All of us would like to be surprised by someone leaving us a million or so dollars. Such inheritances are usually the result of someone spending their days in the clay wisely. We’d all like to get surprises like that.
Governments use inheritance taxes to levy a fine on such a wise use of a dead person’s time. Those who used their time wisely enough to create estates are not in a position to defend their assets. Those who may inherit them don’t want to appear “greedy”. So, most of our efforts, over time, are taken away by the “time pigs” who staff most governments and are every alert to gobble up any scraps of other people’s time that they can get.
