Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes [Paperback]

William Gates (Author), Chuck Collins (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 15, 2004

More than a thousand individuals of high net worth rose up to protest the repeal of the estate tax-Newsweek tagged them the "billionaire backlash." The primary visionaries of that group, Bill Gates Sr. and Chuck Collins, argue here that individual wealth is a product not only of hard work and smart choices but of the society that provides the fertile soil for succes. Weaving personal narratives, history, and plenty of solid economic sense, Gates and Collins make a sound and compelling case for estate tax reform, not repeal.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Gates, whose son cofounded Microsoft and became the wealthiest man on the planet, teams up with Collins, program director of the nonprofit United for a Fair Economy and Responsible Wealth, to explain why the government should continue to levy estate taxes on the fortunes of America's wealthiest citizens (which President Bush, advocating its elimination, has provocatively called the "death tax"). In reviewing the tax's history, the authors explain the Founding Fathers' concern with maintaining conditions of equitability that would enable any American with sufficient ambition and perseverance to accumulate a fortune within his lifetime without creating a new aristocracy. The robber barons of the Gilded Age thwarted those intentions, so the estate tax was established in 1916. The tax was controversial from its inception, and the authors reveal how carefully orchestrated efforts by a handful of wealthy families, think tanks and PR firms drummed up public opposition in the 1990s, even though the tax didn't apply to most Americans. Congress voted to repeal the estate tax in 2001. It's bad enough, Gates and Collins argue, that the government will lose $30 billion a year over the next decade because of the repeal; the loss is particularly keen given the cost of cleaning up after the September 11 attacks and fighting the subsequent war on terrorism. They've prepared an earnest manifesto, which may seem like locking the barn doors after the horse has fled, but this book could help create a sympathetic public perception by 2011, when, in a bizarre legal twist, the estate tax goes back on the books.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

This defense of the controversial estate tax is offered by Gates, the father of the billionaire founder of Microsoft, and Collins, a tax advocate. The authors join forces to argue against the present presidential administration's proposed repeal of the estate tax, which is a transfer tax imposed on large accumulations of wealth at the death of the owners, and the authors estimate such repeal will cost $850 billion in tax revenue over the next 20 years. Although they acknowledge that wealth accrues to an individual through savvy and hard work, Gates and Collins also believe that society contributes to that individual's success through investments in education, economic development, heath care, and property rights protection, and a reformed estate tax is a legitimate return on society's investments. This book and its ideas that estate tax reform should focus upon the truly huge fortunes and earmark the revenue for uses such as education or Social Security will contribute to the ongoing debate on this important topic. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (January 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807047198
• ISBN-13: 978-0807047194
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,340,275 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, comprehensive and brief! January 15, 2003

By billpz

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Not written for numbers people, but for those interested in public policy and the future shape of our society. Shows how the unseen -- or perhaps frequently unexamined -- hand of a major part of tax law has profound effects. Treats all aspects of the debate. Gives a fair history of a number of main points around the last century's debate about appropriate national taxation. Lucid, readable; reasoned but passionate. Great suggestions for further reading. And all this in fewer than 140 pages plus appendices. Deserves a Pulitzer.
I have been a tax accountant for over 25 years, with a professional interest in this subject, and I learned a great deal!

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars 6 Stars Out of 5 May 16, 2003

By Bibliophile

Format:Hardcover

This extraordinary little book packs a gigantic punch. I'd love to summarize it here, but as soon as you buy the book, get straight to Chapter One. It's enough to make you sick in the stomach.

Is America a "democracy"? After Ch.1 you really wonder. A sample from p. 15: Around the turn of the century, shortly before WWI, the top 1 (one) per cent of the population owned 56.4% of the country's private wealth - at the same time, the authors tell us, "the wealthiest 10 [ten] per cent of households owned 90% of all wealth." Now, think about it: 90% of Americans together owned a mere 10% of the country! (And most of the country's wealth was in private hands, because the government at all levels owned very little of value. There wasn't even a national park in existence!) That's neither justice nor democracy.

American society started to improve since then, especially after the introduction of income tax. But things have again gone in the opposite direction in the last two decades, so that "the United States is now the most unequal society in the industrialized world." (p. 14)

This fact is borne out in the UN Human Development Report 2002. (I was surprised that this authoritative publication is NOT cited anywhere in this book.) This report gives the "Gini Index" for each country, among numerous other data. The Gini Index is not something out of Aladdin: It "measures inequality over the entire distribution of income or consumption. A value of 0 represents perfect equality, and a value of 100 perfect inequality." (p. 197) Ranked are these selected countries in the industrialized world: Denmark (24.7 - the least unequal society), Japan (24.8), other Scandinavian countries (including Finland) at around 26, then Germany (30.0), then English-speaking countries like my own Canada (31.5 - the lowest in this group), Australia (35.2 !!), the UK (36.8 - hardly news, what with their queen and lords), and finally the United States at 40.8. (France, the host of the French Revolution, is a surprising 32.7.) For comparison, developing China is 40.3 (beats the US by a hair - but not for long), India only 37.8 (I guess only a couple of people can be called rich there), and Russia is the most unequal of all at 48.7.....but then Russia is now run by a mafia of ruthless moneylords, much like America a century ago, when men like Rockefeller and Al Capone ran all the shows. (Still it is better than the gulag and secret police. And anything is better than communism.)

Getting rid of the estate tax won't help one bit. On the other hand, not repealing it in and of itself is just a small step in the right direction, hardly enough to stop the country from sliding down the slippery slope to a second Gilded Age. This book makes a very convincing argument why getting rid of the estate tax is truly a form of insanity the name of which is still not in the psychiatric textbooks. Bill Gates Sr.'s position is supported by his son (the world's richest man - mostly self-made). Warren Buffett, the world's second richest man (also self-made), disagrees with them only because he thinks the estate tax as it is does not go far enough. (He'd prefer to tax 100% of the super-rich's inheritance not given to charity.) This estate tax is absolutely, undoubtedly no "death tax" - as though everyone has to pay it, even the poor. Rather, it is really just "rich kids' tax"! Let's start calling the thing by its right name.

Andrew Carnegie is frequently quoted in this book, for good reasons. This mega-hero of the Gilded Age, who rose from abject poverty in a foreign country to become the richest man on earth, literally built America - with the steel from his furnaces, used in railroads and highrise buildings. He went even further than Buffett: "Any rich man [or woman, I assume] who doesn't give away his money to charity BEFORE he dies is a shame and a disgrace to society," as he said over and over. Carnegie certainly practised what he preached. (Before he died he gave away at least 95% of his worth, mostly to create free libraries for people too poor to have books.) Carnegie also believed in the estate tax: "Of all taxes this seems the wisest," in a memorable quote in this fine book.

At a time when many Americans worry about losing their jobs, when every citizen pays for the defense of the country, this is no time for the estate tax repeal - just so that the Forbes zillionaires own and control even more of the country while the rest have nothing or next to nothing. The supremely selfish, extremely greedy, totally irresponsible, unbelievably small-minded and short-sighted people who oppose the estate tax - and therefore dislike this book - hate and despise their fellow Americans more, and do more long term damage to America, than any Middle East terrorists because this kind of injustice (in Buffett's choice word) was what caused the downfall of Rome and is still yet another reason which encourages neo-Marxists everywhere.

This book is densely argued and extremely clearly presented. The 24 pages of sources in this slim little volume show the authors have done their homework, despite the omission I mentioned. Bill Gates Sr.'s authority is undeniable not only because he was already wealthy himself BEFORE his son became the world's richest human being (for at least the past ten years as far as I know), but also because he is himself a highly successful tax lawyer and in charge of one of the world's largest charitable foundations, the Gates Foundation. (One day it will be the world's largest.) If he doesn't know what he is talking about, I don't know who does. This book's Foreword is aptly written by the formidable Paul Volcker, former Fed Chairman.

I can't praise this book enough. It can go further though, as the public and private statements by Warren Buffett - a good friend of both Gates' - explain clearly why. Despite its admirable conciseness, this book can use a good general index at the end. (I want to be sure who said what when and why.)

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Reading for Every Member of Congress April 6, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Most controversial issues have two sides. The authors of this book present the arguments in favor of abolishing the estate tax in "the best light" by quoting at length and in context the abolition proponents' rationale. They then destroy these arguments by showing how and why they are based on false and often misleading "facts." They also make the case as to why an estate tax on those few accumulated fortunes which are, even under the pre-2001 law, subject to the tax is an important foundation stone of the American Experiment. I am not naive enough to believe that those who have made a career of opposing the estate tax will be swayed by the authors' book, but anyone with an open mind should be.