A fundamental characteristic of wealth is that it can be transferred from one generation to the next.  The entity that controls a set of wealth-assets changes over time.  Many governments have taxed this intergenerational transfer, thereby redistributing wealth, without incurring any sort of disaster.

Of course it is possible to screw up.  Your position that the free people of the US will inevitably screw up seems unduly pessimistic to me.  I think we're better than this.