In the Oct 20 issue of The Economist, global business correspondent Tom Lee-Devlin wonders at ‘The eye-watering pay of American bosses‘, but it’s not the disproportionately high compensation of some workers (whether they be CEOs, actors, or athletes) that bothers me so much as the disproportionately low share of inherited capital at the other end of the spectrum. The high earners all have to convince someone with wealth of their worth and, whether or not I agree with their decisions, those ultimately agreeing to the payments have sufficient resources to look after their own interests.
The inequity that really matters is not that of nominally earned income but that of unearned wealth, and what we need to deal with that is to ensure that every child gets a Universal Fair Inheritance to be paid for by taxing all large gifts and inheritances as income in the year received at a rate at least as high as that applied to earned income.