Probate Quotes
“Familia” in Latin meant in this context, the community or the citizens as opposed to the officials, The Bishop determined the former was under attack by the officials who in the probating of wills and estates would take bribes or levy taxes under “laws” that they would make up on the spot bilking the rightful inheritors of the property and wealth of the deceased. The principle that laws and regulations must be written down in advance and not otherwise, is a fundamental part of Western law today, But as this quotation shows, it was not always such.
This, along with most of Sinclair’s ideas, although called socialist and radical by the conservatives of the time, were adopted later. This illustrates that losing candidates and their programs can have a very profound effect on public policy
Conservatives have been trying to eliminate estate taxes—sometimes called “inheritance taxes” for years. One of their most effective techniques was to create their own pejorative language to describe estate taxes and then to have all conservatives use that description and never say “estate taxes”. While this shifted public opinion somewhat, the majority of Americans still tended to agree with Sanders and estate taxes remained in force then. The estate taxes only were levied on the wealthiest Americans—less than 2 percent.
