The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire

Savarin is right; the US taxes, both income and corporate are anti-capitalist. Here's a quote from the article:

"unconsumed savings don’t traditionally lie dormant under a mattress, rather the savings are lent to or invested in today’s and tomorrow’s entrepreneurs. In short, Saverin’s avoidance of the tax man means that his Facebook profits will reach future entrepreneurs as opposed to being wasted by the political class.

Oddly here, and this speaks to how silly the economic discussion has become, founder Mark Zuckerberg is being lionized for the presumed $1 billion in capital gains taxes he’ll pay the feds. Saverin’s avoidance plan means more capital for business growth while Zuckerberg’s non-avoidance ensures more feeding of the beast, yet Saverin’s the bad guy?"

This says it all. Should the money go to the government for Consumption purposes or should it be Invested into Production of more businesses and jobs? Hmmm?

Plus ca change, plus ca la meme chose

They tried something similar in England in the 1960's - 95% became the top marginal tax rate. That caused hundreds of British millionaires to decamp, and George Harrison to pen this little known ditty:

Taxman

ET, you said it all and in a concise manner. We used to have a great president in the Great Satan by the name of Ronald Reagan. He would have completely agreed with you.

It’s the Liberal Progressive left that wants to tear down borders, language and culture, why should anyone care where this guy takes his money and business.

Patriotic duties to pay ones tax’s died with flag burning and trampling the constitution. Why would any wealthy person live in a dying country like the US, forced to pay for every lazy drug addicted slob’s lifestyle when they can easily live anywhere in the developing world like a king?

Whatever your income level is, you can triple your current financial lifestyle in places like Malaysia or Thailand. This guy would be nuts to stay in the US as a multi billionaire.

Expect a flood if Obama wins again of this type of escape .

eduardo is just becomin where he's livin.

sayonara u.s.a.

good timing too, a "successful" investor would say.

Gratitude. Ever hear of it? This silver-spooned waif was allowed into the U.S. presumably on the grounds that in Brazil, his life was endangered by kidnappers. (That and Daddy's money.)

Some time later, perhaps as he was displacing the son of a Kansas wheat farmer from his dream of going to Harvard, he rose his hand and said this....

"...I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same..."

He is a billionaire.
Are the taxes just? No.
Is he right to leave? No.

A person like him, young, unimaginably rich, famous in social media, could help change the perspectives of many and turn back the red tide. But no, he is no American and he never was.

Here, again we are forced to bear witness to the significance of the term 'natural born citizen'.
As Forbes Magazine correctly suggests that Zuckerberg is feeding a beast, they fail, in their rush to praise an ungrateful defector, to recognize that what is missing is the fight.

I am sad to see people content to watch the value of two presidential campaigns walk out the door. "See, that'll show 'em."
No, it won't. Stay and comply or run off; both signify defeat. Until people recognize this and make the sacrifices it will take to restore this nation, we are doomed.

Saverin is an ingrate, Zuckerberg... well.. we'll see.

james cameron (terminator, titanic, avatar) decamped with family to new zealand this year too.

obama?

romney?

end of mayan calendar?

taxman?

A person like him, young, unimaginably rich, famous in social media, could help change the perspectives of many and turn back the red tide.

How? And why is he obligated? He's already paid plenty in taxes. He has no moral obligation to feed the beast and indeed his refusal to is heroic. Nothing wrong with retreat. I guess Singapore is Mandarin for 'Galt's Gulch'.

The US is done. If the Obaminator makes it in November, it's really all over. They are the Greece of the Americas. Obama truly is the worst American President ever. Would that the USA was lucky enough to have a Ronald Reagan come over the horizon, with Art Laffer riding shotgun.

Gratitude? To the government?

This thinking reminds me of another false notion: that successful entreprenuers should "give something back to the community" as if profits were something they "took from the community" [CSR = corporate social responsbility].

Not so. Great profits are evidence that they provided something highly valued by the community. The profits are the sovereign consumers' gratitude to the entrepreneur.

Yup, a real patriot would fight for their country. He was never anything but a foreigner, regardless of the oath he took.

So Savarin is somehow not patriotic because he won't allow the government to take 1/3 of his money?

The problem in our society is not Savarin, it's not even the government, it's people who think he's wrong for not allowing government to steal his money.

I'm still amazed anyone would want to pay anything for Facebook stock.

How? And why is he obligated? ...Nothing wrong with retreat.
LAS, you claim that you have no other ties to the country of your citizenship but low taxes, and when you paid your taxes you can go elsewhere? You think that citizenship does not oblige you to fight - literally and figuratively - for the good of that country? That if there is bad government and you have some chance of changing it you do not try (in some small way) to change it but go to another country. And you go to another country just because that other country gives you lower taxes?
Gosh, now I know why China is getting ahead.

mnd- nice way to put it!

ella - no, allowing a government to tax away private company profits is NOT a sign of patriotism, or fighting for your country, or changing it.

Government revenue does not enable a nation's economy to prosper. All govt revenue goes into one economic action: Consumption. Period.

So - your profit, instead of being used by people to Invest and set up private small businesses, which will hire people and generate wealth - is taken by the govt. The govt then distributes this wealth, not for Investment and Production, but for Consumption only. It's given out for current use - social entitlements, salaries of public bureaucrats.

No new businesses set up, no new jobs developed. How does allowing this dissipation of wealth help a nation? It doesn't; it's like throwing all your money into the wind.

The problem in our society is not Savarin, it's not even the government, it's people who think he's wrong for not allowing government to steal his money.
NO SDH, the problem in your society is the people who think like you do.
If government takes too much of your taxes do you not change that government? Or try to change it?
Did that guy even try to change his (he was a citizen) government? He did not. He made money and later he lost some of it to Zuckerman.
So why he is now a hero ? Is it only because he went back to Brazil which now has better economy than at the time he immigrated to USA?

Good riddance, if something more challenging came up he would enable the enemy if there were profit in it.

Anyone remember Paul Martin?

no, allowing a government to tax away private company profits is NOT a sign of patriotism, or fighting for your country, or changing it.
Never claimed it is.
I claimed that renouncing citizenship at the first signs of difficulty is not a sign of heroism, it is sign of cowardice.

ella >

This is simply a guy not sophisticated enough to hide his tax's like Buffet, Gore or Gates. The day the very rich Liberals are actually forced to pay real taxes they will all move.

No borders or patriotism for them, they tell you that every day, now a few are proving it.

A perfect example of nanny state Socialism and high tax's failing the average Joe. These guys would love to see a national collapse of the US. The way they see it, they will just come back in later and buy up real estate and businesses on the cheap.

The US is just another stock market commodity to them.

But ella - citizenship includes the requirement to pay taxes.

Geezus, with freedom and rights come responsibilities.
I can't believe the advocacy of complete ballessness I am seeing here.

Citizenship: The status of a citizen with its attendant duties, rights, and privileges.

While you're all wound up over profits and 'individual fairness' I'm discussing the concept of good citizenship. The idea that this guy shouldn't bail over money but stay and fight the tax on principal. It is an act of selfishness not to. One can clearly begin to see the difference between an elite international 'whirled' citizen and a simple decent tax paying American who may well wind up paying a higher % of a micro income compared to this guy.

The idea of making your country great is out for both you and this guy. Is this a libertarian trait that demonstrates a tendency toward anarchy, moral relativism, and dare I say.... nihilism? Sure sounds like it to me.

A country is greater than it's government. Surely you didn't think I wanted this fellow to stay and pay out of gratitude. I wanted him to stay and fight out of gratitude. Surely this 'entrepreneur'
has regard for his grateful customers... or are we discussing plutocracy here? A retreat to the fantastically veiled Singapore. It is a fantasy. There is nothing wrong with retreat. Who says that? Nobody. Google it. Horoscopes and fantasy game players.

This is reality. My nation is crumbling under what I consider to be a fascist regime. This fellow came here for sanctuary from a third world country. He's young, fabulously rich, and knows / co-invented social media. He could make a massive difference in the upcoming election. He bails.

Eff that! That's not heroism. Have we become that depraved that we allow Saverin to be called a hero? There's the false notion, and a sickening one at that!

Yeah, really, screw that guy. I mean, it's not like the Government is trying to take ever increasing amounts of money away him, or mobs in the streets chanting "kill the rich"...

Oh, wait.

The attitude of entitlement doesn't only exist among the occupiers...

Once upon a time people would give up their lives for their imperfect country, in the hopes of making it more perfect. Not so much anymore.

And, as always, the sages, who have never produced anything, sagely counsel cowardice...

That mob in the street are some of his biggest fans.
He could be a very effective spokesman.

Infinity - you are mixing up tactics.

You feel that the only way to fight a government gone beserk is by staying and doing what? Writing opinion pieces to your Congressman? Your single vote?

Ah yes, a group of citizens can gather, as did the Tea Party, and form a collective, which is certainly a powerful force. These people need not be wealthy and their tax contributions are minor to the government coffers. Their voices are what is powerful. The government will counter with its Voice, its smears and denigration.

What about fighting that government by withdrawing its capacity to empower itself fiscally. You reduce its tax base and, from the outside, explain why.

If a group of wealthy citizens do this, and explain why, this too is a powerful statement to the government - even closer to the bone, so to speak, than the voices of the Tea Party.

There are thus two collective tactics of changing your country. One tactic does not require that you have, yourself, wealth. Another does. Both are viable. I suggest that each has their positive functions.

If a group of wealthy citizens do this, and explain why, this too is a powerful statement to the government - even closer to the bone, so to speak, than the voices of the Tea Party.

Gee, the sage should go advise California, Detroit and a bunch of other places their wealthy people are going missing. They don't seem to notice.

$400 million is pocket change to these people.

It's simply another sign of collapse; this guy has enough money to be in the know.

Where do all the occupier’s think they are going to drive the rich even if they got their way? I suppose they have visions of holding them at gun point and making them pay “their fair share”. Sorry kid’s doesn’t work that way.

When the super rich tire of feeding off America, they can and will move wherever they wish and can build a Disneyland paradise in the middle of a desert to live in. They can and they will, these are what places like Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong etcetera already are to some degree. The Super Rich live on Greek Islands and exclusive ocean front bays on the French Rivera, Chalet town valleys in the Swiss Alps, and many other places you will never see – they don’t need America, or it’s taxes for entitlements of the little people.