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+--- Thread: So... how do you feel about Trustafarians ? (/showthread.php?tid=131627)
So... how do you feel about Trustafarians ? - cbelt3 - 02-07-2012
http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/06/pf/romney_kids_trust/index.htm?source=cnn_bin
"NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Mitt Romney's five sons -- Matt, Tagg, Craig, Ben and Josh -- are sitting pretty with a trust fund worth $100 million."
- - - -
Should children be denied the ability to take advantage of their parent's wealth ? I'm interested in opinions....
(Personal aside... a long standing family trust paid for part of my college education, and is paying a chunk of my children's college education, and a special school for the dyslexic for one of my children. We don't drive Porsches or live in a mansion....)
Re: So... how do you feel about Trustafarians ? - OWC Jamie - 02-07-2012
I'd rather see that trust money kept out of (re-)election campaign devices.
Re: So... how do you feel about Trustafarians ? - mrbigstuff - 02-07-2012
Having known one of them briefly, I can say he doesn't reflect any of the snobbery one may expect. In fact, quite the opposite.
Re: So... how do you feel about Trustafarians ? - Lux Interior - 02-07-2012
cbelt3 wrote:
Should children be denied the ability to take advantage of their parent's wealth ?
Can you provide some examples of children being denied this advantage? Because the article doesn't talk about that.
Please include also who it is, exactly, that is doing the denying.
Re: So... how do you feel about Trustafarians ? - cbelt3 - 02-07-2012
Lux.. I assumed there would be the usual cavalcade of 'the 1%' screams of agony here.
Re: So... how do you feel about Trustafarians ? - $tevie - 02-07-2012
Man, are you tone-deaf to the concept of the 1%, or what.
Re: So... how do you feel about Trustafarians ? - haikuman - 02-07-2012
Living in Maui for almost 28 years I met a few Trustafarians. Most of them handled it well.
As for the tactics used to preserve family wealth it is a slippery road full of pitfalls, dishonesty
and honesty me thinks *(:>*
Re: So... how do you feel about Trustafarians ? - Lux Interior - 02-07-2012
cbelt3 wrote:
Lux.. I assumed there would be the usual cavalcade of 'the 1%' screams of agony here.
Who is screaming in agony? The 1%'ers, or us 99%'ers?
Are you trying to start a death tax vs inheritance tax thread?
I'm not sure what I am supposed to be enraged & in agony about.
Re: So... how do you feel about Trustafarians ? - Ted King - 02-07-2012
It's totally understandable that a person would want to take care of their offspring by providing them with a trust if the person has the resources to do so. One issue that arises, though, is that there is a tendency on the part of some people to assume that if someone is wealthy, and the wealth did not come from criminal activity, then the person has the wealth through merit. But is inherited wealth merited wealth? I suppose it depends on how you look at it. It is possible that the person who originally acquired the wealth may have been merited in getting that wealth because they got it through their own enterprise. Since the original wealth was merited, I suppose one could say that, in a way, the merit transfers with the wealth. But I don't think that is usually how we think of merit. Usually we think someone merits having something because of their own enterprise.
To the extent that inherited wealth also gives a competitive advantage to those who inherit wealth over those who get very little to no monetary support from their parents, that also affects assessments of merit. That sort of consideration can be applied even if there is no trust fund, but it is more pronounced if there is a trust fund.
The most troubling aspect of this for me, though, is the move by a Republican politicians in general to push for getting rid of estate (inheritance) tax, corporate taxes and capital gains taxes altogether. What that would do for the very wealthy - like the Romney children - is that they could live off of their trust fund money without paying any federal taxes at all. That's just flat out wrong.
Re: So... how do you feel about Trustafarians ? - mattkime - 02-07-2012
the wealth may allow people to be MORE productive of members of society than they would have been otherwise. Think bill gates trying to wipe out polio.
and then there's Paris Hilton.