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However, in 2017, it is not clear exactly how decisive a role inheritance plays in the entrenchment of the hereditary elite.
不過，在2017年，遺產稅在世襲精英堡壘中扮演的是一個具有多大決定性的角色是不清楚的。
Data from Britain suggest that people tend not to lose their parents before they reach the age of 50.
來自英國的數據顯示，50歲之前，人們往往不會失去父母。
In rich countries the advantages that wealthy parents pass to their offspring begin with the sorting mechanism of marriage, in which elites increasingly pair up with elites.
在富裕國家中，有錢的父母傳遞給后代的優勢，始于婚姻的門當戶對機制。
They continue with the benefits of education, social capital and lavish gifts, not in the deeds to the ancestral pile.
在這種機制中，精英越來越多地與精英結成夫妻。接下來是教育、社會資本和豐厚禮物的種種好處，它們都不在不在先輩遺囑之列。
Even if the link between inheritance-tax rates and inequality were clear, wealth can pay for a good tax lawyer.
縱然繼承稅稅率與不平等之間的這種關系是清晰的，富人卻能夠給好的稅務律師出得起錢。
In the century since Roosevelt, Sweden and other high-taxers discovered that if governments impose a steep enough duty, the rich will find ways to avoid it.
自羅斯福以來的這個世紀中，瑞典以及其他高稅收國家發現，如果政府強制推行足夠陡峭的稅，富人會想法設法來回避。
The trusts they create as a result can last even longer than the three generations it takes for family fortunes to go from clogs to clogs.
他們由此而創立的各種信托可能持續得甚至比家族財富世代相傳所用的三代人時間還要長。
Armed with such arguments, some leap to the other extreme, proposing, as the American tax reform does, that there should be no inheritance tax at all.
由于有了這類論據的武裝，有些人跳躍到另一個極端，建議像美國稅改那樣，壓根就不應該有繼承稅。
Not only is it right to let people hand their private property to their children, they say, but also bequests are often the fruits of labour that has already been taxed.
他們聲稱，不僅讓人們將自己的私有財產傳給子孫后代是正確的，而且遺贈物也經常是已被征過稅的勞動果實。
And a large inheritance-tax bill is destructive, because it can cause the dismemberment of family firms and farms, and force the sale of ancestral homes.
同時，巨大的遺產稅賬單是毀滅性的，因為它可能造成家族公司和家族農場的土崩瓦解，并且可能促使祖宅的出售。
Yet every tax is an intrusion by the state.
然而，每一種稅都是一種來自政府的入侵。
If avoiding double taxation were a requirement of good policy, then governments would need to abolish sales taxes, which are paid out of taxed income.
如果說避免雙重稅收是善政的一個必要條件，那么，政府就必需廢除銷售稅，這種稅是從已經被征過稅的收入中付出的。
The risks that heirs will be forced to sell homes and firms can be mitigated by allowing them to pay the duties gradually, from cash-flow rather than by fire-sales.
子孫后代將被迫出售房產和公司的風險可能因為允許他們從現金流中而不是通過折價甩賣逐漸地納稅而得到緩解。
