Should you leave America, can you leave America? Are there more reasons to leave America? This is one of the most asked questions I receive. The answers to the first two questions are unclear to many. However, the answer to the last question is an unqualified yes!
Record Expatriation of US Citizens
Americans are leaving the country at record speed and the annual rate of expatriation is growing as over 150,000 Americans departed the former land of liberty for greener pastures overseas in the past year. In fact, there are now over five million Americans who are choosing to live outside the United States. Just why are Americans leaving this land of “freedom” and opportunity in record numbers, with no end in sight?
Would you renounce your U.S. citizenship if it meant you’d be sending less of your hard-earned dollars to Uncle Sam? Do you want affordable health care? Do you desire to live a long and healthy life? Do you want your children to have an affordable college education? Do you want to retire in relative comfort? Do you desire to live your life with more freedoms than you presently enjoy and not have to worry about government harassment? On balance, should most Americans stay or go?
"Are you tired of this country constantly being at a state of war? Are you tired of your sons and daughters marching off to kill people in another country because the government told them to? Isn't time the people of this country stopped killing and being killed? If this is the cost of freedom; freedom cost too much. On the contrary, freedom is free, that's why it's called freedom. But, it isn't here anymore- was it ever?" [emphasis mine]
There are reasons and myths which both favor and discourage expatriation. Below, I have listed a set of generalized statements about the viability of leaving America and these notions are examined.
The Highest Taxes In the World
The number one reason that Americans are fleeing the country is because of high taxes. The income tax rate rose last year to 39.6% from 35% for individuals earning more than $400,000 a year and married couples earning more than $450,000. Also, 77% of Americans will pay higher federal tax rates because the cuts in Social Security payroll taxes expired when Congress passed its tax package on New Year’s Day 2013 . The Tax Policy Center estimates that those who earn more than $1 million would pay an average of $170,341 more in taxes.
If you are middle class or poor, you may not have the means to leave and your taxes have not been as dramatically impacted as the wealthy. It is a fact that expatriation does favor the upper middle class because one has to have a significant income to benefit from a potential move. In other words, if you are the owner of an obama phone, you are better off staying in the country because you have little to tax.
We Can’t Leave Our Great US Pensions Behind
Meet the new robber baron, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew
It is a myth that America has a good set of retirement systems.You are not getting the best pension package compared to other Western nations as America ranks dead last in overall pension benefits. And this is in the backdrop of the nothing-to-lose, second term obama Administration, who is preparing to seize your 401-k pensions. Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew has already starting raided federal pension funds this last year so the government does not exceed the debt ceiling. America, your money is not even safe in the bank as witnessed by the fact that the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals who ruled that banks can steal the money of its depositors and it is legal! There are no golden years in America unless you are in the infamous 1%.
Americans Stay for Higher Pay
Americans no longer live in the highest salary paying country in the world. In fact, the United States does not even crack the top ten list of the highest salary paying countries on the planet in which Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Japan, Norway, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom round out the top ten and pay their workers more than workers in the United States. In fact, the United States only ranks 20th in terms of overall gross pay! One would be very naive to call America the land of opportunity.
If We Leave Our Children’s Education Will Suffer
The Education Policy Institute assessed the affordability of higher education costs and found that the United States ranks 13th in higher education affordability. At a time when our schools are producing students which are performing last in math and science as compared to our industrialized cohort nations, leaving the country, in many cases, would benefit a child’s educational attainment. And do not forget that the Common Core Standards have come online and they will dramatically increase the dumbing down of American students. Most Americans mistakenly think they will help their children to rise above the rest by going to college. That type of thinking can be a financial death trap. To those who think your children can borrow their way to a degree, think again.
Today’s U.S. college loan practices, which serve to underwrite much of the cost of a college education, are the most predatory in the world. As of 2013, bankruptcy cannot cancel out a student loan debt and delinquent college students can now go to jail for nonpayment. In fact, several federal agencies have even “swat teamed” many delinquent student loan defaulters. Nowhere else in the world can we find evidence of these types of predatory practices being used against college students as we do here in the United States. Even those who are degreed and/or skilled in fields such as engineering or information technology skills, are really wasting their time working in the United States. Eight of the world’s ten highest-paying countries for information technology (IT) managers are in Western Europe, according to a new survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.
The survey found that Swiss managers are paid the most, followed by those in Germany and Denmark. In fact, IT management is another field where U.S. workers fail to crack the top ten in income, the United States ranks 14th in IT management compensation. Even debt ridden Spain, Italy and Greece pay their IT managers more than what Americans earn on average. If you child is striving to become a high tech employee, they would be better leaving the country.
We Cannot Leave This Good Health Care Behind
The United States spends more than the next 12 nations for health care. However, it seems as if we are spending more and enjoying it less as, despite our exorbitant spending on health care, the United States ranks 50th in the world in life expectancy. Cuba, Puerto Rico and Spain have higher life expectancies than the United States. Americans live in the only country in the world where its citizens cannot bargain shop for its medicines in foreign countries because the pharmaceuticals have convinced congress to establish a pharmaceutical monopoly over U.S. citizens. Death by doctor has increased to 225,000 per year. Health care would be an excellent reason to leave.
Conclusion
Perhaps the best reason to leave the country would come down to the 2016 appointment. If Hillary is not healthy enough to take the White House, the (s)election might be canceled and this would be marked by the beginning of martial law and perhaps even culminating in civil war. The other reason to leave the country, related to the (s)election, would stem from Clinton being elected. Under Clinton, tyranny would reign supreme. I have already made plans to be in hiding if Clinton becomes Madam President.
-Unknown/Thoughts of a concerned American
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