If you want to give your class-based moral indignation a big boost, read today's front page story on Ronald Lauder, heir to the Estee Lauder fortune. The lengths to which the Lauder family goes to avoid taxes is extraordinary. Clearly, this family believes that its wealth is divinely granted and it owes nothing to the country that has treated it so well.
Here's just one example. A ten year fight over a piddling $90 million for a family sitting on billions:
When Mr. Lauder’s father, Joseph, died in 1983, family members fought the I.R.S. for more than a decade to reduce their estate tax. The dispute involved a block of shares bequeathed to the family — the estate valued it at $29 million, while the I.R.S. placed it at $89.5 million. A panel of judges ultimately decided on $50 million, a decision that saved the estate more than $20 million in taxes.
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