Skeptic Project

I've run across the gripe that your heirs shouldn't have to pay an estate tax on the money you bequeath to them when you die because you already paid taxes on it when you earned it.

Uh, excuse me? Since when did money work this way? Suppose you run a business. Didn't the people who buy your goods and services pay taxes on the money they earned from their livelihoods? And don't you have to pay taxes on the salary you withdraw from your business? And don't the people you do business with have to pay taxes on the money you give them? At what point in this process does the next recipient of money not have to pay taxes on it because every previous possessor had to pay taxes?

In other words, in most instances someone has to pay taxes on money every time it changes ownership. What makes the transfer of money or property through inheritance any different?