R: Leave an Inheritance

If we have the means, should we leave an inheritance for our children when we die?

At the simplest level, inheritance fulfills a basic human duty by ensuring that one’s family is well provided for. Furthermore, it strengthens continuity within a family by extending the same wealth over multiple generations. Thomas Jefferson had an idea that, because “the earth belongs to the living,” every human law and constitution naturally expires at the end of 19 years. The dead, he argues, cannot be held responsible for anything—they can neither bind nor be bound to the living. This is obviously nonsense, and to deny one’s duty to one’s family simply because one is dead would be foolishness of a similar magnitude.

Leaving an inheritance is a bit of a strange practice, however, when one considers it. After providing food, shelter, clothing, and education for one’s children, should one be expected to give them money on top of it, when they have already been equipped for a successful life? Can our responsibilities to our descendants be reduced to a simple dollar amount? We should desire our children to have a full life, an adventurous life, a good life—but since when is an easy life a good one? Does a larger bank account ever enrich someone’s soul? Besides, anyone who’s watched Knives Out knows that the distribution of a large inheritance is sure to cultivate discord among family members. Aren’t the most valuable things to give one’s children not money at all, but good morals and upright character?

The practice of leaving an inheritance has important societal consequences. However, this debate will focus primarily on the personal obligations related to this decision, and societal forces should be considered only tangentially to these obligations. What kind of pressures does bequeathing an inheritance place on parents? On children? For those in the aff, is there a limit to how large an inheritance should be, or a situation in which one should be withheld? For those in the neg, is an inheritance unwise under every circumstance, or might it occasionally serve the best interests of all involved?