I remember reading that libertarian and Nobelwinning economist James Buchanan wanted high inheritance taxes , but I have never tracked down any actual writings of his to that effect . I sympathize with this . But I worry about the secondary effects of such a tax . For example , like all taxes on savings , it would increase the incentive for rich people to spend their money now instead of saving or investing it . How would you address this drawback ? Steven Landsburg has written pretty lucidly about this problem on his blog . Examples Death and Taxesandtaxes a talk he gave and Thaler on the Estate Taxontheestatetax . I like Landsburg because he also criticizes arguments against estate taxes . nods 2 <| sep |> Listen , you can have a friendly rapport with the cop when you ' re pulled over . But getting out of the car without being asked is just crossing the line .