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Wealth and Our
Commonwealth:
Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes
(Beacon Press, 2003)
William H.
Gates, Sr. and Chuck Collins
Foreword by Paul Volcker
Quick Links:
- About the Book
- Book Tour Schedule
- About the Authors
- Advance Praise
- Reviews
- Bibliography
- Book Study Guide
About the Book
Wealth and Our Commonwealth is the quintessential “Man Bites Dog” story of over 1,000 high-net-worth individuals who rose up to protest the repeal of the estate tax and in the process made headlines everywhere last year. Central to the organization of what Newsweek tagged the “billionaire backlash” were two visionaries: Bill Gates, Sr., co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest foundation on earth, and Chuck Collins, cofounder of United for a Fair Economy and of Responsible Wealth, and a national expert on economic inequality.
Gates and Collins argue that individual wealth is a product not only of hard work and smart choices but of the society that provides the fertile soil for success. They don’t subscribe to the “Great Man” theory of wealth creation but contend that society’s investments, such as economic development, education, health care, and property rights protection, all contribute to any individual’s good fortune. With the estate tax repeal proposed by the Bush administration, we might be facing the future that Teddy Roosevelt feared-where huge fortunes amassed and untaxed would evolve into a dangerous and permanent aristocracy. Repeal would drop federal revenues $850 billion in the decade after repeal, not to mention that the U.S. Treasury estimates that charitable contributions would drop by $6 billion a year.
But what about all those modest families that would lose the farm? Gates and Collins expose the fallacy of this argument, pointing out that this is largely a myth and that the very same lobbies and politicians who are crying “cows” have opposed other legislation that would actually have helped small farmers. Weaving in personal narratives, history, and plenty of solid economic sense, Gates and Collins make a sound and compelling case for estate tax reform, not repeal.
About the Authors
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William H. Gates, Sr. is the co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle. He practiced law for 48 years and was a founding partner at Preston, Gates, & Ellis. He is a member of the Board of Regents for the University of Washington and serves as a trustee for a number of Northwest and national organizations including the national board of United Way.
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Chuck Collins is the co-founder and Program Director of United for a Fair Economy and Responsible Wealth in Boston. He is co-author of several books about economic inequality including Economic Apartheid in America: A Primer on Economic Inequality and Insecurity.
Advance Praise for Wealth and Commonwealth
"Proponents
of Estate Tax repeal will not welcome this clear explanation of the purposes
and social benefits of the estate tax, as well as its long history in
America. A must read for all who wish to participate honestly in this
debate."
– Bill Joy, Co-founder and chief scientist, Sun Microsystems
"Bill
Gates and Chuck Collins provide a clear rationale for retaining the estate
tax in this helpful and unselfish analysis."
– Jimmy Carter, Former U.S. President and winner of the 2002 Nobel
Peace Prize
"If
you doubt whether there are any truly public spirited Americans left,
let me introduce Bill Gates Sr. and Chuck Collins. Their new book is worth
reading for its fascinating history of the conservative estate tax repeal
movement alone. But more than that, Wealth and Our Commonwealth
challenges us all, rich and not so rich, to a more strenuous and far-sighted
notion of citizenship."
– Barbara Ehrenreich, Author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not)
Getting By in America
"Bill
Gates Sr. and Chuck Collins appeal to one of the most treasured and persistent
strains in the uniquely American experience. From the days of our Founding
Fathers, through Democratic and Republican administrations, among conservatives
and liberals alike, the concept of equality of opportunity and dispersion
of wealth and economic power has been a part of the American psyche."
– Paul Volcker, Former chairman of the Federal Reserve
"As
this book reminds us, inheritance taxes are not about raising tax revenue.
They are about 'What Kind of a Nation Do We Want to Be?' Economics is
inevitably a relay race where participants do not start from the same
point, but we can limit how large those gaps are. This book gets our thoughts
back on the right issues."
– Lester Thurow, Professor of economics and management, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and author of Building Wealth: New Rules for
Individuals.
"Follow
the money and you find out what we truly care about as a nation. In a
country where millions of children remain poor, hungry, homeless, uninsured,
and poorly educated in the midst of unprecedented prosperity, Wealth
and Our Commonwealth provides a thoughtful and much-needed perspective
on how earlier generations of Americans have perceived the responsibility
of wealth and the choices facing us now. I'm grateful this book is being
written."
— Marian Wright Edelman, President and Founder, Children's Defense
Fund
"This
little book makes an important contribution to the ongoing debate about
the estate tax. It presents a concise, well written, thoroughly researched,
and logically compelling case for retaining at least some form of this
tax. As an excellent primer on the history, mythology, and policy of taxing
inherited wealth in the United States, it should be read by all citizens,
whether or not their estates will be large enough to be subject to the
tax. The outcome of the debate on this tax will reveal, to ourselves and
to the world, the values on which our democratic republic is based."
– Frank Roosevelt, Professor of Economics, Sarah Lawrence College
Reviews
Gates Sr. and Collins balance readability, policy-wonk detail in estate-tax
book
By Glenn Pascall
Special to The Seattle Times
Jan. 24, 2003
Publishers Weekly
November 25, 2002
Gates, whose son cofounded Microsoft and became the wealthiest man on the planet, teams up with Collins, program director of the nonprofit United for a Fair Economy and Responsible Wealth, to explain why the government should continue to levy estate taxes on the fortunes of America’s wealthiest citizens (which President Bush, advocating its elimination, has provocatively called the “death tax”). In reviewing the tax’s history, the authors explain the Founding Fathers’ concern with maintaining conditions of equitability that would enable any American with sufficient ambition and perseverance to accumulate a fortune within his lifetime without creating a new aristocracy. The robber barons of the Gilded Age thwarted those intentions, so the estate tax was established in 1916. The tax was controversial from its inception, and the authors reveal how carefully orchestrated efforts by a handful of wealthy families, think tanks and PR firms drummed up public opposition in the 1990s, even though the tax didn’t apply to most Americans. Congress voted to repeal the estate tax in 2001. It’s bad enough, Gates and Collins argue, that the government will lose $30 billion a year over the next decade because of the repeal; the loss is particularly keen given the cost of cleaning up after the September 11 attacks and fighting the subsequent war on terrorism. They’ve prepared an earnest manifesto, which may seem like locking the barn doors after the horse has fled, but this book could help create a sympathetic public perception by 2011, when, in a bizarre legal twist, the estate tax goes back on the books.
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