Reply to a Salon Progressive

It's been a long time since I read something that demanded answering in detail. I just read, Piketty shrugged: How the French economist dashed libertarians’ Ayn Randian fantasies. The first thing that stood out was that despite referring frequently to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, it's obvious he never read the book. It's also clear he doesn't understand libertarians.

Parramore wrote:

To understand the libertarian view of inequality, let’s turn to Milton Friedman, one of America’s most famous and influential makers of free market mythology. Friedman decreed that economic policy should focus on freedom, and not equality.

Right off I have to address the fact he called the free market a mythology. Friedman and libertarians believe the focus is on liberty as well as freedom. Also freedom doesn't mean you get to harm your neighbor. The progressive's focus on equality is a waste of time because it's unachievable. No matter how hard government tries it can never make us equal. The best government can do is give us equal opportunity to be the best we can and treat us equally under the law.

Warren Buffet and the Death Tax

Warren Buffet and the Democrats tell us they need to take property from the greedy rich people when they die. The Democrats have decided that you don’t deserve any money or property in which you didn’t earn. They decided the government has the right to redistribute that wealth

On the surface, all this might sound good to those who believe in wealth redistribution. Once you begin to dig into estate taxes, things may not be what you believed. Warren Buffet pushes hard for the estate tax. There is a good reason he does this, and it’s not that he has a kind and giving heart. The very wealthy have a way around these estate taxes. They put money into huge insurance policies worth millions. Insurance money isn’t taxable through the estate or income tax.

Warren Buffet coincidentally owns many of these insurance companies. As long as there is a death tax he is able to sell these massive policies, which without an estate tax they wouldn’t be needed.