Comparing Estate Tax Law to Hegel

[Cpt Banjo]

In the recent case of Estate of Jelke v. Commissioner, 507 F. 3d 1317 (11th Cir. 2007) (holding that the value of a decedent's minority interest in a closely-held investment holding company must be reduced by 100% of the corporation's built-in capital gains tax liability), Judge Edward Carnes begins his dissent with this marvelous opening line:

The tax code is nowhere near the center of my intellectual life, and
generally I find estate tax law about as exciting as Hegel’s metaphysical theory of
the identity of opposites.

Great stuff.

[jg]

From http://www.friesian.com/hegel.htm#dialectic

The ultimate product of the Dialectic, however, the end of Spirit, is the Absolute Idea, which would appear to be the synthesis of absolutely everything, giving its name to Hegel's system, "Absolute Idealism." Since Hegel was the first to understand this, and since individuals have significance only in so far as they exemplify or embody some Idea, this makes Hegel the supreme individual of all history.