Death Tax? Prevention of dynasty.

America is a plutocracy. By and large the country is ruled by the rich. Most of the elected officials and representatives are millionaires. There is nothing wrong to this system as long as the rich got their money by fair play and merit. Inherited huge wealth, contrary to the idea of meritocracy, is a threat to the freedom of ordinary people and the generation to come. Just study the effect of compound interest and you will know what I said is true. The return of capital is higher than the growth of productivity in the economy. If the capital will not reduce a bit, and the wealth disperse, when a tycoon dies, the effect of compound interest will guarantee the family claim an ever larger share of the total output of the entire economy. The people who produce the output will claim an ever smaller share. In the long run this will create a two tier society, one produces the products and service to be consumed (the working class), and the other owns the majority of the product (the dynasty class).
This is a threat to the freedom of most of the population, baring the privileged few. Yes, the Congress and the Senate is in favor of repealing the estate tax - an unjust death tax in their words. No surprise considering the fact that they are the privileged few. But the rest of us should remember that they are not having our best interest in mind. Nor do they have our children's best interest in mind.

God

Dad used to argue with me that there is no God. His evidence is that people around him who are pious Christians usually has less fortune and good luck than he does. And this is an evidence that there can not be God.

Dad had it wrong. He approaches the religious question with a scientific/detective mind. He trys to find evidence of God's existence and found nothing there. But the question is not a scientific or empirical one. It is a humanity one.

I ask another question: why since ancient time people around the world - from oceanic islands to continental India to the Middle East - have their own religion? Isn't this prevalent existence of religious practice a proof that people needed God?
When there is no God, people create their own God. Muslim, Budism, Christianity, Judaism, Greek Gods, or idol worship, religious practice is an important part of life since ancient time from a cultural anthropology perspective.

I guess God is created because life is painful. We face hunger, cold, disease, war, power struggle, and toil for a living in our lives. God is the ideology, the faith, the mindset needed to deal with all these.

Humanbeing created God, because we are in need of a God. It is in our human nature to have faith, and with that faith we are connected with something larger than our lives.