The Tax We’re 99.93% Sure That You Will Never Pay
Optimist Economy
Kathryn Anne Edwards and Robin Rauzi
4.9 • 829 Ratings
🗓️ 8 July 2025
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Estate Tax is one that half of Americans worry about, but that affects only the richest 0.07% after they die. For nearly 25 years, the U.S. has – through loopholes and ballooning exemptions – undercut a tax that could pay for some nice things, like maybe a children’s trust fund. If we chose to just dent more big inheritances, it’d also reduce the concentration of wealth and power. In this episode, economist Kathryn Edwards gets to go way, way back to the Gilded Age and editor Robin Rauzi still loves a tax story, so the topic is a win-win as far as we are concerned.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We should do the actual show. |
| 0:02.2 | We should talk about our actual... |
| 0:03.6 | The show that we do. |
| 0:06.1 | What's it a call? |
| 0:07.7 | I'm told it's called Optimist Economy. |
| 0:11.1 | You named it. |
| 0:12.5 | Yeah, well, choices were made. |
| 0:18.1 | Hello, and welcome to Optimist Economy. I'm Catherine. |
| 0:24.9 | I'm Robin. |
| 0:25.9 | On this show, we believe the U.S. economy can be better, and we talk about how to get there, one problem and solution at a time. |
| 0:43.8 | So we need to start, of course, with the announcement that we have a website, optimisteconomy.com. |
| 0:48.6 | You can subscribe to the show there, become a paying subscriber. We love you much for that. |
| 0:52.8 | You can also go to Buy Me a Coffee where Optimist Economy takes your donations. |
| 0:55.4 | And, of course, if you like the podcast, |
| 0:59.9 | tell someone about it. Especially if they have a company that they would like to underwrite our show. |
| 1:05.0 | Oh, yeah, sure. So this is, this, this is also a call to people who have deep pockets or know people who do that, like, we especially like your money. |
| 1:15.3 | If you would like to put a little podcast in your will, for instance, no, I'm just kidding. |
| 1:17.0 | That's for our theme today. |
| 1:17.8 | Yeah. |
| 1:18.9 | It's a spoiler alert. |
| 1:21.2 | We do love reading the reviews. |
| 1:24.3 | We'll often read them on the show if we have one that in particular tickles us. |
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