It's not just family farms, it's family businesses, restaurants, investment properties, homes...I ran a retail store that was easily worth 5 million because of the value of the real estate that the family purchased 40 years ago. They built the business from a little rented storefront and bought the building through years of hard work and saving. The son who owns it now has worked there his entire life. He makes a nice living but is far froma multimillionaire. Should his kids have to sell the business their grandfather started 60 years ago to pay the estate taxes?
And for what? To give the money to someone else who didn't spend their entire life earning it? That's what you call fair?
Another friend who would have to sell a beachfront property that has been in the family for generations...mind you, they've paid massive property taxes on the place for decades...paid for the upkeep and renovations and insurance and restoration after hurricanes...but all that time and money they spent on it doesn't belong to them...it's the government's? And that's what you call fair?