As a third-generation American, I find the estate tax, even in its current form, extremely offensive, because it strives to reset every generation to zero instead of letting families establish themselves over time by building on the sacrifice and efforts of the parents.
The current level of taxation, even though it's been recently, "graciously" increased, greatly extends the runway for families to achieve true financial independence. Currently, $5.3M and above estates fall under the 40% tax. That's far too small of an estate and far too large of a tax.
People will say, "wow five million dollars, that's a lot!" Not really. Three heirs take home a million each - pay off a house and student loan debt for their families - god forbid they don't have something like outstanding medical bills - and sock away a partial retirement fund with the rest. Not enough to quit working and start their own business, or invest in anything riskier than an index fund.
You might say that's not a bad deal. It's certainly better than nothing. But this, "oh, it's just a lottery" attitude is nonsense. If your parents started with nothing and are leaving you $5M, chances are you watched them bust their asses for forty years, and only got to see them a couple hours a day - at times, if at all. That doesn't sound like much of a lottery ticket to me.
To top it all off, it's a double tax. That money has already been taxed, as far as the family as a unit is concerned. And wiping the slates clean every generation greatly reduces the ability of a family to weather multi-decade economic cycles. I hate to have climbed on my soapbox, but a statement like that only makes sense if you consider the family a method of perpetuating a shared set of values over hundreds of years - and if you can't, I find that sad.