On 7/14/2010 8:32 PM, Califbill wrote:


"J. Clarke" wrote in message
...
On 7/13/2010 2:42 AM, Don Foreman wrote:
On Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:23:52 -0500, Ignoramus15939
wrote:

... because this year there is no estate tax, and next year it will be
55% after 1 million.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...928371574.html


That's a big owie, but maximizing the value of my estate for heirs
wouldn't motivate me to die sooner than I might otherwise choose to.
They're all well-educated and quite self-sufficient.

I don't fear death at all, have faced it many times without flinching.
There may come a day when I'll welcome it and wish it'd hurry up but
I'm not there yet.

We'd rather die with a nickel left. We'd better get busy.

Oh, booh, hooh, somebody with a million bucks has to pay tax on the
amount over that.



A million dollar estate is not that big anymore. You paid taxes when you
earned the money. and the death tax was implemented for 3 people. And
was $300k when the average family made about $1k a year. Was to stop
financial ruler class. Carnegie, Rockefeller, and name of 3rd one slips
my brain. If you own a house, in most metropolitan areas, you are close
to having a million dollar estate with any savings at all.



Sorry but you're facts are incorrect. All you have to do is check the
statistics on how many people leave estates of a million dollars or
more. It's a very low number. Only a few per cent of the population.
While lots of people own property in urban areas that used to be worth
hundreds of thousands of dollars, in most places the value of that real
estate has dropped dramatically. Besides that, most people who die with
a nice house don't own them. They have mortgages and these days the
equity in many homes is not so much any more. Then if you look at all
the people who owe more than their homes are worth and all the people in
the middle of the country whose houses are only worth 100K or so you
start to realize that there aren't many people with a million in assets
to leave behind. Which just proves what I have said many times, most
Americans are financial failures. After a lifetime of work they have a
house if they are lucky, and if they don't have a house the number of
people who have a million dollars in real investment grade assets is
less than 2%. So when you look at the reality it's like the song says,
in the land of milk and honey you must put them on the table. Sadly,
even after working all your life only a lucky few have even one million
to leave to their kids. So welcome to reality folks. You will have to
work hard but you will never have that much to show for it.

Hawke