Friday, May 18, 2012

The Growing Police State: No Escape Edition

Look out, rich people (or, you know, people who simply want to become rich) renounce your rights as a citizen of the United States and Congress will come after you, especially if you leaving would "deprive" the US Government of a significant portion of your money.

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin renounced his US Citizenship in September 2011 (for those counting, that's about 8 months ago).  Now, with Facebook's IPO looking like it will make him a billionaire, suddenly US Senator Chuck Schumer (D-bag, NY) and US Senator Bob Casey (D-bag, PA) have decided that anyone who does something so evil as to renounce their citizenship to "dodge" giving the government its rightfully owed money must be punished.  Their punishment?  A mandatory 30 percent capital gains tax (exactly how they would enforce that remains a mystery) and then bar them from ever reentering the United States. 

Never mind that citizenship is voluntary.  Never mind that giving up citizenship means you also lose things like your voting rights, and the right to bear arms (yes: non-citizens can be barred from carrying weapons).  No, if the serfs attempt to leave the Lord's land, the Lord will confiscate their holdings and then exile them.

The Democrats really are neo-feudalists.  They seem to believe that we are not citizens, but subjects, and that they deserve their Lord's Tithe (not to be confused with The LORD's Tithe, which would be religious in nature). 

Perhaps, Gentlemen, you might consider the root of the problem.  You see, America punishes businesses, especially successful businesses, for the very economic activity it then demands they produce.  It only makes sense, once someone has acquired enough wealth, for people to renounce their citizenship.  It's not like the government holds itself accountable to the People anymore, so voting rights aren't what they once were.  Saverin lives in California (well, actually, I think he does physically live in Singapore now, but I'm not sure on that), so he already functionally has no right to bear arms.  For him, it only makes sense to emigrate.

The Government is not "owed" our taxes.  It is not the Government's money which it so beneficently bestows upon us, it's children.  That is our money.  We earned it.  We labored for it- physically or intellectually- and produced a good or service for which other people were willing to pay.  There is nothing immoral about wanting to keep your own money. 

I understand that taxes are necessary.  When people are leaving the country that allowed them to become so successful, so they can avoid the taxation, the problem is with the taxation, not the people.

3 comments:

  1. Hey Allen, I'll leave a comment for ya!

    -EC

    Captcha has to go though. Sux!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not sure why you're dealing with Captcha- that should only be on for Anonymous comments, and you're obviously not listed as anonymous...

      One day, I will have the wherewithal to have a real blog host, and then we'll see about dropping captcha. Though then I'll have to deal with lace wigs and pipe fittings until I can get a well tuned spam filter.

      Delete
  2. It's ridiculous. If you leave this country, you should be beyond its reach, unless you've committed some crime. Which Saverin hasn't.

    ReplyDelete