Posted on 04/12/2010 8:19:59 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Edited on 04/12/2010 8:21:54 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
The numbers are small. A modern record, to be sure, and an embarrassment to some. But nothing to be alarmed about. Better to just curse their greed, slap an exit tax on their assets, and move on. There are plenty more where they came from.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...
Ditto for California!
Yeah, the first half was good, the second, not so much.
Build a wall . It is what totalitarians do .
You (and several others here) have asked "Where are they going?"
I believe that you all are laboring under the mistaken impression that a wealthy individual seeking to escape the confiscatory taxes imposed (in the higher brackets) upon various forms of income in the United States doesn't have to find a "better" or "more-vital" country than the U.S. to flee to.
By that I mean: The refuge they seek needn't have a stronger economy, a sounder currency, a more-ambitious space program, a better educational system, an advanced health care system, etc.
Those criteria are of absolutely no interest to the wealthy individual seeking to flee from the gradual (or not-so-gradual) expropriation of his wealth through exorbitant taxes.
Rather, he seeks only a country where he can ensconce himself in something resembling a "gated community" - isolated, as much as possible, from the teeming masses of uneducated, poor, and criminal natives.
The most important aspect for the wealthy individual is that his new host-country will not tax him to death. It could, for example, have tax laws exempting all dividends and interest and capital gains earned on funds invested abroad.
All of the other services which you, subconsciously, have been thinking of (police protection, good schools, well-built streets, etc.) DO NOT HAVE TO BE PROVIDED BY THE STATE, THROUGH TAXES. Wealthy individual would prefer to provide them, themselves - and ONLY FOR THEMSELVES, out of their own pocket, but not into a public treasury.
They would rather that the State didn't interfer.
What these future tax exiles want, in principle, is a "do-nothing" government, that will allow them to enjoy their wealth in peace. These tax refugees would rather shop around for the best (if priciest) doctors, the finest Swiss boarding schools for their children, etc. The roads in their compounds will be immaculate. Their drinking water will be pure. They will pay for it themselves. But they will not be compelled to pay for such goods and services consumed by others (the poor).
As long as the government of his host-country is not so corrupt that he needs to fear being arrested on trumped-up charges by a police chief eager to extort his wealth from him, these would-be ex-pats have really very low expectations of their future host-country.
"Galt's Gulch" doesn't have superhighways, entangling alliances the world over, a 1st-rate educational system, military might, or moon shots. It doesn't need to offer those things, as long as individuals are free to go shopping and purchase them, themselves.
Regards,
0bama wants to create an economic Berlin Wall and prevent capital flow out of the country. All this will do is force individuals to hide their money in precious metals and cash (not a safety deposit box either). More and more, folks will stop buying stocks and even investing in their 401ks.
Money will get out. We know that those with political connections and the uber rich will find a legal mechanism. The wealthy small business owners and upper middle class will need to smuggle much of their cash and gold out when they finally decide to retire abroad. As the government becomes more oppressive, immoral and unreasonable, ordinary people will have little trouble rationalizing breaking the law. This has happened in Europe for years and other oppressive regimes throughout history.
There will be somewhere to put your money, The US is losing its global economic influence and will have trouble bullying countries that want to attract wealthy retirees.
Places like Costa Rica are quite attractive for people at or nearing retirement age.
The EBT queen ahead of you has steak, shrimp, and bags and bags of chips and gallons of soda,
and you are standing there with your 2 pounds of ground beef, waiting for her to pay for it with your money.
Then, to top it off, you see her loading it into a newer car than yours.
IIRC, when a person dies, the bank is required to have an IRS agent on hand when any safety deposit boxes are opened.
Anyone have a clue what that means?
I guess that Real Clear Markets is an excerpt only site.
Panama is stable and doing so well they are expanding the canal.
Belize is growing. The native language is English and the currency is the US dollar.
Costa Rica has good medical care and is stable.
The problem with the idea of the wealthy and the capable divesting themselves and going "into hiding" is: To whom will they sell their efficient little business, their patents, their investments - and at what price?
They'd have to see at a loss - towards the end of the mass exodus of "high performers," at a big loss.
Regards,
You can starve the monkeys right here. Galt's Gulch is a state of mind and a plan of action.
Were you there behind me? I swear! This gal went out and got into a brand new Escalade. She was wearing better clothes than I’d be buried in.
Hey, if you are “rich” you can sell out, invest, and live quite well in places like Panama, the Caymans, the Philippines. Not like the average natives there! There is lots of green grass, and you don’t have to mow it yourself either.
They have already started. The top management of my company, a global company with about 13,000 people, moved to Switzerland last year.
You'll need it. A couple of steaks at the supermarket costs $70. I have some friends who are over there now--he works for a big pharmaceutical company and they rotate all their executives through for a couple of years each. They can't wait to get back to the US where food is cheap, things are actually open on Sunday, waitresses and other service people are actually friendly, and you don't constantly feel like an outsider. They said, "Imagine a country where everyone went to high school together. And all their parents went to high school together. And all their grandparents went to high school together. That's Switzerland, and you'll always be an outsider."
Taxation of worldwide earnings for ten years after somebody gives up their citizenship is a wall. Yeah, it's what totalitarians do.
I’ve spent a lot of time in Peru, Costa Rica, and Argentina.
CR or Argentina are fine.
“Racist Stereotypes”
are often founded in REALITY.
Sometimes you’ll “miss”, but more often than not,
they fit the pattern.
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