经济学人:世袭精英的自保机制(1)

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Data from Britain suggest that people tend not to lose their parents before they reach the age of 50. 来自英国的数据显示，50岁之前，人们往往不会失去父母。

In rich countries the advantages that wealthy parents pass to their offspring begin with the sorting mechanism⁴ of marriage, in which elites⁵ increasingly pair up with elites. 在富裕国家中，有钱的父母传递给后代的优势，始于婚姻的门当户对机制。

They continue with the benefits of education, social capital and lavish⁶ gifts, not in the deeds to the ancestral pile. 在这种机制中，精英越来越多地与精英结成夫妻。接下来是教育、社会资本和丰厚礼物的种种好处，它们都不在不在先辈遗嘱之列。

Even if the link between inheritance-tax rates and inequality were clear, wealth can pay for a good tax lawyer. 纵然继承税税率与不平等之间的这种关系是清晰的，富人却能够给好的税务律师出得起钱。

In the century since Roosevelt, Sweden and other high-taxers discovered that if governments impose a steep enough duty, the rich will find ways to avoid it. 自罗斯福以来的这个世纪中，瑞典以及其他高税收国家发现，如果政府强制推行足够陡峭的税，富人会想法设法来回避。

The trusts they create as a result can last even longer than the three generations it takes for family fortunes to go from clogs⁷ to clogs. 他们由此而创立的各种信托可能持续得甚至比家族财富世代相传所用的三代人时间还要长。

Armed with such arguments, some leap to the other extreme, proposing, as the American tax reform does, that there should be no inheritance tax at all. 由于有了这类论据的武装，有些人跳跃到另一个极端，建议像美国税改那样，压根就不应该有继承税。

Not only is it right to let people hand their private property to their children, they say, but also bequests⁸ are often the fruits of labour that has already been taxed. 他们声称，不仅让人们将自己的私有财产传给子孙后代是正确的，而且遗赠物也经常是已被征过税的劳动果实。

And a large inheritance-tax bill is destructive, because it can cause the dismemberment of family firms and farms, and force the sale of ancestral homes. 同时，巨大的遗产税账单是毁灭性的，因为它可能造成家族公司和家族农场的土崩瓦解，并且可能促使祖宅的出售。

Yet every tax is an intrusion by the state. 然而，每一种税都是一种来自政府的入侵。

If avoiding double taxation⁹ were a requirement of good policy, then governments would need to abolish sales taxes, which are paid out of taxed income. 如果说避免双重税收是善政的一个必要条件，那么，政府就必需废除销售税，这种税是从已经被征过税的收入中付出的。

The risks that heirs will be forced to sell homes and firms can be mitigated¹⁰ by allowing them to pay the duties gradually, from cash-flow rather than by fire-sales. 子孙后代将被迫出售房产和公司的风险可能因为允许他们从现金流中而不是通过折价甩卖逐渐地纳税而得到缓解。

 

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