And it will only get worse until we have had enough. But remember the story of the frog and the pot of water. It may get to be too late before you realize it. If you're not gone, you won't be able to.
This generation has never seen the American pot boil. The water is now comfy warm for some and too hot for others. Even before the water starts to boil it's too late. All the frogs are cooked! When you can't even get permission to leave it is near the time.
The basic idea that what you earned or built is yours is foreign to a dying country. But currently you can abandon or dispose of what you own before leaving this country by yourself, taking your mind with you. John Galt knew this, Dagny learned this and audiences will see this in Part 3 of AS.
Regarding renunciation of citizenship: From Wikipedia on Expatriation Tax:
The first law to authorize taxation of former citizens was passed in 1966; it created Internal Revenue Code Section 877, which allowed the U.S.-source income of former citizens to be taxed for up to 10 years following the date of their loss of citizenship. Section 877 was first amended in 1996, at a time when the issue of renunciation of U.S. citizenship for tax purposes was receiving a great deal of public attention; the same attention resulted in the passage of the Reed Amendment, which attempted to prevent former U.S. citizens who renounced citizenship to avoid taxation from obtaining visas, but which was never enforced.[5][6] The American Jobs Creation act of 2004 amended Section 877 again.[7] Under the new law, any individual who had a net worth of $2 million or an average income tax liability of $139,000 for the five previous years[8] who renounces his or her citizenship is automatically assumed to have done so for tax avoidance reasons and is subject to additional taxes. Furthermore, with certain exceptions covered expatriates who spend at least 31 days in the United States in any year during the 10-year period following expatriation were subject to US taxation as if they were U.S. citizens or resident aliens.[9]
A bill entitled Tax Collection Responsibility Act of 2007 was introduced during the 110th session of congress in July 2007 by Charles B. Rangel. It foresaw, among others, a revision of the taxation of former American citizens whose citizenship officially ends, In particular, all property of an expatriate up to certain exceptions would be treated as having been sold on the day before the expatriation for its fair market value with any gain exceeding $600,000 classified as taxable income. This bill failed to advance to the Senate.
The HEART Act, passed on 17 June 2008, created the new Section 877A, which imposed a substantially different expatriation tax from that of the earlier Section 877.[6] The new expatriation tax law, effective for calendar year 2009, defines "covered expatriates" as expatriates who have a net worth of $2 million, or 5 year average income tax liability exceeding $139,000, except for certain dual citizens by birth and certain minors as defined in Section 877A(g)(1)(B) who are not considered "covered expatriates", provided they certify under penalties of perjury that they have complied with all federal tax obligations for the preceding five tax years and provided they file Form 8854.[10] Under the new expatriation tax law, "covered expatriates" are treated as if they had liquidated all of their assets on the date prior to their expatriation. Under this provision, the taxpayer's net gain is computed as if he or she had actually liquidated their assets. Net gain is the difference between the fair market value (theoretical selling price) and the taxpayer's cost basis (actual purchase price). Once net gain is calculated, any net gain greater than $600,000 will be taxed as income in that calendar year. The tax applies whether or not an actual sale is made by the taxpayer, and whether or not the notional gains arise on assets in the taxpayer's home country acquired before immigration to the United States. It is irrelevant that the gains may have partly arisen before the taxpayer moved to the U.S.
The new tax law also applies to deferred compensation (401(a), 403(b) plans, pension plans, stock options, etc.) of the expatriate. Traditional or regular IRAs are defined as specific tax deferred accounts rather than deferred compensation items. If the payer of the deferred compensation is a US citizen and the taxpayer expatriating has waived the right to a lower withholding rate[clarification needed], then the covered expatriate is charged a 30% withholding tax on their deferred compensation. If the covered expatriate does not meet the aforementioned criteria then the deferred compensation is taxed (as income) based on the present value of the deferred compensation.
In 2012, in the wake of Eduardo Saverin's renunciation of his citizenship, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) proposed the Ex-PATRIOT Act to levy additional taxes upon citizens renouncing their citizenship.
Bitcoin will take care of Chokepoint and similar efforts. Here's my theory: Bitcoin is a possible revolution in the making. Bitcoin is not just about convenient money, or avoiding government inflation, or all the other problems inherent with central banks and fiat money. What if a substantial number of transactions are conducted in Bitcoins themselves, without first buying them with dollars? What if sellers do not convert the proceeds of their Bitcoin sales into dollars, but instead buy their supplies and labor with those Bitcoins, and the recipients likewise buy what they need in Bitcoin? That is, what if an economy were created in which buyers and sellers transact only with Bitcoins—untraceable, anonymous, and secure. For sellers, the Bitcoin economy would leave no records of sales with the State. No reportable income, and, if not reported, no taxes to pay on sales or profits. This would be equivalent to a cash underground economy, but one that is far more vast.
Bitcoin makes a worldwide underground economy feasible, does it not? In such a scenario, once a critical mass is reached, tax revenue would start to noticeably decline. And when word gets out, when it reaches a point of popular acceptance, it would begin to snowball. The State would gradually shrink to a much smaller entity, deprived of a major source of its financing—and all without voting or any social turmoil.
My one concern is the stability/growth of bitcoins. How is an individual supposed to know that there isn't someone who can create as many bitcoins as they want, thus inflating the supply?
I have no firsthand knowledge of Bitcoin, nor am I a programmer. But I have read numerous respected authors write about this very point. I believe the program allows a maximum of 21 million Bitcoin.
Again, so you're (and they're) told. How do you know? Do you want to bet your buying power on something that you are unsure of? Yes, you do that with the dollar, but at least with that you know that they are inflating the money supply. With Bitcoin, you could have a huge amount (so you think) and suddenly a whole lot more starts showing up and the value of your bitcoins starts to drop. Wasn't there just a story in the past couple of months about a bunch of bitcoins "going missing?" Or does the algorithm that creates them also contain a virus that causes them to disappear?
Too many unknowns and ways to nefariously manipulate for me.
The point of my little article wasn't to discuss whether Bitcoin would become a solid investment. It has been volatile in terms of the dollar. So are stocks and gold. I'm not an investment adviser. What interests me about Bitcoin is not its low transaction costs, possible investment value, or its ease of use. I'm not interested in its potential inflation or deflation. What interests me is its anonymity. It doesn't pass through banks, so it's virtually invisible. It makes it possible to bypass the State. I would have thought that would be something of interest to Galt's Gulch readers.
In a related move, Kroger Corporation [King Soopers, etc] has told the 5% of doctors who are most likely to prescribe controlled substances that prescriptions they write will not be filled. That 5% is the doctors who run or work at pain clinics [see previous #WIJG post], whose patients are the most dependent on those medications. grrrrrrrr.
I had not heard of Operation Choke Point. The harassment and closing down of pawn shops seems eerily similar to Cash for Clunkers, an attempt by the government-controlled auto companies to force people to buy new cars more often by eliminating the used parts market.
I think the reason they are going after pawn shops, is because so much of their business model is cash, precious metals, and other easily hidden / movable wealth.
A significantly more difficult thing for the infernal revenue service to follow and take a cut of.
That's only Gold and Silver in Vegas. Most other pawn shops that want to sell guns have a federal license to do so. Which is why you don't want to purchase from them.
I didn't think that that had been occurring. In fact, it was being reported that some of these pot shops were holding large amounts of cash because they couldn't get a bank to take their drug money for fear of being in violation of money laundering laws.
If I remember correctly, the U.S. Justice Dept OK'd the transactions, in fact may have forced it. I think the banks wanted to avoid any suspicion of money laundering and just didn't want the accounts.
When you can't even get permission to leave it is near the time.
What you fear has already, slowly come to pass.
From Wikipedia on Expatriation Tax:
The first law to authorize taxation of former citizens was passed in 1966; it created Internal Revenue Code Section 877, which allowed the U.S.-source income of former citizens to be taxed for up to 10 years following the date of their loss of citizenship. Section 877 was first amended in 1996, at a time when the issue of renunciation of U.S. citizenship for tax purposes was receiving a great deal of public attention; the same attention resulted in the passage of the Reed Amendment, which attempted to prevent former U.S. citizens who renounced citizenship to avoid taxation from obtaining visas, but which was never enforced.[5][6] The American Jobs Creation act of 2004 amended Section 877 again.[7] Under the new law, any individual who had a net worth of $2 million or an average income tax liability of $139,000 for the five previous years[8] who renounces his or her citizenship is automatically assumed to have done so for tax avoidance reasons and is subject to additional taxes. Furthermore, with certain exceptions covered expatriates who spend at least 31 days in the United States in any year during the 10-year period following expatriation were subject to US taxation as if they were U.S. citizens or resident aliens.[9]
A bill entitled Tax Collection Responsibility Act of 2007 was introduced during the 110th session of congress in July 2007 by Charles B. Rangel. It foresaw, among others, a revision of the taxation of former American citizens whose citizenship officially ends, In particular, all property of an expatriate up to certain exceptions would be treated as having been sold on the day before the expatriation for its fair market value with any gain exceeding $600,000 classified as taxable income. This bill failed to advance to the Senate.
The HEART Act, passed on 17 June 2008, created the new Section 877A, which imposed a substantially different expatriation tax from that of the earlier Section 877.[6] The new expatriation tax law, effective for calendar year 2009, defines "covered expatriates" as expatriates who have a net worth of $2 million, or 5 year average income tax liability exceeding $139,000, except for certain dual citizens by birth and certain minors as defined in Section 877A(g)(1)(B) who are not considered "covered expatriates", provided they certify under penalties of perjury that they have complied with all federal tax obligations for the preceding five tax years and provided they file Form 8854.[10] Under the new expatriation tax law, "covered expatriates" are treated as if they had liquidated all of their assets on the date prior to their expatriation. Under this provision, the taxpayer's net gain is computed as if he or she had actually liquidated their assets. Net gain is the difference between the fair market value (theoretical selling price) and the taxpayer's cost basis (actual purchase price). Once net gain is calculated, any net gain greater than $600,000 will be taxed as income in that calendar year. The tax applies whether or not an actual sale is made by the taxpayer, and whether or not the notional gains arise on assets in the taxpayer's home country acquired before immigration to the United States. It is irrelevant that the gains may have partly arisen before the taxpayer moved to the U.S.
The new tax law also applies to deferred compensation (401(a), 403(b) plans, pension plans, stock options, etc.) of the expatriate. Traditional or regular IRAs are defined as specific tax deferred accounts rather than deferred compensation items. If the payer of the deferred compensation is a US citizen and the taxpayer expatriating has waived the right to a lower withholding rate[clarification needed], then the covered expatriate is charged a 30% withholding tax on their deferred compensation. If the covered expatriate does not meet the aforementioned criteria then the deferred compensation is taxed (as income) based on the present value of the deferred compensation.
In 2012, in the wake of Eduardo Saverin's renunciation of his citizenship, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) proposed the Ex-PATRIOT Act to levy additional taxes upon citizens renouncing their citizenship.
Here's my theory:
Bitcoin is a possible revolution in the making. Bitcoin is not just about convenient money, or avoiding government inflation, or all the other problems inherent with central banks and fiat money. What if a substantial number of transactions are conducted in Bitcoins themselves, without first buying them with dollars? What if sellers do not convert the proceeds of their Bitcoin sales into dollars, but instead buy their supplies and labor with those Bitcoins, and the recipients likewise buy what they need in Bitcoin? That is, what if an economy were created in which buyers and sellers transact only with Bitcoins—untraceable, anonymous, and secure. For sellers, the Bitcoin economy would leave no records of sales with the State. No reportable income, and, if not reported, no taxes to pay on sales or profits. This would be equivalent to a cash underground economy, but one that is far more vast.
Bitcoin makes a worldwide underground economy feasible, does it not? In such a scenario, once a critical mass is reached, tax revenue would start to noticeably decline. And when word gets out, when it reaches a point of popular acceptance, it would begin to snowball. The State would gradually shrink to a much smaller entity, deprived of a major source of its financing—and all without voting or any social turmoil.
Too many unknowns and ways to nefariously manipulate for me.
That 5% is the doctors who run or work at pain clinics [see previous #WIJG post], whose patients are the most dependent on those medications.
grrrrrrrr.
The harassment and closing down of pawn shops seems eerily similar to Cash for Clunkers, an attempt by the government-controlled auto companies to force people to buy new cars more often by eliminating the used parts market.
A significantly more difficult thing for the infernal revenue service to follow and take a cut of.