This thread got me curious about what the data on wealth inequality actually says. It lead me to learn about a measure called the "Gini coefficient" that measures the level of inequality in a country - it can be applied to both overall wealth and income, with somewhat different results. A Gini coefficient of 0 is perfect equality and 1 is perfect inequality.
Wealth:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...lth_inequality
Income:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ncome_equality
In terms of wealth inequality, Canada's actually not too bad, coming in at 0.728 vs a global measure of 0.885. Unsurprisingly, we're considerably more equal than the US at 0.852. However, I was surprised to find that we do better in terms of wealth inequality than Sweden (0.886 - even more unequal than the US), Denmark (0.838), Norway (0.798) and Finland (0.742). Though, I do note that we have greater income inequality than those countries.
So, if we generally agree that too much wealth inequality is a problem, Canada is doing pretty well globally on minimizing that issue. Also, even with their higher tax rates, Nordic countries still have higher inequality, so simply increasing taxes doesn't seem to be the solution.
To me, the key issue is what I think Cliff is getting at - we want to ensure that there is upward mobility for people born into lower income families. But simply taking a bigger chunk at the end of a wealthy person's life won't accomplish that without proper programs. In my opinion, we should try to improve low income kids prospects as early as possible.
With that in mind, the one program that I'd really like to see a government implement is a breakfast and lunch program for low income school districts. I don't believe that a kid can properly pay attention and learn on an empty stomach (and I don't just mean skipping breakfast one day, but actual ongoing hunger), and so a gap will start to grow quickly between that child and others. If we can reduce that gap through early school years, I think it could really help that child's prospects into higher levels of education.
Note: I'm not necessarily against changes to our tax rates or estate taxes, just that they have to be going to fund programs that actually target the issues that inequality breeds.