The Idle Poor and the Idle Rich
“As much as Trump and the Republicans malign the much-exaggerated idle poor, their tax reform is a major boost for the idle rich. Those who benefit from inherited wealth need not do anything to earn their windfall—just be born into the right family. People who live on inherited wealth don’t get the same judgmental storyline as someone trying to make ends meet with a mosaic of paltry government benefits and inconsistent, low-wage work. And yet, the government taxes estates at a lower rate than it taxes the money people earn from working. The GOP’s tax reform has only made this worse.”