Death taxes are no way to deal with intergenerational inequality

There is also a social and financial pay-off to having large aggregations of capital in private hands.

As we can see with The Voice campaign to alter the Australian Constitution-put capital in the hands of professional managers and they'll devote it to the causes they favour, which don't necessarily align with the shareholders (ESG).

And if we are talking about productivity and growth then there is an optimal point on the risk-reward curve for profitability, and plenty of economic evidence shows it is not where the superannuation funds and professional money managers are located.

We all benefit from some people having considerably more money than others. Some will earn it in their own lifetime, often by luck. Others will earn it in their parents' and grandparents' lifetimes, by winning a genetic lottery. For others, it will be a combination of luck, hard work, and inheritance.

In all cases, these private individuals are in a position to take bets that others can't, either because these others are fiduciaries, or just because they just don't have the guts.

Contra Mr. Picketty, not all of those owners will succeed in getting richer, but the financial petri dish they contribute to will produce overall more productive and better outcomes.

In any event, we do have a tax on inheritance already-it's called a capital gains tax.

Ms Wood Is right about home ownership

I could go on about her other proposals, but I'll wait to see whether they emerge from the Commission in her term as chair.

One thing she is definitely right about is that home ownership is the key to security. Can I suggest that now she is back working for the Commission (she worked there once before between 2002 and 2007) she resurrects the 2017 Productivity Report?

Of particular interest should be Recommendations 4.5 Apply competition principles to land use policies, 4.6 Better provisions for growth, and 4.7 Implement best practice in development assessment.

One secret to intergenerational equality is lower house prices, and the only real solution is increased supply. Produce policy settings that encourage more land developers and development, and much of the problem will disappear.

Ironically, many of the small developers in the land development industry started with a small inheritance they wanted to make larger.