Solidarity, dominance, and the taxation of bequests

In his new book, The Inheritance of Wealth, Daniel Halliday (2018) argues that the taxation of bequest and inheritance is justified on the grounds of preventing dynastic concentrations of wealth harmful to both democratic equality and fair equality of opportunity. Although Halliday’s claims are convincing, he neglects the role that solidarity should play in justifying a robust tax on bequest. In this paper, I develop an argument for taxing and regulating bequest on the grounds of solidarity, linking the argument back to the thought of both Marx and Rawls.