Part zippy economics lesson and part unblinking family exposé, Justin Schein’s entertaining and poignant essay asks an uncomfortable question: Is building generational wealth—what many would call the essence of the American dream—morally defensible? At the epicenter of Schein’s inquiry is Justin’s complicated relationship with his powerhouse of a father. Harvey Schein was the ultimate postwar American Jewish success story, a self-made record executive who provided spectacularly for his kids and became obsessed in later life with protecting the family assets from dreaded estate taxes. Now a parent himself, Justin dares to bite the hand that feeds by questioning the self-perpetuating inequality of the American system of estate taxes (or, depending on your politics, “death taxes”). The film assembles terrific experts from all sides—from Robert Reich and Paul Krugman on the left to David Stockman and Grover Norquist on the right—to weigh in, but its real strength is in the nuanced chronicle of father and son playing out over decades, as each comes to grips, differently, with the fact that you can’t take it with you.
For more information see Death & Taxes, San Fransisco Jewish Film Festival.
Special thanks to John O’Grady (Attorney, San Fransisco, California) for bringing this to my attention.
