite hard to find rigorous economic analysis and research that defends the estate tax.
> I thought [the free market US school of economics] was on the retreat in recent years?
That's definitely not true. The current political tide is towards taxation and regulation, but politics have very little to do with what economists agree on (much to their chagrin), and politics is highly cyclical.
Also, I'm not sure why "US" is in there - it's not like free-market economics is advocated particularly strongly by US economics compared to their foreign counterparts. Again, politics and consensus among economists are not the same thing.
I confess I'm predisposed to keeping it. My mindset doesn't see it as a "death tax" and my contrarian mindset may dislike the idea of repeal from the marketing that went into that label.