“Traditionally, the American people have been some of the most patriotic people on the face of the planet. So why are we now seeing such an increase in the number of people choosing to leave the United States permanently? Well, the truth is that there are a whole host of reasons why people are losing faith in this country and are deciding to leave…”
“We come to view our nationalities rather ironically as a big piece of our core individuality. I am an American. I am a Canadian. I am an Austrian. Instead of– I am a human being. It has taken decades… centuries even… to reach this point. So the fact that more and more people are making the gut-wrenching decision to ditch their US passports is truly a powerful trend. So what’s driving it? Taxes… and the search for liberty. For many, their tax bills constitute a financial breaking point. Particularly for people who spend most of their time outside of the United States and are constantly hamstrung by worldwide taxation and information disclosures.”
“Jessica Mans, one of the people who runs Life Remotely, which opened my eyes to just how, well … really cool this lifestyle can be, graciously took some time to talk about location independence with us. Life Remotely is a great resource for everything from planning your own extended trips to just living vicariously through the experiences of three people who got a taste of travel and living abroad and decided a taste wasn’t enough. They’ve just wrapped up an epic drive from Seattle to Patagonia (yup, you read that right) and have put out one of Amazon’s Best Books of 2013: Don’t Go There. It’s Not Safe. You’ll Die.”
http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/on-life-remotely-an-interview-with-jessica-mans
“The Department of the Treasury has finally placed the latest Quarterly Publication of Individuals Who have Chosen to Expatriate on public inspection for printing in tomorrow’s Federal Register, ten days late. Congratulations to Innocente for being the first to post the news at 9 AM right on the dot. There’s about 1,130 names of people who have permanently cut off their legal ties to the U.S. government, making this a record-breaking quarter; more names have appeared in the first half of this year than in all of the previous record high year of 2011.”
“For a government to siphon off wealth efficiently, it must know where the wealth is, set up ways to take it, and have a strong enough police force to make sure citizens comply. The intention is to make it easier to pay up than go to jail. Even people with modest nest eggs are constantly looking for ways to legally protect their wealth. Lawyers love it, since it means citizens need a variety of trusts and complicated legal avenues for minimizing taxes. That’s part of the game. As governments press on, the stakes escalate, taxes increase, and we have to escalate our efforts to protect ourselves.”
http://www.millersmoney.com/money-weekly/shield-your-nest-egg-from-its-two-biggest-threats
“If a 747 jetliner filled with one investor from each jurisdiction on earth touched down in a newly independent country, and each investor risked $1000 in a start-up venture, in the new economy, the American would face a far higher tax than anybody else on any gains. Special, penal taxation of foreign investment, exemplified by the so-called PFIC taxation, plus the U.S. nationality tax, can result in tax liabilities of 200 per cent or more on long term assets held outside the United States. A successful American could reduce his total lifetime tax burden as a citizen of any of more than 280 other jurisdictions on the globe.”
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/08/07/the-irs-has-become-one-of-americas-leading-exports/
“There are three features that distinguish the Lebanese financial system: 1. The banks have the highest cash reserve ratios in the world. 2. The central bank holds the second highest gold reserves on a per person basis. 3. Real financial privacy. Lebanon is also one of the few countries left in the world that still has real financial privacy, both in theory and in practice… just not for Americans, though, thanks to FATCA, which Lebanon has indicated it will comply with. Additionally, Lebanon ranks only behind Switzerland in terms of gold reserves per person according to this chart below from The Economist.”
http://www.internationalman.com/78-global-perspectives/983-would-you-believe-this-country
“For the United States and other debt-addicted countries, years of profligate spending have more or less sealed their economic fates. With the stage set, further encroachments of privacy are practically guaranteed. Faced with economic uncertainty, governments will search for new ways to plunder the productive members of society. These may include capital controls, more onerous regulations, or wealth confiscation, either explicitly or by way of the printing press. The developing NSA story along with the crisis in Cyprus prove that desperate governments will stop at nothing to prevent their house of cards from collapsing, no matter how futile.”
“People seeming to have an interest in Mexico and the desperate, blood-soaked lives we live here, Average beach, Micnoacàn, at sundown. Fred, dissolute as a matter of principle, supervises waves with a cold Tecate. To get here, you drive north from Ajijic to Guadalajara, turn left until you hit the Pacific coast at Manzanillo, turn left again, and find hundreds, perhaps thousands or millions, of miles of deserted beaches. We stay in a little town with one hotel of four rooms, one of them a suite, of about two stars, with chickens cackling in the yard and no gringos, cackling or otherwise.”
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/08/fred-reed/mexico%E2%80%A8-the-beautiful/
“The act of renouncing U.S. citizenship should not ‘diminish your personal identity’. If you want to think of yourself as an American that’s fine. Nobody can take that away from you. This is important. Why? Because the Obama ‘Witch Hunt’ against U.S. citizens abroad has forced people to reevaluate many of their fundamental assumptions. Few Americans abroad still view the United States as ‘that great citadel of freedom and justice’. Few Americans abroad see themselves as ‘tax cheats’ because they have offshore accounts.”