Posted on 09/06/2009 3:05:12 AM PDT by Maggie Maggie Maggie
You’ve got a funny way of expressing your conservatism. One of the founding principals of this country involves freedom. And that freedom includes the freedom to leave the country. You seem to want to restrict that freedom, which is particularly troubling when we’ve got a government which is openly declaring war on the wealthy...
Want them to stay? Stop punishing success. I’ve had trouble tracking this number down, but it is estimated there is 10 to 13 trillion dollars held in offshore banks.
Stop publishing success and bring these dollars home and put them to work investing in new business.
End the capital gains tax and tax on savings. End corporate taxes.
Enact a flat tax and unleash the American entrepreneurs so we can grow our way out of this economic mess.
Stupid spell checker, can't do anything right...
With all due respect LH......To be honest with you? I couldn’t care less if they leave. This has less to do with business than with frame of mind and if wealthy people believe that they are going to ‘save’ their fortunes by leaving.......then go. The point has been made perfectly clear. Go......after all the US has done for them....go ahead and dive right off and take their temporary wealth with them...and it will be temporary I can assure you.
The country needs people to be defiant. “want them to stay? stop punishing success?” Tell it to your congress person; I’m not the one that elected this bastard.
Indeed - it speaks volumes when the productive want to leave while the leeches want to stay.
You have my vote.
Maybe I can shed some light. I’ve “gone Galt”, and did it for two purposes:
1. Protect my family and loved ones
2. Hasten the demise of the tax-and-spend professional politician class
The first should be obvious; the US has some of the most regressive taxation laws out there, and is eclipsed in economic freedom by several countries.
I spent 12 years building a business - an actual manufacturing company with machinists, warehouse people, assemblers, office staff - in the US. One day, because of a proven paperwork screw-up on the part of the IRS - I had it all torn down. Levies issued before I was notified (on both business AND personal accounts), liens on all corporate and private assets, “revenue agents” swarming the building without a search warrant (thank God my local Sheriff came in 40 minutes and got them to agree to return with an actual warrant), suppliers and customers contacted, and so on. All because the IRS misspelled my company’s name in their records, and didn’t credit my tax and SSI/FICA payments to my account for 7 years.
I spent the better part of 2 years and over $250,000 fighting the beast, and in the end won. Of course, I get none of the time or money back, I just get the pleasure of having the IRS agree that I didn’t owe them anything in the first place. Oh, and 3 audits in the last 4 years as well...
Then I sat down for a review with my CPA. After going over the numbers, she put it pretty bluntly: between the money spent defending myself against the incompetence of the IRS, and the taxes that I was paying, 45% of gross revenue was going to the Governments (Federal, State, Local). Forty Five Percent of GROSS.
At that instant, I decided I was done working 70 hours weeks only to feed the Beast. My pleas for assistance to my Congressional delegation fell on deaf ears; they didn’t care about Mr. Small Business when I had problems, only cared about squeezing more money from me. If I would give them thousands of dollars in campaign contributions it may have been different; but how is supporting bribery an ethical thing to do?
So, I closed it all down and have “gone Galt”. I found new jobs for each and every employee. I paid off my partners their full share. I paid off all suppliers, delivered the last goods to all customers, and found replacement suppliers for those customers. Then I pulled out.
Which brings me to point 2. Since you cannot fight the Beast on its own terms (it makes the rules, and it decides when either your or it breaks the rules - it is rulemaker and referee), I have chosen to starve it as much as possible, and to put half the money I used to feed the Beast towards activism.
I donate to politicians and causes that rally for conservatism. I spend my longer vacations helping out on campaigns, and I make sure and vote each and every chance I get. I refuse to feed the Beast, and I will keep as many resources as I can to help bring it down.
Going Galt is not always selfish; if the top 1% of all households would do so, the economy of the US would crash. Yes, it would be painful for everyone around the world, but it would also completely shut down the insanity that goes on in Washington.
There would be no attempt to nationalize health care. There wouldn’t be a “Van Jones” controversy. There would be one issue, and one issue only: the economy. And on that, the conservatives can win.
Call me a traitor or a quitter if you want; at least I know that the absolute minimum of my resources is going to support the current system, and that amount is dwindling every single year (it should be zero by 2011). I no longer contribute anything to uphold the Congress (which is where the problem lies) or its unsustainable spending habits. And I do it out of passion for my life, my Liberty, and my love of Country.
I will leave you with a quote from Judge Learned Hand, the most-quoted and most-referenced Judge in all Supreme Court decisions:
“Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes. Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands.”
It is, in fact, legal and patriotic to reduce ones taxes to as low as possible, legally. And the best way to do that is to “go Galt”.
Quite a bit of federal funding now goes to the states. Special interests in controlling affairs of the various states are as despotic as those in the fed. That’s why I’ve asked for considerations of at least two-pronged solutions against big government (national and local). But it will happen anyway, after the defaults and/or inflation wars.
I agree.
“Sounds like some Action Movie plot, but it could work.”
Sounds like Galt’s Gulch!
Stand and fight you lilly livered bastiches...
The dust has settled, but it settled in all the the wrong places. Last year a majority of American voters freely chose an anti-American communist president and 110 anti-American communist Congressmen and Congresswomen (the so-called "progressive" caucus) because they wanted "change". The change they got was from the pre-existent socialism-lite to communism-lite, and wherever that system is given an inch it takes a mile and soon transforms a nation into a full-blown Marxist dictatorship. If you hate and envy the rich American elite now, just wait until the bitter, vindictive, Marxist collectivists complete their take-over.
But hey, if a Marxist dictatorship is what the majority of American voters want so be it. Just don't expect freedom loving Americans who have the financial means to escape to stick around until the government chosen by the envious, bitter, vindictive majority finishes forging their chains and manacles. Anyway, a dictatorial one-world UN government will soon overtake them wherever they go and confiscate their wealth for redistribution to the envious, indolent masses. But even so, I hope that at least a few Americans can escape the clutches of that soon-to-be global dictatorship for as long as possible.
The dust has just started to ‘kick up’ my friend. And my position is the same....want to run, want to protect your precious wealth....go but don’t come back. I have nothing against wealth and properity...I love it, I’ve had it myself but I’ll be damn if I would renounce my citizenship to ‘protect’ it (which is an illusion anyway). Because the fact of the matter is, my country is more important to me than all the riches combined. Take that pig Michael Moore.....denouncing America including his ‘new’ tirade against capitalism and what is he doing? Making millions from the system. May he and all the other traitors rot in hell.
Read the excellent post containing a quote by Samuel Adams posted earlier.
Let them ‘lick’ the hand that feeds them..........
There are uncountable thousands of Americans who have experienced that same outrageous treatment or a similar outrage committed by an out of control IRS. When opposed, the IRS criminals invariably respond by auditing the injured party's returns until some minor irregularity can be found and exploited in order to instill fear into anyone who dares question their authority.
The Fair Tax would end that kind of abuse by eliminating the IRS and it's unconstitutional, dictatorial power over the American people, but many otherwise conservative people still don't get it. The Fair Tax is NOT a sales tax designed to favor the wealthy by overtaxing the poor. It's a simple, easily understandable, and FAIR way of collecting approximately the same amount of money to operate the government, except that it would collect it by fair, truly proportional, and Constitutionally acceptable means instead of by the IRS committing an uncountable number of criminal acts of intimidation and revenge each year against honest America taxpayers who make the mistake of assuming that a fair and honest system of taxation is the primary goal of that out of control agency. But that isn't it's goal, the goal is to intimidate taxpayers sufficiently to extract every possible dollar from the unfortunate taxpayers who it chooses to harass, persecute, and criminalize.
I experienced a similar outrage by the IRS many years ago, except for the fact my business was much smaller and a far less amount of money was involved. Never the less it was a significant amount to me in my circumstances of that time, and I still resent the way I was treated by an agency of my government for no legitimate reason. However, to me one of the most important and personally gratifying results of the Fair Tax would be the elimination of the countless hidden taxes unknowingly paid by everyone who uses any product or service anywhere, anytime, and of any kind.
I'm not licking anyone's hands, and I'm not applauding anyone who does. I am simply pointing out facts. IMHO America is on a fast track to all-out Marxism, and anyone, wealthy or not, who can find a legitimate way to escape that onrushing freight train should be allowed to do so without being ostracized by the less fortunate who can't.
As an “accidental American” (my parents were briefly citizens, and I was born, raised, etc.) in Israel, I’ve come close to renouncing my US Citizenship on a number of occassions, only to end up marrying a US Citizen and (temporaily) living in the USA .
Until I moved to the USA, I never reported my income. (limitations has long expired, so I freely admit this).
I earned my money abroad, paid Israeli taxes (which are generally higher, with noted exceptions), and there was no way I was going to the hassle of filing a return (which would have probably netted out anyway) for a country that I had never set foot in.
It struck me as absurd and unfair.
Now that I am here, albeit temporaily; yes, I pay my taxes. A lot of taxes.
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