"We Can Have Concentrated Wealth in the Hands of a Few or We Can Have Democracy"

"In its first 60 years, the estate tax, along with other progressive policies, went a long way toward accomplishing this goal. By 1976, the amount of the nation’s wealth controlled by the richest 1 percent of Americans had fallen from more than 50 percent to only 20 percent. And this greater dispersal of wealth fostered a strong middle class.
"The tax policies of the past 35 years, however, have reversed the trend."

In The New York Times, Ray D. Madoff argues in favor of taxing inherited wealth as income.