Who Will Benefit from Your Death, Your Family or the Government?

My father worked his whole life, every day, harder than most. He paid his taxes on every penny that he made, and never complained. He made something of himself. He had all of the things that any hard-working middle class American would have, a decent house, successful children whom he helped to put through college, and most importantly, he had a dream! His dream was that the people closest to him would not have to deal with financial burdens, if and when anything were to happen to him. Unfortunately, his assets became part of his estate, and many of those assets were not liquid. Now, his surviving family has to come up with liquid funds to pay the state of Pennsylvania what is called an estate tax. Some people call it the death tax. I call it stealing. I am getting ahead of myself, so I am going to start from the beginning.

My father was one of ten children. He grew up in the old coal mining regions of Pennsylvania. His father passed away about 3 months before he was born, and in those days, women didn't often have careers. His mother was a housewife, and when her husband died, it was the older children who found jobs to take care of the younger ones. I remember hearing his brothers and sisters talk about their childhood. I remember the stories about eating pie filling for dinner, because that was all that they had. My father did not accept this as his future. He fought his way out by going to college, earning a degree, and working his way to a better life. He loved his family, and was driven to make their lives better than his own. He did not want his children to know hunger like he had.

He succeeded in his goal. Not only did I never know hunger, but as a child, I had many opportunities to learn and grow, all because of the hard work and dedication of my parents. I studied gymnastics, martial arts, and many other extracurricular activities, and he always found a way to pay for it. He never took handouts, yet, now that he is gone, the state of Pennsylvania thinks that a portion of everything he had should belong to them (4.5% to be exact). His assets were all purchased with money he made that had already been taxed, so why does the state he lived in believe that they deserve another piece? What are they going to do with my father's hard earned money?

According to a survey published by The Heartland Institute in July of 2008, PA received the grade of a "D-" in overall welfare reform. Only 11 states did worse.

The state continues to increase the benefit to mothers already in the system who have more children. They turn their back on enforcing lifetime limits on receiving public assistance benefits. It seems to me that they would rather continue taking from the productive members of society, so that they can dole it out to the lazy. Not that everyone in the system is lazy, some my need help for a short while until they get on their feet. My opinions here are directed toward those who believe that they are owed something, and have no intentions of ever trying to better themselves. The state obviously believes in perpetuating dependency on the system, rather than forcing people to become responsible for themselves. For those who have a list of excuses a mile long as to why they can't, or don't want to work, PA is definitely the place for them.

Bottom line, if you are a hard working American, please find out what your state's laws are now, and plan for them. Your beneficiaries may not be as secure as you think that they are. And if you are a lazy American who doesn't want to work, rest assured that if you move to PA, someone else's hard earned money will support you until law-makers do something about this injustice.