Trying to educate university professors is an endless task. It is no doubt a futile one, but cathartic nonetheless. Below is a
letter I sent to some dweeb in Colorado who is laboring under the misconception that the estates of wealthy people belong to
us all.
Dear Prof. Campos,
Regarding your recent Rocky Mountain News article, allow me to make a couple of points. The first is a mere quibble. Most
Americans are not idiots. They are capable of learning and knowing, it's just that they are frighteningly ill-informed about
virtually everything. There is a difference between stupidity and ignorance. The reason for the widespread ignorance is simple:
Government runs the schools and "educates" the vast majority of children, who are then given a worthless diploma they can
barely read and sent out into the world to wreak havoc.
My second point, and the one I find more disturbing, is your off-handed remark about the estate tax and how those who don't
like it are transferring wealth to the much-maligned "rich" among us. Being a law professor, maybe it has escaped your attention
that property is not communally shared in this country, though the politicians are doing their best to rectify that situation. God
help us all when they do.
Until we are subjected to full-blown socialism, please keep in mind that estates must be built through savings and investment by
individuals. It is their property, not yours and mine to distribute to others arbitrarily. And if it is theirs, how can it be
transferred from us (the relatively poor) to them (the rich)?
More importantly, if you are being intellectually honest, you would better understand the true nature of this odious tax. A
person builds an estate over his entire lifetime for his family to enjoy after he dies, and when he does, the government
intervenes and literally steals huge portions of it - much of it already taxed twice! Think of it: the deceased body is not even
cold and the family is dealing with lawyers and IRS scumbags with their hands out. People who have not worked for this estate
and have no moral right to share in the bounty actually have the nerve to insist on it based on "fairness."
Envy is an ugly human trait, Mr. Campos, even for university professors.