Responsible Wealth: William Gates, Sr. and Chuck Collins Speak at the First Unitarian Church of Portland

your own seeds letting the league that you would sign that sign in sheet if you haven't already signed with this is just to keep you informed about what's going on will be passing things on it if you've already signed fine if you haven't please do that also you may seem to our writers are what's your priority and handout i'm united with the economy but you know he ended you know when you're i'm turning in your questions if you have questions we're on mr carson mr gewirtz you can turn these and at the same time or oscar nomination re we'd really appreciate that justify cheap you keep the rest of it you do have a leader by your heart or your questions and will be collecting knees when the gentlemen are finished with their presentations and finally i wanted

to i just remind you that even get one of these little crimes to tell you that we are going to have a follow up meeting just one month from now it's actually might say the same place only a phone call down below you know i mean with the unitarian economic justice group and also alliance for democracy and people come armed united with their economy due to brainstorm what we can do here in oregon so please keep this remind you seven on the back are two senators and by the time they if you're not and you know what this is about so i just really want to tell you i'm so glad you're here it's a real honor to happen here in the unitarian church someone asked me once when he was a unitarian in my short answer is someone who believes in social justice and spiritual growth and so these men are wonderful

example of that and it's an honor to help and our sanctuary i'm like he is going to introduce them paid lawyers or social justice director and again we're unitarian so we have the director of social justice to cry on behalf of our entire church i'd like to expand our warm welcome to tonight on a special evening with william digges jr and john collins co authors of the new book wealth and our commonwealth this event is very important to this church many of our members have been involved in issues of economic justice rather than ignoring economics because of its here it's in somewhat doing nature we have created an

economic justice action group i'm an understanding that economic policies have a profound impact and everyone's life especially pleased to be bringing these particular because you tonight william gates sr in seattle is the co chairman of the bill and melinda gates foundation which by the way of a foundation that up outside an overview for an exciting new building the pain yesterday's forty eight years and was a founding partner at west indies and he says as a trustee for a number of our regional and national organizations including the national board of united way is also a member of the border regions of the university of washington as speaker but collins is the cofounder and programme

director of the boston based united european economy and also responsible about i'm sure you have the more that these groups in check mr collins is co author of several good books about economic inequality including economic apartheid in america a primer on economic inequality and insecurity not only have i read this book i was so moved by what it contained and a rose ceremony mr collins is also married to unitarian universalist minister so i've had the opportunity to speak with him at our annual general assembly i am a test of that that not only is he very intelligent even genuinely nice person and a wonderful part we haven't pleased and excited to help bring you the speaker the piece ira topics and it reminds me of a

question that was put to beat the low billionaire j paul getty who was once asked it become wealthy news that really it's quite simple there's three things you must do to get up early every morning anybody do that today work harder called a kind of oil they probably doesn't count that they're going to look at the year in this pick your congregation and in this community and the banks again be in the market for hosting us and he did mention and a father and that in addition to being very concerned about these issues the tax

policy and inequality i am on my daughter's public school psychologist boston to have a parent and teacher oversight group that makes a lot of decisions and it before christmas we all gathered at ten percent out of our school budget and a few weeks ago we had to gather at another five percent of the school but this year and that as you can imagine that was a meeting that we had to do it over several meetings where we debated whether we should eliminate the church or the school secretary or the nurse that wealth is not a good idea to have our principal been a string of medications what about the gym teacher life seems like that idea of the kids needed around the boy it's being an art teacher a reading recovery peter we were already a very mean school in terms of research

so what's a contentious meeting and i remember thinking at that moment how did we get here how did we get to this moment over the chain of events in decisions up down the line that brought us to this point their curly elementary school having the fight over her teacher versus reading recovery then i was michael at that moment that all across the country school boards and nonprofit organizations and government groups were probably having similar meetings where they also facing an animal budget cuts and the bleeding layoffs at length people are eliminating whole program the national governors association just announced that is the worst state budget situation since the second world war budget gaps next year will be seventy two hundred billion dollars and i know you're very mindful of the origin of that directly affect the quality of the heat well the dictation so when we see it

when we come together on a night like tonight the talk about something like should we have a federal estate tax things like monopoly up oftentimes a remote nation that something that happens on the other coast washington dc they these remote tax policies that they really affect their lives that really matters here we are in this incredible state and local level or what is washington dc on iv putting together a package of a hundred billion dollars of state aid each of the states whether it's incredible convergence of bad fiscal situation know talking about another one point five trillion dollars tax cut the bulk of the benefits going to households with incomes reach over three hundred and fifty thousand dollars to me that's a stunning disconnect between them what we're experiencing at the local level in the debate at the federal level and it really goes to the heart of the top of the questions we were talking about

not so for me this question of should we eliminate the estate tax is a very personal question really has to do with the question of will my daughter ever in anchorage you'd also reflect on how this touches your life and how a particular person in your community the quality of life for the people around we wrote this book because we felt that the debate over whether or not our country should have an estate tax was it was a very one sided win for debate over the last year and that there was a whole case for preserving in estate taxes that had been left out of the debate and we felt it was important to make the case for the sleep techs set for elimination me just say a little bit about the basics are robots the estate tax is

a transfer tax on wealth that at this point only affect the wealthiest two percent of households in the united states that currently exempts well below a million dollars for your your first million dollars you know that over the next several years that that amount of wealth exempted from the pacs of derives from a million to three and a half million dollars for the bike two thousand i'm annie well under three and a half million for an individual or seven million for a couple is exempt from the state but then on january first two thousand and then use the tax is repealed disappear but then one year later he returned due to a particular senate budget label senate require that if you're going to pass a tax cut that could have a major impact beyond the ten year window need to have sixty votes in the

senate and they have not been able to muster this bill creates this very weird situation estate tax is repealed for one year and then a river that the columnist paul krugman call that the pro mom upon the trade act of two thousand and one think about that in a state that's gone for one year creating these weird situations where perhaps some others are kept alive the levee or kurds or worse supper mysterious accident over the course of a year once won one hundred dollars noted know grandma the children are quick by the doors so it's not a workable situation for anybody it's not workable for people like get rid of you think that they would like to see a prominent new deal and so that's the sort of battleground right now a fight over whether repeal could be made

permanent and for people like us who think that the state should be reformed but not repeal we think this is an opportunity to keep the debate up the state's not like they may make a change we have two thousand ninety pounds and the turn this around the world to push for efforts to reform the tax men the film and that's the that's the context that brings together out of the seat and get on the agenda how is it that a tax that affect so few people could be such a priority and in our nation's policy again and the answer is that in the early nineteen nineties a group of wealthy families based in southern california came together on quitting the gallo wine family the mars candy and with some other very wealthy families and that they put the money together to bankroll a campaign to eliminate the state that the reason they wanted to get rid of it in one thing and that's

the day i spent a lot of money and they have allies in washington dc and newspaper owners around the country and others who teamed up with the muppets can't and they from the beginning had a public relations problem they couldn't actually show you who are the main beneficiaries of repeal would be an even so look for another face on the issue and they did the good job pulling a number of pollsters they develop the state next term and frank luntz who is one of the architects of the nineteen ninety four african american was one of the brainchild behind this and he suggested the congressional leaders hold press conferences in front of funerals underscore we see that connection but you could see they're curtailing it convinced about a population that they could impose a tax that really is very produced really are most progressive tax paid by those they will play it the people that have an honest then you know you can imagine a tv

advertisement someone like me standing on the mansion or saying i am amir actually worries repeal estate tax ally can inherit under fifty million dollars without ever think that we've contacted senator though not perfectly compelling drama during the math his point of view and say the image of farmers and see images small business owners and we're not insensitive to the fact that there are a lot of businesses that are all tied up in the liquid assets and they have television for the succession and we we want to do with that but that has been those few scenarios have been used as the justification for the elimination of that they're so here we are we're at a time when the distribution of wealth in the united states has reached all time levels of inequality really since greatest levels of inequality since a hundred years ago during the first gilded age and here we're talking about eliminating one of the factors that actually put the brakes on this bill that are

very low so we have one box on an effort to make arctic and bad people mentally when we wrote a book that came out in january january thirty and going on the road since then and says our last night while some very much harder about going home night marshall view if you wanna make the case and want a challenge some of the myths about why they think there could be eliminated political your home and really talk about one of the myths now and then will pick up some of them later a small one during the summer of two thousand congress repealed the federal estate tax and we a lot of us were caught by surprise about how quickly that things have come to that point and they congress sent president clinton the bill on the back of a red tractor driven by richard mainland cornwall glasgow why montana head of the national cattlemen's association the throwback

track europe to deliver them the bill the president clinton underscored with her down on the farm concern around the state well we got into this we've heard a pulitzer prize winning reporter for the new york times david cay johnston to do an extra day on the farm and he went to the midwest and he talked to the american farm bureau for proponents of repeal and he said to them in unit rural farmers who have lost their farm because of the estate tax because he's after all president bush ran on a statement save the family farm repeal the estate tax well for the american farm bureau of the laminate that you know with the way we have been able to identify and find the lost because of the estate tax we actually got a copy of the email that had been sent out and the president of the american farmer who has members all across the country saying the press is calling we need to have a single example of a plan that the last state that we send one and now none of this is

not to say that farmers have not been tangled in the estate tax well as the exemptions have not kept up the well for them and for more we reached down and touch some farmers and some farmers have a plan but the incidents of farms being loss i've not been identified crimes that have been troubled are or have been inconvenienced by the tax there examples of that concert have added to succession planning for more examples of that argument is we raise the exemption taking care of that problem but the proponents of a repeal understand that they understand and have just consistently blocked proposals from a reform president clinton said all our raise the exemption isn't the problem and i'll sign the bill but i won't sign a repeal bill but the proponents of appeal to understand then on up and campaigning on it hold the small state's casting in order to get what they want because what they the folks that they're serving a lot about why we're

one of their wealth is in the hundreds of hundreds of millions of billions and so they know that if we report from estate tax that will move there because we are part of that there are still active icons of people that have either bizarre reason why we think we can do anything we have three main reasons that all mention of michael walker will elaborate on some of the worst the state tax raises significant revenue on those most able to pay it is our most progressive era it raised last year thirty billion dollars two thousand nine it will raise almost sixty billion dollars use the tax is repealed the ten years after repeal will lose seven hundred fifty billion dollars and reckon with that is just the beginning of you know that in the next couple of decades there's going to be an

incredible intergenerational transfer of wealth some forty one trillion dollar venture how many zeros that is its enormous amount well got a pass from one generation to the next a lot of that wealth was held in families with well exceeding five million dollars after no well if an estate tax is in place it will be a very significant source of revenue in years estimates range in an outlying decades when a hundred and fifty billion seven hundred fifty billion dollars a year alone would come from the existence of that it's not even a reform the state fair in those outlined in about half the amount of the deficit a long term deficit in the social security so some people tell you it doesn't raise much money only one percent of the federal budget nine percent of the non military discretionary time it's not you know as everett dirksen said you know a billion here a billionaire pretty soon you're

talking about real money that estate taxes will money so here we are we're time of three three hundred billion dollar budget deficit this year another three hundred billion dollars budget deficit next year that does not include the costs of war but we're talking about eliminating the most progressive tax on multimillionaires and billionaires in this country this time that's just fiscally reckless it's irresponsible you haven't had any senators who think that way and so we would even make the argument some people say well you know we don't like if they text because it goes to the federal government the federal government's gonna waste your money and they understand we can all think of examples of things that the federal government does that we don't like and we don't like the unit you're an advocate of limited government i believe that the state that should be in the mix of

the government the federal government was even when they mean and half the size that it is we should still have an estate tax because if you remove the estate tax from the mixer how we pay for whatever it is we decide together with a for me the notion that tax burden on to someone else it will make estate tax on the richest two percent raise taxes on the other ninety eight percent that eliminate the estate tax will make the inheritance tax we will be another inheritance tax felipe a buyer will remember and so that's the periphery fiscally irresponsible probably eliminating the second reason is that the estate tax is a major incentive for giving to charity estimates are some eight nine billion dollars a year is given motivated by the existence of a mystery now we don't know entirely we don't know the psychology and the intimate all the planning discussions that go into

very high net worth people sitting down and deciding what their legacy will be we had an estate tax in place for thirty five years we don't know exactly what would happen you know the people before the reason the state tax gave great amount of money to charity would i'm sure it will continue to be a great month fairey but what we do know is for households with twenty million dollars and not the fact that there's an estate tax there isn't a significant incentive structure and gave even more than the experts and even the anecdotal evidence of that so we're only talking about pulling out an enormous amount of revenue from the federal treasury that is also revenue that comes the salem state level estate tax and then there's money that comes in the state and there was a talk about going out massive amount of money from the charitable non profit sector i think about what we're experiencing in terms of the budget crisis here in your state and the declining revenue now imagine and not another

winning a double head of the charitable institutions no longer having the resources that they have the support the boys and girls but the nonprofit charities and a third of the requests from the estate tax go to read foundation will capitalize existing community foundation and that's money that reaches way out and reaches institutions of touch our lives every day and the other two thirds goes to religious congregations to universities hospitals and medical research and it's it's a white blood of our civic institutions of a cliff and we're not saying that people who solely because of the fact that we're people are generous enormously generous regardless of the tax code word as saying he's the tax greeks another incentive for people to give even more the third issue

the third reason why we think we should preserve its the tax goes more to the heart of the question what kind of society we want to have a kind of democracy that we want what happens when there's too much concentration of wealth and power what does that do to equality of opportunity and it goes back to the history of where this estate tax come from in the first place the american experiment is predicated on a rejection of the aristocracy fatah revolution to throw up in and all the founders in terms of their ideals always in terms of their practice talk about the importance of a plot distribution of wealth broad ownership as a foundation for a self governing society we don't have things in queens we don't have marks we don't have a letter carrier that's not what we're about so when the gilded age after the industrial revolution in eating eighty nine during the gilded age years this enormous

that the inequality and social movements came to get a religious movement farmers workers came together an advocate for policies that would reduce the staggering this period of well in part because people were afraid that we were going to have an american already hear your strategy so a hundred years ago there was an incredibly robust debate and those question how much inequality in a democracy to sustain yes we believe in or you know we got a bowl like the metal with individual freedom we don't want a medal with economic liberty we don't want to interrupt families from making private decisions about what happened but at a certain point the decision to pass on vast amounts of wealth is not a privatization it is a decision that has enormous public and societal consequences and so that's why you have people like industrialist andrew carnegie saying we should have a hundred percent tax on american

heroes ago saying you know much concentrated wealth is bad for society and he had louis brandeis who became later a supreme court justice saying we can have concentrated wealth in the hands of a few or we can have democracy but we cannot have a home that was the context of which we created an inheritance tax or mistaken and so here we are a hundred years later talking about dismantling that like so it's time to have as much of a robust debate as we get a hundred years ago about what a sad and so an inclusion in the words of j paul getty again money is like manure its best when its spread probably around a lot so we're about michael walker two years

ago or two years ago bill gates was at a conference where he in an off handed way said that someone you know i'm really upset that possibility we're going to repeal the estate tax and that i could organize millionaires for the estate tax i would do that and then someone there said you know well there's actually that already exists but responsible well the national organization that i'll start which has business leaders people in the top five percent of income and wealth holder's speech eating out about the dangers of inequality and opposing repeal of the eighth and so i got an email from a bill gates and courts not just someone in my office when a joke and they would be the first time but it was bill gates donates his father the father of the founder of microsoft and said you know let's set up by how well they want a petition we could develop a statement in and recruit people to sign on for that many third and game events we drafted this cold to preserve the estate tax

and i said well hold a couple people i know will see in the year or portland couple of years and i'm walking out of a warren buffet berkshire is well what you call your friends and i'll call my friends and their see what we can do and so it was on valentine's day two years ago that a front page story than your time for the story saying movement mounting stop repeal of the estate tax the billionaires are soros gates warren buffett all say shouldn't be with you and that really was a significant watershed moment because like that moment really there had been no organized opposition there's been no public voice defending the estate tax at that point there was and then the new world news organizations started to come around that so why should we keep the state that we could begin to make her but to tell you the truth we probably wouldn't be here

today having this conversation mr gates and others in the room at the puppets are make up with him so please welcome from seattle will be thinner the peace bell and it's wonderful for many republican mike mcdermott if somebody put me the couple in the book paula i would have answered in a similar way i think i would've the median you're going to get up early in the morning they work hard all day and you need to have a son who's an endlessly success with the interesting dilemma like the last name all

my younger daughter will the winds here for the family and he had to work hard to get them over that the record over those things that make the park within a makeover going on with the middle name when they go in the third term but can relate to him he was in a really a morning in what i have to say that no i'm not and he said i don't think you're your problems he laughs ok so unlike get up about one hundred thousand feet and talk about you know some ideas that we're talking

about hacking in a country like his character really you're really talking about like that so you're talking about your mole on the memo use the way things were the way they owe everybody knows we don't have that we have to have a government and then you get to the question of who pay how much and that clearly on your own sense of what kind of a society we have the right and we wanted to work on iran as we also clearly we have in this country of are very you know we were a year ago we were there and that's why we're talking about light and applies that spectrum very very well what what can you

say about a happy arguing for the preservation of the pack would you like to do a very small small percentage of our bar for that is that that makes sense to an egalitarian biden who rely in part a fact that they're not to refer to the fact that we really really have a tradition of them about how well the government though to talk with danny you live here and you get a lot of vinyl and we need to do and if they are a bit of a dampening of that world i characterize the job of our government has essentially new principal goal one is to have a society in which are the essential politically for

people and the other is the essential economic opportunity and i wouldn't characterize our perfect away our authority really and we we don't really quite a good novel but we want to live in a big week for political thought we'd done a thirteen week we're not happy about it and we all people from the starting line of the same palm beach or are declining we were one hundred yards farther down the practical or and in a way we're like healers i suspect wore in this room and in the world of war

oh but we we we get me so i deal with people in oregon revealed and everybody that reality that we can cure interest prior winter born mechanic in the waves that ended that effect then he really the one thing we want to be with that is that it does bring down that enormous running start that occurred to the children who will be an ally may say more than once in the coming need that would seriously pay off the ballot and then there's the fee that that would seem to me to be the most fundamental right of how far the most fundamental right now or a seriously progressive era and this is the

warning compact metal and progressive but really not like that have been historically and i think generally there's still acceptable that video in accepting something you need why why do i accept them to give you what seemed to me to be absolutely fundamental and therapy of a warm or a progressive tackle the very is this notion in our about success economic for the fall or economically or girl they are afraid they get a lot of attention and that's appropriate because the way our country works in the way the market play with and they have a

recipe that people who have it is the view of energy who are willing to get up early in the morning and work hard all day who sell thing to be brought up to become prominent and well regarded and become wealthy and comfort and you know in that race marco feet and we don't think quite what an event that way and who happened to be a book and so that's one of the apple pie in fact that some extent we will win and we have to have a society in which those who come along behind are somehow i'm able to enjoy the lake

that's our fault what is it about the bureau of a great men and women i suppose but to a large extent they're not merely a large extent we completely ignore that simple plaque that you can't get rich legitimate in other countries of the world like and would use them along that route and that they happen to be well for part of a new provision called her in law bans are a part of it an essential part of the environment created why our society and by our political process is why our governing authority why the use of tracking

poll where we've gone further from fundamental things like police and the court system that only revive from essentially work we rely on it you can kind of expect that you are several years of her bees are going to be pretty stable and predict what will happen and it's not it's a little more sophisticated irrigation general liability about the nation's think about sins with it think that of our economy think about the marketplace think about the fact that how much difference is it makes you be able to sell so when you are and this is a place where you can do that if it creates a bad to you in and of itself

the value of assets is at least thirty percent higher in this country because of the ability to like what they want the ability to admit that it did what those who make our economy and even in february of two thousand free our economy so robots so women they saw changing so wonderfully opportunity to create and then he had another little bag of chocolate sauce of the dirtier think about millions tens of millions of federal tax dollars being used to receive the reason our economy and so the reason there are new to the reason entrepreneur yet so

well is because there's so much shame their new stop coming along all the time and it comes from the university of oregon the woman walking them or petrol dollar rb you who examined the finest questions about why no matter energy agriculture the news comes from that investing investment that no no venture capital with whatever they vote the right way like i like to say that uncle sam is the largest mobile robot venture capital funding and they're there's no actor director

oh here we are with this would be a wonderful place where people have a chance to prove how good they are and now we come to the point of you know like one more element about the economy of our lots of other side are about to be wealthy young woman who we had come up with this idea that you graduated from and her daughter's insight on why a chemical process that together with some people want to start a business and what people need and the americans that we needed rain the rain people and you know we'd hope that hypothetical young women who are in the wellbutrin nigeria or could she do without it

being when he couldn't find anybody to work in this country without this guy and a multitude of trained sophisticated ready to go young people who thought up and a sense of identity than the work was paid for by other pro bowl like you're that contribute to university but mostly it came from our state and from our national government and the research cited almost overnight so here we are at the end of this bar why are young women have taken over you via technology part of the business he's been successful so far up up up the american dream

we love maria meyer now he's come to the end of her life and he has forty million dollars in the bank and so in two thousand nine years that the year ago it would get seven million dollar are you going to get fifty five percent of all russian forty five percent would go back to the society people have said accusatory only be a time some kind of a social and my answer is no sir i'm a bill collector the croc rock so here we have this bill to get an end

and doesn't make that let me illustrate this with a baby that her imagination right now that we read yesterday i was invited in the afternoon leaving a bottle and i was transported up their allowance sitting in the corner and i want to write and it became evident that he was having some difficultly do modern looking every paper in the book world when it was was supportive of where the walking that he was having a political rock and turns out they're not the only criteria were going down down many dot com an obviously you and but i began to notice that he was pondering there's that your

parents seen the rise of hidden part of smiled a little in trying to get a sense of discovery on her face and torn up recently after a system to bring before that to spare with a runoff require bodies of the next two human being to be born over you got i mean before her and he explained to them about the financial circumstances of the heavenly currently mentioned that you have a long term thinker and that you can you know the need that it's all worthwhile but that she has an opponent for restoring her greatly and it's simply that the final that the next uber are one is in the united states and the other is in west africa now and the optimal you who the right to be born in the indictment that one one at jiffy the paper and i want

to make it with you and think about it and come back in tomorrow having read wrong that the paper what percentage of your net or you'll see that my treasury on the baby or their length interview with you and large number who built by the us leading an american theater like a bieber american gimme some advice about what the number of them who were really like to do they want medicare the cdo to be talking to one that's more pro forma vote ought to get some advice from him on the thing that will be that authenticity even though here we are then again

abides spirit a number who were not talking about deciding the fate that rate we're talking about how much of it will work in the united states so that they don't give you five point zero twenty five fifty seventy five already all those who vote right down there along a piece of paper they've learned they all those who would write down one thing virus on that the league are they all those who would write down on the leaves of a greater than the norm and seventy by a pretty good number

about a hundred mile bike i remember i am lois and that working at a repair county when i ask you to please be answered questions usually ailes will collect them and try to do an accord it away someone adjusts his questions neither view in nevada choose don't the rich spend my yearning towns and attorneys and avoid paying most of the

tax will now that i do know something about them and i know a lot of them well they think we know there are there are clever insightful very sophisticated thing that a planner and to do it says wealthy people who reduced the amount of their as they pack their things having to do with the way assets are valued and with within a company though who have controlling who have equity in that they have been a lot of complicated things of that kind but then that that the notion that if you hire the smartest person in the country who invited about you think that you'll have to pay any issue around that that is not the way

were ordered all this money come from but we've been working for eighty four here are plenty of smart people but the bulk of the estate taxes paid by the ten million or not states people can there's one surefire way you think we've reduced and avoid paying estate taxes that is to give all your money to charity which actually not a bad outcome for that that accomplishes the other people betty goal of dispersal of well you are preaching to the choir and i think one can reach the wealthy who believe the entire reason they achieved their wealth and the reason they believe they should keep it is because of their own efforts they seem not to recognize the soil that was prepared by the effort of all of us how do we persuade them to value what they were given

what i would assume but this is the choir i hope that there are people here who don't agree with us that you feel comfortable raising those questions than having a robust debate on the extent there is a choir voted for the choir singing just not the way that question was phrased i would actually say you know it's very interesting we want this petition that any of you can sign a miner here tonight you're responsible well the orcas called reserve the estate tax for the bar where the people can check that says will you always take action and thirteen over thirteen hundred people who had apathy the tax have signed a petition saying it should be preserved so what's going on here are experiences that we if you talk to these folks these are very wealthy individuals some of them why would you want a tax yourself why he wants you to think that they'd say look i didn't get here on my own and i recognize that is the question as i recognize that i am the

beneficiary of a fertile soil of an environment oh one of our one of our leaders of responsible wealth owes a story says look i i grew up in a city where i didn't have any money i grew up in a poor family and i went through public schools and libraries in museums someone else for those and i went to college i got a scholarship and someone else pay for that and i wanted the technology field of old infrastructure that have been paid for by public investment and one point i started a company and i hired as the bill described i hired employees that have been trained who are subsidized education system someone else pay for them and our made fifty million dollars and you're telling the society doesn't have a claim on my well of course and that i have an obligation it so we give to charity that pay taxes so that other people were stirred up without the advantages of inherited wealth like me should have a shot and be part of it and you know have an opportunity

so that's and those are very powerful voices and if there's anything we hope it's out of our book we can begin a little bit broader discussion in our society about where wealth comes from because clearly we overvalue the individual contribution that's not to say it's not important that we overvalue that and we undervalue the role of luck god's grace and good fortune and privilege in getting a little bit of a headstart and we wait we undervalue the role of the public investment creates this fertile soil for wealth creation this question follows that one and it takes a little further could you address the problem of taxation becoming stealing quotes it's their money and it by providing something society wanted an awful lot you didn't have to buy those rights and services it's their money for a job well

done at a link to that in the room i hearing you were at the head of the rich where local law and there is a social contract there a couple weeks ago i went to work in the mile and they were talking about that at the grave grow up in a small group were talking about that they regret that they now have a woman in the report were the interviews about this said well you know when i see it really going to get there

and that new money during the fall but we are all going to get around and the whole obscene that someone thinks their acquisitions as not being subject of the commonly on a high and also a proper people they weep weep weep and that a lot of conversations in the process of talking about this book and you know inevitably someone will come up to us really agitated and accuses the hacker you'd advocate stealing my money and we didn't have any answers one time a woman with a sitting at the table that reason he said i want to go live on an island see how are you going to be come back and tell us that there is some you know he did it on your own out there on that island and

we need each other were there we are nothing without each other that is the it's a really just reset the reset as well we were very thorough about one another both in terms of having security and recently we're not please explain how eliminating the federal estate tax will affect state revenue in oregon which depends on a state income tax well i'm not sure i can say much about the very last part of that but there is a very direct relationship between the federal estate tax than the reverend up until the passage of the bill in two thousand juan what we've been discussing here tonight there was based the tax credit against the federal

of a jack in division over simplifying your work this way that if you're happy and that is that the federal government with the million dollar baby eva credit a one hundred and fifty thousand dollars up to one hundred and fifty thousand dollar for payment they knew they told them what the state's viable art was simply adopt a packed with them we that our path on earth they will be exactly the amount of the federal budget so it was unbelievably queenly and we basically just the federal return didn't happen there was a very small they return with a copy of your early years in washington dc eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars on fifty thousand dollars of that

the festival they'll remember happy hour i remember dr norman at the play the capitol be a mountainous road for the fact that we have a year of the gentleman with the structure the cop who's from the oregon center for public policy he's a terrific organization here in the state and he was explained to us the organ has viewing from the federal estate taxes have salads that raises about a hundred million dollars a year for the state of oregon before laughter i think by about four hundred households that average average a state of you know ten twelve million dollars each at that that that is currently there there is a debate in salem to eliminate the state level the state pacs as well and so one of the action things that you want to be involved and plentiful keep you

posted on the state level estate tax debate as well as the family and one of the teachers the radical a reform and through that kathy this issue of debate and they i think with the gurley will be if it really would be in serious blow to the national problem here for the lead after they decided not to have unhealthy air which occurred in virginia three days ago that i mean one of the united states then i think we may see something like that happen and if it were damn well it would be a serious blow over africa but the trend that thing and not seventeen states have already reeling from the federal estate tax have gotten along maintaining their own state level of state tax all the federal one phases out i think we're going to see more more states doing that you wanna maker

of an organ in one of the fbi set what do you suggest as desirable level or exemptions and wise there's a level of things suggest that you know this is not a site with a new element of the argument the movie they come up all the considerations about the tension on things like this that many would argue and i think the pope you believe that an awful lot of pretty ordinary household have gotten of those seven figure net worth area largely will be the only home value which has increased dramatically in the morning you go

and there's a sense that for the small product that you think that generally happen at the lowest level that we should excuse moment folks who are ordinary folks and the larvae get that i'll probably the three and a half billion dollar figure that i think that if you fly on that and but it also happens to be the number that in the current legislation and part of the problem i think is that there is some value in going along with some existing prescription and that it probably made sense to go along with that ultimately will burn that rather than climate change that to the same discussion goes about on the subject of rain

would argue all day about what the regime there's some of them with leanne war within the political that we've sort of sign off on the road of accepting where we're going to be in all nine years even though the rate of forty five percent and i think if there is disagreement about that it would mostly be on the side of saying we hired a lawyer the other thing about it all along you write that in the news it's a texas talked of as a double acts to address this now here we are two or somebody tell me

they're anything in the ten commandments about bubble and the bubble boy get my valerie jarrett would have been that really become it failed that every february it might be ironic at the county very practical my uranium and hear how we more to the point in this that in this country we kept property and we got trans fat that the vulgar it and with the passing of family gathered from wal mart at the children in the book that it felt like weiner fehling from the game for about that rhetoric that says well then

if that you know i think the economic literally all the gold that we know that are well known at the burden in the bomb and so it you know it's now also at the fact that in all the they that of the over the top of that heap six percent of all the ads that will be in one year and they backed was appreciated property which had never been so if you're clever about it than a half mile of water and one of the way the world really were just to underscore this there's the notion of double taxation of the carefully constructed carefully poll the

notion that is it's a rhetorical device that you know obviously strikes a chord of fairness i mean he you know you go down the street neighbor told me get to another block of another cold i mean people think that they're money moves through the village and at different junctures if you're disqualified attacks based on the fact that somewhere down this from within the chain of its movement that had been attacked before you disqualified all taxation it's a conundrum that has put forward by people who opposed taxation its image should be doing this but the real question is also is is people in oregon or in the bottom third of income and burners at a much higher percentage of their income in state and local taxes on people in the top fifth of the top one percent because more of their money circulating and being subject to transaction taxes than wealthy people's money which is sitting and up and going and not being so until says

all the bulk of the money in his faith has never been that because it's it's appreciated housing appreciated land appreciated stocks that are sitting in not being taxed at all if the estate tax is actually fix on the back we don't have a well next in this country we haven't we don't have a capital gains tax cut at the transfer of assets at the end of life in fact ninety eight percent of the population gets its stepped up faces on it happened in that they get so i i leave my daughter speaking that i bought for ten thousand dollars and there were three hundred thousand dollars the day that i have to cover the clock is research now a hundred thousand dollar as she will never that ninety thousand dollar cowboy game will never be paid but on the wealthiest wealthiest transfers we have a state which has a fix for that problem and generates revenue and it's enormous concentration do well it

do you have a political strategy and what are the positions of the oregon centers on abolishing estate tax well just to sort of give you the picture the proponents of permanent repeal need to get sixty votes in the senate and they have fifty seven last year we had a vote in june on whether to make the repeal permanent and they were able to muster fifty four votes on the two conservative senators were real so they basically had the six votes for repeal they spend a lot of money trying to defeat senators who supported reforms and not rigged he'll senator jane cunningham one of the reasons you started it went down in history with because of her opposition to repeal senate the late senator paul wellstone was also being heavily targeted for his leadership in opposing

you so both of those seats went to senators who support repeal we want to vote would pick up one we hope in new senator mark pryor in arkansas so it's very close so what's our strategy while our hope is to just stole gridlock not want not to be able to fend off an that the downside is the conservatives control the agenda and the timing for their bring a permanent repeal a private act of moving legislation force votes on its worst confrontations over but we need to hold our fifty three forty three votes against repeal and then we also need to move some of the senators who've been in that this is really the you remember this is the us senate need to move some of the senators who have voted for repeal of the reform side of the lake so we've identified you know the dozen or so senators most

susceptible those with the greatest potential to shift their vote after repeal in on reform and both are us senators senator ron wyden and senator gordon smith are supporters of repeal consistently voted for repeal senator wyden is one of the few democrats that's consistently voted to repeal that's why we're here to be honest we're not we're not you're not in tennessee talking about this issue where an organ because you all have a special role in helping shape the terms of this debate and that if you share our concern about this and think it's wrong to repeal estate taxes you think it should be reformed we've we deputize you here tonight as an honorary defenders of the state fair and we heard you to sign a petition give us your email so we can let you know that but it's not really quite a letter to the editor senator wyden is a supporter of what you have to talk to him directly and the fact that people you know

that have leverage over them and who in good ole american political organizing the same but the opposition is not they have done it had ten years to line up the votes and mobilize their interests and that we're getting into the flea and we hear involvement so i guess that's that's a higher butterfat should say that we are also in coalition with a lot of other groups who worked very closely with the national farmers union which represents three hundred thousand genuinely small farmers who oppose repeal support reform there are a whole wide range of nonprofit organizations charities public institutions that would be really hurt if you sleep techs was repealed but had been sitting on the fence have been pretty mobilized on this issue if you are part of a nonprofit organization to sit on the board of a nonprofit organization you need to have an internal discussion about taking a stand on this issue which will have a great impact on your pictures and get off the fence and make your voices know so that's our kitchen at the state level

there will also be actions that will need to be taken and again if you can get an e mail or avarice we can keep what's going on a model from tonight our show myers mention that i'm up at night in this very church there's a gathering of people order to be coming together just to kind of get organized and do some actions that some of the things we really do or some public sign of letters but the senators and some advertising the more forms in educational events so much six exactly a month from the night of the party and i so in quito chair of concerns will build continued to be open minded to try to make but i'm not there and if there's a fault and senators what makes you think are senators are susceptible to switch and they will never give up on anyone thinking

and that this final one is an alternative vision state's attempt to be cast on for biologically related areas that seems unfair to me that wealth should be an advantage because of the accident the bird for this reason i would suggest an estate tax that's set up as a economic stake in society funded it would dollar share at every citizen at birth or it's on the page so that the recipients could use it to start a business buy a house education etc what do you think of this idea what about the talks about the year period should that really be the basis upon which your success of like this base was a really interesting idea which we are conscious about the idea that you're marking a thing with you know i think the source of revenue would overhear

there's something poetic about the idea of an estate tax being used to bury power with a clear connection of that money be clearly connected to something that creates an opportunity for everybody so whether that is directing the proceeds of the estate tax through the social security trust fund or something earlier in life and this is the third there's a lot of work being done on this notion of creating universal savings accounts or wealth building accounts for all children something that every child starts with that could be used for this purpose and for linking the estate tax revenue to educational opportunity that free education and i'm a developer one second it may i recently talked to a civic group in my own community in boston and the retired man squad of norwood

massachusetts and they're gathered were about a hundred and fifty men retired men of all of european ancestry and i asked them the question i said how many of you have got subsidized mortgage after world war two i think a mortgage the mortgage some some interest subsidy that help you purchase a home at about two thirds of the men never raised their hand and said how many of you got debt free college education for low cost education higher education and again two thirds of the minimum wage raised there and ask how many of you had some help getting a small business loan to help start a business at some point in their life or sba are some some help and about a third raise their hand and i thought wow how many of you think any of those were bad public policies now it happens that those were

some of the oldest well building initiatives that our society has ever undertaken in the thirty years after world war two and also happens that those were largely discriminatory people of color were not not included and because of racial discrimination in lending practices were not able to get on on the will building train and so you had essentially a public incredibly publicly subsidized wealth building an opportunity program primarily for americans of european anthem but that's not rocket science we could make the same commitment today to investing in ladder of opportunity we could we should rectify the discrimination of the past and we should enable the next generation to move as well why should you go to college and happily for fifty thousand dollars and that let alone all the private lenders are trying to get an education why should why should not the case for the wealthiest country on earth

we decide what we want to do is create a society that has a beautiful letter of opportunity we can do we can do a lot better than what the window i'd be like thinking about that but i am very skeptical of some kind of a fifth of them are a more like i feel like we wouldn't be getting a head i i feel like what we've done wrong with our system of public education and i don't we are not good at all for me and it largely has to do with both of them a public education that for one reason or another have failed to get the attention of young people who were in it they use it they

leave it i think there's all kinds of evidence around about how to do it and and be successful it needs more guys who are in the bill for rail they would have been done differently and expensive but it just seems to me that rather than some runaway and i'm a band aid that we're really out of the bottom of our four year old onto an amusing what we know what we know to give the moment we don't know we don't have time for that the what the ingredients might be the infidel you have some people in the state who understand that very well in the river but i don't believe that the social

engineering beyond all over total and on top of that for those questions and this week we'll be very honored you on a dusty inspired the book we were we'll sit up here and do that one request is i'm not here on the business of the bill and melinda gates foundation so they have a proposal or something you want to talk to him about we really cannot do that tonight and the girl you like him here are the foundation and we have some barbecue one of if everest but he's he's just overwhelmed sometimes at these events people wanna make that personal connection and it's understandable that we have to do do that courtesy a little talk about these issues and he and his partner books in and thank you very much for coming out and we hope you'll get involved and what your sheets

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