Giving People Reasons to Leave the U.S.

Venture Capitalist Bill Frezza asks, “What do we do if the rich start to leave?” He enumerates the reasons people will increasingly have over the next few years for leaving the U.S. He also warns any would be foreign investors and entrepreneurs about the dangers of obtaining U.S. citizenship. ‘Cause, just when you think you’re out, they drag you back in:

How dare they leave after all we did for them! If expatriations keep growing Congress should triple the exit tax. In fact, why should we let deserters take any money with them at all? They should be thankful we let them out with the clothes on their backs. Didn’t they enjoy the benefits of this great country while the getting was good?

Maybe we can’t put up walls but there are ways to keep people from fleeing, lots of countries do it. We can lean on foreign governments to deny economic defectors citizenship. If anyone tries to sneak out the IRS can hold their children hostage. We have so many complicated laws and regulations, surely we can find some obscure rule that they broke, and if we can’t we can pass more laws and make them retroactive. Even better, let’s pass enough laws to make sure that no one is allowed to get rich in the first place! That’ll solve the problem once and for all.