If he left his money to his children I would agree with the birth lottery comment, but he has given his money to charitable causes. The money will never be theirs to spend.
But he left his children in positions of power in those organizations. To be the head of a large charitable org brings quite a bit of 'cachet' and respect with it. Meeting with important people, maybe State dinners and such? It is a different type of 'inheritance' than a $$$ inheritance, but it is something he 'gave' his children.
But he wants to say that if you want to give your children $$$, you should not be allowed to (above certain limits). I just can't respect what I see as a cherry-picking of the rules.
BTW, the small bit that I've seen of them, I get the impression that his children are good people who will carry out their duties reasonably well. I don't mean any of this personally against them in any way, I just find Warren's pronouncements to be a bit condescending and they ring hollow for me.
While I'm at it, here's what I hate about the Estate Tax. Let's say you have $10M to will. And lets say you are a good-hearted person who has put in considerable effort, and have identified 100 needy and worthy individuals, and you want to give them each $100,000. That eats up the $10M. But an estate tax is going to eat up a lot of that. Why shouldn't that individual be able to distribute it ALL as they see fit?
A special-needs child could easily require a $1M trust to help support them for life. That would take identifying just 10 needy individuals, probably not hard at all if one was so motivated.
Or, the whole $10M could go to one spoiled brat who will wipe out a family driving his/her Ferrari while snorting coke. But to the law, it's all the same $10M and taxed the same. And the kinds of 'trusts' and things that could be set up for special needs children get twisted by smart lawyers who can probably define that Ferrari as a 'need' (she will be emotionally distraught if she has to drive a Chevy while her friends drive Lamborghinis). We don't need no stinkin' loop-holes, we need to let people use (most of) the money they earned in the way they see fit.
-ERD50