Once established and in hand large inheritances are forever. They come to inheritors (mostly offspring) untaxed, and they go on and on untaxed as they grow and grow—in perpetuity—untaxed. They are a plutocrat’s dream come true . Unlike the monarch’s or the dictator’s wealth, inherited wealth is hidden from the public’s eyes. Who knows the Walton siblings, for example? They inherited $23 billion in 1993 (untaxed), and today their wealth has grown to $175 billion (still untaxed). Meanwhile, one of the conversation topics among those who have done well by society is about “welfare cheats,” those scoundrels who try to beat the system out of nickels and dimes. But I digress.

Let’s say your daddy and mommy are rich, and they have given you about all that life has to offer: living in luxurious homes, being chauffeured to and from the best schools, dining in the most exclusive restaurants where the staff all suck up to you; and that chateau in Switzerland where the best instructors taught you how to ski without killing yourself is always ready and on the flight schedule of daddy’s private jet. Suffice to say life has been good at the top of the wealth heap where you have had the best seat in the house while the rest of humanity has grovelled at your feet.

But now you are 50, and daddy drops dead at 80. You inherit $100 million from his estate—all tax free, thanks to the Republicans in Congress who have been bending and kissing the sagging bottoms of the ultra rich because they pay to keep them in office. The rich wanted it that way, the puppets did it that way, and you got it that way. Your inheritance is unearned and tax-free unless you have been secretly slipping arsenic into daddy’s Dom Pérignon to hasten his departure. Then you could say you worked your cheeks off to inherit your wealth. But now what?

You have a good accountant who sets up a private foundation for you. Now it is all tax-sheltered and your stock accounts are on their way (at 7.2%) to becoming $800 million when you reach age 80. You also have everything in the name of your foundation. You still control it all because you are the chief executive officer.  You owe only a tax on 5 percent of your investment income, but only if you have a bad accountant. Not to worry. You have 5 or 6 charities (more than 1 million qualify) in which your accountant arranges for them to donate money to you, you match it, and give them back twice their amount. You become their beloved philanthropist, and they pay your small tax bill for you. (As an aside: A few years ago Barbra Streisand paid her foundation’s tax bill this way. She owed $1.5 million. So she got the movie studio to donate her old wardrobe from her movies to her estate, she sold them on eBay for $1.5 million. She cleared out space from her old studio, her eBay worshipers paid her tax bill, and Barbra still can’t sing).

Does every rich person have his/her own foundation to avoid paying taxes? If they have more than $10 million, the answer is almost certainly “yes.” Take the little boys on the professional golfing circuit...please! The Tiger Woods Foundation, for example, boasts about how much it supports charities. Well, maybe, but maybe not. His foundation sponsors at least one golf tournament every year. What happens to the income from attendees and from television? I suspect his foundation accepts a nice check from them, adds it to his foundation’s assets, and doles out just enough to pay the taxes on a tiny portion of his foundation’s investment gains. I am almost certain his foundation owns his many properties, his yacht, and his private jet. That keeps them all untouchable and untaxed. The same goes for most other high-paid individuals—in sports, entertainment, or else where. I could go on and on with other examples. But why bore you?

I sent an outline of my 3-steps to Higher Prosperity to Biden’s new Economic Council, to the Federal Reserve Board, and to Amy Glasmeier, developer of the Fair Wage calculator. I am urging them all to support my Three Steps thesis. The first step is to adopt the Living Wage calculator for all workers making less than $75,000. The second step it to re-instate the inheritance tax for all inheritances above $5 million. And the third step is to re-direct $8 trillion away from banks and into credit unions where the average Joe and Jody are members. They each acknowledged receipt of my outline. That’s a start. I missed my inheritance, so it’s time for me to “go big or go home.”