BTW
I read Gates' article. He's pretty much clueless on economics.
Without our society’s substantial investments in taxpayer-funded research, technology, education and infrastructure, the wealth of the Forbes 400 richest Americans would not be so robust.
The estate tax is an appropriate mechanism for those with great wealth to pay back the society that created a fertile ground for prosperity.
Even granting the silly idea that rich people only get that way because the government enables them to, the wealthy pay many other taxes, and for that matter, pay them far in excess of the cost of every possible government service they have ever received. The money in an estate has, for the most part, already had taxes paid on it. Sometimes more than once.
At some point, people need to decide whether what we earn belongs to us, or to the State. And if the latter, then we belong to the State, too. Is that what this country was supposed to be?