Posted on 05/17/2012 9:42:36 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
“Is the rich world aware of how four billion of the six billion live? If we were aware, we would want to help out, we’d want to get involved.” – Bill Gates
_____________________________
Dear Eduardo Saverin (if I may call you that),
You were, as I’m sure you’re aware, born in Brazil to a wealthy family, and were moved to Miami when you were a child. To America, the land of opportunity. And boy, did you ever have a lot of opportunities. Your parents sent you to Harvard, where according to Wikipedia you “took advantage of Brazil’s lax insider trading regulations and made $300,000 via strategic investments in the oil industry”. Well played! I bet that made your parents proud.
In 2004 you were vaguely instrumental in setting up Facebook – a thriving startup which you helped turn into the world’s most overvalued company – and in 2009 you moved to Singapore. In 2011, just before Facebook’s IPO, you renounced your US citizenship, once again to exploit loopholes in international law for your own personal gain.
You are the worst kind of capitalist. You’re the kind of capitalist who shows up in a new country and sees only spoils to be pillaged, other people’s property to make your own. The opportunity you see is for yourself and yourself alone; you fail to realize that every opportunity comes with a cost. Your goal – as Marx observed of the obnoxious pseudo-capitalists of his own day – is to accumulate, accumulate, accumulate. But you don’t even have the chutzpah to stick around: you run away with your loot to a rather dull little tax haven in the South China Sea, sticking your former countrymen with your bills.
Real capitalists build nations. They understand they can only profit if society does too: that society enables them to profit in the first place by providing political stability, a system of finance for raising capital, security from our enemies, courts of law in which to settle disputes, roads on which to transport goods and workers, Internet links through which to channel data, and on and on. Real capitalists tend, nourish, and grow their communities so that they may reap an even greater harvest of profits next year, to everyone’s mutual benefit. You raided the vegetable garden.
You give capitalism a bad name, and I no longer wish to be associated with you or your company. Thus I have deactivated my Facebook account and switched to Google+. I hope your American customers understand that because of your oh-so-clever legal maneuverings you will be paying less tax on your billions, and they will have to make up the difference. And I hope next time you visit America you’re made to feel as welcome as you deserve.
You, Mr Saverin, are no Bill Gates.
Ross Thomas
Nonsense.
And you, Ross Thomas, are no Capitalist.
Masquerades as a free market blog.
Ross Thomas is jealous.
if a guy has been living outside the US for years... and decides to finally stop paying for services he’ll never receive... why shouldn’t he?
also, who is ‘hurt’ by someone living in another country and not sending tax money to the US?
only the welfare addicts that are taking 65% of our budget
where are the calls to restrict sending money to mexico by illegals in the US??
There’s a set of “arguments” that you can easily drive a Mack truck through.
Dear Ross,
Consider youself un-friended.
Buh Bye!
PS: Singapore needs capitalists, too.
In fact, they welcome them
Hopefully he’s not like Bono, who tells us to cough up more money to aid Africa, while putting all of his assets into Dutch tax shelters to avoid paying taxes in Ireland.
One of the fundamental freedoms of a truly free country is the freedom to leave. This isn’t East Germany.
Didn’t the Feds go hard after Gates a few years back seeking more of his gelt? These same altruistic hacks never seem to volunteer more of their own money into the Federal Treasury. Not that Severin shouldn’t be taxed somewhat but what did the Feds do to merit extorting huge sums off his fortune?
This guy gives the real Ross Thomas a bad name.
And then foolish politicians, and the ever more foolish people who vote for them, tear it all down trying to steal all they can from those capitalists.
And I'm supposed to be offended by Saverine's actions?
Not going to happen. I'm too busy being mad at the people and policies that chased him away.
Besides, if I'm going to mad at him, then I've got to be mad at all the companies and individuals who bail out of tax crazy states like California, Michigan, Illinois, etc.
We never seem to tire of getting the lesson Saverine and others are teaching.
Pragmatic Capitalist or Ignorant Socialist?
It seems that recent IRS regulations demand that when an American citizen marries someone with different citizenship, and lives in a foreign country, the IRS now demands all sorts of financial information from that foreign spouse, even if he or she does no business and has no income from the US. I've also heard that many foreign banks are now refusing to do business with US citizens, due to the US government demands for information.
Mark
he’s lived outside the US for 2-3 yrs. didn’t grow up here... and intends to live in singapore
if the US believes they have some claim on his property (money == property) just because his business touched the US market...
then why aren’t they demanding money from ALL foreign citizens that receive financial benefits while dealing with the US?
why aren’t they demanding all those receiving money from illegals working in the US pay US taxes??
on top of all that... why the HELL is there no cap?
(From "The Big Bang Theory," "The Toast Derivation." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1632232/quotes?qt=qt1439115
[Usual gang and Priya are gossiping about Sheldon]
Howard Wolowitz: Raj, did you ever tell your sister about the time Sheldon got punched by Bill Gates?
Priya: Oh, God! You're kidding?
Raj Koothrappali: Nope. Gates gave a speech at the university. Sheldon went up to him afterward and said, "Maybe if you weren't so distracted by sick children in Africa, you could've put a little more thought into Windows Vista."
[all laugh]
Leonard Hofstadter: Bam! Right in the nose. Made me proud to own a PC.
Mark
Saverine’s move to Singapore is an act that protects the rest of us. Without the threat of leaving, what amount of money would government decide to confiscate. As I heard Mark Steyn say, can you imagine the tax rate a one world government would impose.
I’m for anything one has to do to save his assets from communistic seizure.
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