Justice

Is the concept of inheritance of property a moral one? It makes sense that a person should derive some benefits from their own efforts, in the form of private property, but why should those benefits be transferable to one's offspring?

Comments

You agree that a person should derive some benefit from their own efforts, in the form of private property. But then property constitutes a benefit only if and insofar as one can use it in ways one values. Money is worth less, for instance, the fewer and less valued are the things one can purchase with it. One thing many people value is the option to give money to others, e.g. through bequest. By taking this option away, we would be taking away a valued benefit -- not merely from those who might otherwise inherit, but also from those who might otherwise bequeath. So there is something to be said in favor of allowing inheritance.

This reason must be balanced against others, though. The institution of inheritance tends to aggravate inequality, for example. In view of such competing reasons, the kind of compromise many countries have adopted -- to allow but also substantially to tax inheritance -- seems a plausible one. A complete ban on inheritance would, in any case, be very difficult to enforce effectively without considerable additional constraints and surveillance.

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