Everyday we hear that the gap between the rich and the poor is increasing. And its not just for poor or developing countries but for developed countries as well. Yet every effort to solve this has failed (read communism, socialism, differential taxing etc.)
But surprisingly enough no solution seems to be directed at the root cause of the problem….Inheritance! Maybe this is because we take inheritance for granted and beyond the realm of social or legal scrutiny and any attempt to change this is seen as a violation of basic human rights and state’s interference into the private lives of its citizens. But there is another way to look at it. The premise should be something like this :-
“You have every right to enjoy every single penny you earn, but you have absolutely no right to pass on your wealth to a selected few of the next generation and thereby dislodging the NATURAL EQUALITY of the next generation”
The above reasoning can be inferred from the constitutions of almost all democratic countries which states that “You can exercise your fundamental rights as long as it does not infringe upon the fundamental rights of another citizen”. Here dislodging the natural equality is actually infringement of fundamental rights of other citizens.
But its easier said than done! So how exactly are we going to implement such a bold change ? Well one thing is for sure : No country can implement it unilaterally … it has to be at the UN level. Otherwise the country that implements it first without prior commitment from other major powers will only see its wealthy population migrate to other countries along with all of their wealth! And another very important thing that needs to be looked after is plugging loopholes that may be exploited to pass on wealth even after it has been abolished. For example, what if a father decides to buy all the products of his son’s company even though that product has no market value as such ? Well we will need to deal with this type of malpractices the same way as we deal with insider trading today.
Now lets look at the brighter side, as to what changes can this “Abolishment of Inheritance” bring to society and the world at large ?
First of all, it is bound to increase the overall rate of technological progress of the human race as a whole. This is because since the big fat bosses know that they can’t pass on their accumulated wealth, so there will be less of mindless profit making and more of reasonable pricing and investment in ventures which are truly beneficial to humanity rather than just more profitable. Secondly, it will reduce inequality to a great extent (although not completely because of differential education and exposure). Last but not the least, it will signify our maturity as a species and also do justice to our self-proclaimed title of being the “Most Intelligent species on Earth”