> Inheritance tax is Marxist
> by Ian Murray
> 12 June 2002
>
> Manifesto
> of the Communist Party
> 1848
>
> http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html#Proletarian
> Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means
of despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the conditions of
bourgeois production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear
economically insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the
movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old
social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionizing
the mode of production.
>
> These measures will, of course, be different in different countries.
>
> Nevertheless, in most advanced countries, the following will be pretty
generally applicable.
>
> 1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land
to public purposes.
>
> 2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
>
> 3. ABOLITION OF ALL RIGHTS OF INHERITANCE ( emphasis added -CB)
>
=====================
The philosophical and legal arguments for abolishing inheritance had
been around before KM was even born.
Ian
All taxes are paid by the working class since it is the source of value. This value or rather surplus value is privately appropriated by the class of capitalist. Quaint but true.
" ABOLITION OF ALL RIGHTS OF INHERITANCE "is a class demand of the proletariat against bourgeois property relations as accumulated wealth. Inheritance taxes and the likes are products of the struggle within the bourgeoisie. Specifically, the rising sector within the capitalist class must of necessity "wage a merciless struggle" against the decaying sector or segment of private property as wealth, as an aspect of gaining political and economic dominance. That is, the fight against that section of industry that has become antagonisitc to the forward development of the technical apsects of production and its mode of accumulation, is to have its wealth taxed, is the underlying impulse of the inner-capital struggle.
In the langauge of the "man on the street" this is no more tha what is called the struggle between "old money" and "new money."
" ABOLITION OF ALL RIGHTS OF INHERITANCE "has no meaning for the proletariat outside of class relationships and the abolition of classes and class privilege. " ABOLITION OF ALL RIGHTS OF INHERITANCE " is a clarion call for the construction of a society of associated producers who are not fettered by the social power of inherited wealth. The social power of inherited knowledge is another matter altogether. There is nothing Marxian in the inheritance tax.
From the standpoint of the petty bourgeoisie, inheritance tax appears as another weapon in their arsenal to become free from the big bourgeoisie.
Proletarians in the House.
Melvin P.
