Opinion of the estate tax

[© tweed]

very positive, of course ("abolition of all rights of inheritance" was one of Marx's demands in the 1848 Communist Manifesto).

in reality, people with $5.53M or more have the resources to dodge the tax through various legal instruments.

the REAL estate tax is Medicaid.  Medicaid chews up the assets of upper-middle class (and below) folks when they need long-term care (ie nursing home) unless those families have had time to "think ahead" and transfer wealth to a trust or a relative a while ago -- or if they've been paying long-term care insurance for decades.  Medicare doesn't pay for long-term care

[© tweed]

I oppose it on moral grounds, but the way it is now isn't so bad as long as the tax is kept at a reasonable level.

Why is it immoral?

Because an individual should have the right to pass on his already taxed income to his heirs.

there is no longer any "individual".  the individual is dead.