It is no surprise that one theory that fills the secularist with glee is the inheritance tax. He believes that marrying and raising children is just one among many alternative forms of human living arrangements. Philosophically speaking, everyone agrees that when a man dies, he no longer legally owns his possessions. Those whose world view is informed by taking Judaism or Christianity seriously, feel that the dead parents’ children have a priority claim on the estate. The others argue that this is unfair to everyone else.
Inheritance taxes express an attitude of resentment for every penny a child receives from his parents’ estate. Why should only a few prosper by some money suddenly becoming ownerless? It should belong to everybody, because (and here is the crux) there is no significance, other than the merely biological, to the parent-child relationship. Like animals in a zoo, when one animal’s food dish is abandoned the others converge to feed themselves.
Invariably, politicians with an anti-God view will happily introduce, and then raise, the inheritance tax. No matter how well intentioned . . . they are deeply offended that some people should acquire more of a departed citizen’s wealth than others merely because an accident of birth made them his children. They feel that when a human dies, his property should belong to all citizens equally.
Rabbi Daniel Lapin, "America's Real War," p.237
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