Editorial
STAFF Editor: Margaret O'Brien Steinfels Executive Editor: Paul Baumann Managing Editor: Patrick Jordan Associate Editor: Daria Donnelly Production Editor: Tiina Aleman Senior...
...The article is worth reading just for the confident and articulate way in few months ago, I read a her children...
...In other words, those to Periodical Literature, Catholic Periodical Index, Index of American Periodical who receive the windfall, not those who earned the money, are the real object of Verse, Book Review Digest, and Book Re- the tax...
...Armstrong-Jones...
...Some wallets that are at risk...
...Yearly subscriptions, U.S., $44...
...be sent to Ruth E. Taylor, 11 Graffam Rd., They like to complain of double or even triple taxation...
...foreign, $50...
...The opportunity to get rich is under- dable, but he is not infallible...
...cover art: courtesy Doubleday...
...Repealing the estate tax is an idea that should be NY 10115...
...Com- eficiaries be taken at face value...
...Fortunately, the chances of the bill beCirculation Manager: Sandra Smith coming law are slim...
...could muster concerned Wills's failure to come to the logical Even more important, a progressive tax system is a fun- conclusion that the church should be abolished altogether...
...and monthly July and August, by Commonweal Foundation, taxes, in many ways the symbolic linchpin of the very idea of progressive taxation, 475 Riverside Drive, Rm...
...Europe, and small businesses even more-a bill offered by the Democrats to do precisely $89...
...As the siren call of extend this policy of selecting transparently biased review"prosperity" comes to dominate political discourse, too lit- ers to works on equally contentious subjects...
...These are not marginal busiSteve Leonard...
...Special two-year heritance tax is collected from family farms, and less than 1 percent from family rate: U.S...
...Abolitionists further conSo...
...an incredulity that was both astonishing and delightful: how could anyone, JO McGOWAN she asked in so many words, imply that there was anything wrong with India...
...would even call it ecumenical...
...Those urging that the tax be abolished argue that the dead shouldn't be taxed Toll-free: 888-495-6755...
...Inheritance ty Microfilm, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann taxes shouldn't be confiscatory, but neither should the cries of penury from benArbor, MI 48106 and on Microfiche from Bell & Howell, Wooster, OH 44691...
...p. 14, Valerry...
...Repealing the estate tax would exacerbate that trend...
...According to the Wall Street Journal's Albert Hunt, 2,400 es20, John Clifford...
...The next issue will be dated August 11...
...The sister-in-law of tesis done to determine whether this Although he obviously found his subLord Snowden and the wife of one of child would be similarly afflicted, with ject both impressive and appealing, there Britain's wealthiest businessmen, she the obvious assumption that she would was one little problem with her arguwas in the news not because of her con- then abort him if he were...
...p. 3, TM & © 2000 by Paramount Pic- tax at all...
...ment: Armstrong-Jones is a Catholic...
...Money Order or by check on a U.S...
...Garry pluses will not continue indefinitely-and that means that Wills's new book, Papal Sin: Structures of f Deceit, is a passionthose less able to pay will be asked to pay more at a time ate polemic that will please some, outrage others, and disapwhen the well-off have never had it so good...
...Worse, repealing the tax would deprive the government of $50 billion a year in http://www.commonwealmagazine.org revenue...
...Display advertising correspondence should and that, moreover, the assets involved have previously been taxed as income...
...Perhaps the law should be reformed to lighten the burden on farmers U.S.: Western Hemisphere, $84...
...Great concentrations of Rorty seemed honestly befuddled as to why anyone would wealth, especially when money is the lifeblood of political bother taking the Catholic church seriously in the first place...
...Single Copy, $2.50...
...Income inequality in the Unit- suasiveness of Wills's book on Catholicism's intellectual cored States is already at scandalous rates and threatens to in- ruption...
...Her daughter, India, age which Armstrong-Jones demolishes wonderful story ("The Per- three, had been born with Down syn- every argument brought against her poA fect Child," London Sunday drome...
...That money will have to be made up somehow-current revenue surCommonweal 5 July 14, 2000 In keeping with Commonweal's usual schedule, only STRUCTURES OF DECEIT When America's most one issue is published each month during July and prominent Catholic intellectual writes a scathing indictment August...
...Microfilm from Vol...
...columnist portraits, Elaine Mills...
...Portland, ME 04106 (207) 799-4387, classified advertising correspondence to tend that estate taxes place a debilitating burden on those who wish to pass on fam475 Riverside Dr...
...Whether it's old news or not depends on the nature of the argument and the reliability of the evidence marshaled to support the case being made...
...Only the wealthiest 2 percent of tures...
...Peri- has been taxed before...
...405, New York, are now under concerted attack...
...Or better still, why not have Cardinal advocates what amounts to the repeal of progressive taxa- Joseph Ratzinger, that scourge of relativism, review Richard tion, citizens should pay close attention...
...Dr., Room 405, New York, NY 10115...
...point still more (see, Eamon Duffy's review, page 24...
...of his church, it's news...
...1, 1924, to current issues available through Universi- to the poor never tire of saying-taxing large "gifts" makes sense...
...campaigns, fatally distort the democratic process itself...
...To nections or her lifestyle, but because of Her reaction to this suggestion was protect her from the usual treatment an Commonweal 6 July 14, 2000...
...It says something troubling about the state of our politics that inheritance Christmas/New Year's...
...E-mail: commonweal4msn.com...
...http: / /www.commonwealmagazine.org...
...that birthright...
...burden of those inheriting family farms or businesses...
...During her second pregnancy, sition, but what I found more interesting Telegraph, March 5) about a Armstrong-Jones had been put under was the bias of the journalist who wrote woman in England named Caroline enormous pressure to have amniocen- the piece...
...When a candi- employer, review the next expose of the structures of deceit at date from one of the nation's two principal political parties the New York Times...
...review Papal Sin received from the pragmatist philosopher Enormous concentrations of wealth can easily foreclose on Richard Rorty in the New York Times Book Review (June 11...
...Usually, neither of these forms of wealth Data program No.: ISSN 0010-3330...
...Still, the issue had enough political potency to attract the votes of sixty-five Publisher Emeritus: Edward S. Skillin Democrats, and George W. Bush, the presumptive Republican candidate for presCommonweal, [ISSN 0010-3330] A Review ident, strongly supports the effort to end what so-called reformers call the "death" of Public Affairs, Religion, Literature, and the Arts, is published biweekly except tax...
...All Canadian and foreign subscriptions must that was defeated-but the idea that the estate tax is depriving people of their be paid in U.S...
...POSTMASTER: send address changes to Commonweal, 475 Riverside ily farms or businesses to their children...
...Fax: (212) 662-4183...
...p. from the tax's repeal...
...The truth of the matter is that only the very wealthiest pay estate taxes...
...Wills's Americans believe that those who work hard and succeed intellectual range is legendary and his forensic skills formishould be rewarded...
...Will Hilton tle attention is being paid to the egalitarian premises and Kramer, who has made a career out of excoriating his former unfulfilled hopes of American democracy...
...STAFF Editor: Margaret O'Brien Steinfels Executive Editor: Paul Baumann Managing Editor: Patrick Jordan Associate Editor: Daria Donnelly Production Editor: Tiina Aleman Senior Writer: Robert G. Hoyt Editorial Assistant: Maurice Timothy Reidy Copy Editor: Susanne Washburn Business Manager: Gregory Wilpert The cost of democracy Poetry: Rosemary Deen Stage/Media: Celia Wren Columnists: John Garvey, E.J...
...If we want a tax system designed to reward work-as critics of "handouts" view Index...
...More than money is at stake...
...Web: resisted on political, fiscal, and moral grounds...
...Dionne, Jr., Sidney Newt Gingrich Republicanism is not dead...
...migrants have come to this country seeking such opportuni- That idea was conspicuously missing from the celebratory ties while fleeing systems of inherited wealth and power...
...First, the tax is not levied on Commonweal is indexed in Reader's Guide the dead but on their estates and thereby on their heirs...
...Telephone: (212) 662-4200...
...bank...
...ness people or farmers struggling just to get by...
...p. 24, these heirs getting average tax breaks of $3.4 million...
...other parts of the world, $99...
...Repealing the tax would result in Collection, Washington, D.C...
...damental principle of democracy...
...Serials ized capital gains and tax-exempt bonds...
...odicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional offices...
...Only 1 percent of the inCanada, $47...
...And were she to abort India's little 'THINKING' CATHOLICS brother if he happened to be like her, An old slur that never dies wouldn't she be rejecting India as well...
...Canada, $81...
...reasonable people can dissent stood to be a kind of American birthright, and countless im- from his particular ecclesiological and ideological agenda...
...Now that would be provocative...
...foreign, $87...
...AmerIllustrations: Cover design: Christopher icans can inherit $675,000 from each parent (or anyone else) without paying any Young...
...Not surprisingly, the only critical comment Rorty crease...
...Last month the RepublicanCallahan, William Pfaff, Daniel Callahan, Jo McGowan controlled House of Representatives passed a bill that would eliminate Intern: Christopher Ruddy the estate, or inheritance, tax...
...10, Americans face inheritance taxes, and that means only the wealthiest will benefit 17, 31, Baloo, Rothco...
...None of these objections bears up under scrutiny...
...Copyright © 2000 Finally, the current law already makes ample provision for alleviating the tax Commonweal Foundation...
...dollars by International heritage and livelihood is false...
...A progressive tax system insures that those Rorty, well known for his hostility to institutional religion, who have benefited most from this nation's freedoms con- objective morality, and all other putatively "conservative" tribute their proportionate share to keep opportunity available forces, seemed an odd choice to assess the accuracy and perfor those who come after them...
...p. 8, Shiong/Rex F. May...
...It's not just our Rorty's next effort...
...Will the NYTBR ernment too far from the mass of people...
...It's a point of view, but not a terribly helpful one, espePower in the hands of only a few places the levers of gov- cially for the reviewer of a book like Papal Sin...
...Annual rates for air-mail delivery outside businesses...
...It is unclear what the Senate will do, and PresiStaff Quanda Williams dent Bill Clinton has vowed to veto the bill should it get to his desk later this Advertising Manager: Ruth E. Taylor year...
...The figure will soon rise to $1 million...
...monweal articles also are available at many Second, most of the assets subject to the estate tax come in the form of unreallibraries and research facilities on CDROM and in electronic data bases...
...p. 22, The Phillips tates paid nearly half of all estate taxes in 1997...
Vol. 127 • July 2000 • No. 13
