Anti-dynasty sentiment drove adoption of estate and inheritance taxes after 1885

Evidence

The idea of death taxes grew out of fear of dynasties and the enormous power of their money. Even before the Civil War, there had been some state and federal attempts to tax estates and inheritances. A death tax was part of the Civil War package. But the real upsurge in demand came after 1885. Economists like Richard T. Ely and Edwin R. Seligman, along with such strange bedfellows as Andrew Carnegie, argued that great fortunes should be heavily taxed when the founder died. About half the states adopted some form of death tax by 1900. Generally, these taxes were not steeply progressive. Almost always, they were biased against collateral heirs and strangers to the blood: they gave spouses and children of the dead more favorable treatment. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 3248

Categorization

• XREF: Builds on the earlier anti-dynastic trust-law point from ch37 — same market/anti-dynasty ideology taking tax form. — connects to: A market emerged for formerly discredited aristocratic and antidemocratic ideologies — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 803

Broader Connections

• A market emerged for formerly discredited aristocratic and antidemocratic ideologies #complicates (0.75) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 803