Don't we wish those rather dated and archaic spam emails purporting to have identified one of us USAians as the "big winner" in the quarter-billion escudo Mediterranean lottery were in fact real!! It would make sense, if the numbers were right, to move to Catalonia or wherever if just to collect the cash.
Why not give our government a chance to repay that excitement to people of the world? Establish a U.S. lottery where, for a small fee (a pittance, really), players can win U.S. citizenship. Of course, there will be stipulations as to character or lack thereof, true or deep fake identity of the winners, and lack of evidence of fraud or miscounting.
Hey, fast - fast tracking of a key to the kingdom. Proceeds to reduce the U.S. national debt.-- reensure, Oct 01 2021 Q. //What is a nation, anyway?// https://www.versobo...magined-communitiesA. An imagined community. This book is excellent. [calum, Oct 04 2021] EB-5 Visa https://www.uscis.g...visa-classificationBuy your way to permanent resident status. [MechE, Oct 04 2021] Or you could just charge an entry fee, just a thought.-- Skewed, Oct 01 2021 Sure. Anyone got change for 40 million Afganis and 6 million gourdes?
Yeah, hang on, there's 3 cents in my pocket. Keep the change...-- RayfordSteele, Oct 01 2021 Who would want US citizenship though? You’re then liable for tax on your worldwide earnings, wherever you live and whether or not you’re resident in the US or eligible to vote in the US. The USA is one of two countries (the other being Eritrea) that tax based on citizenship rather than residency. Taxation without representation, as they used to say…-- hippo, Oct 02 2021 Residents of the U.S. not eligible-- reensure, Oct 02 2021 //You’re then liable for tax on your worldwide earnings//
Personally I think they may have the right idea there [hippo] assuming any form of benefits are available a country should expect a premium to be paid for this 'income insurance' plus arguably any success you experience is built on the education you had from any public education system so they should expect a return for that 'investment' in you, so the way the US do that isn't entirely without reason or merit perhaps.. besides, a military that size doesn't pay for itself you know.
A case can be made without either of those ^ for everything about you & how you got rich to be traced back to your country if they want.
So why wouldn't they want a slice :)-- Skewed, Oct 02 2021 [Skewed] Well, if you're born overseas to US parents or born in the US while your parent are temporarily working there, but never live in the US yourself, you are a US national and are still liable to file US tax returns to cover your worldwide income, despite receiving no benefits from US citizenship and being unable to vote in US elections.-- hippo, Oct 02 2021 Yep, mostly true, but it really is so much simpler & so much less expensive in admin costs to just draw a line & say that's it though, so can't really say I blame them for any of that much.
//you are a US national and are still liable / despite receiving no benefits//
That could be characterised as personal choice, you do have access to consular assistance if you decide you want it & you can move to the US any time you want to take full advantage of any benefits of being a citizen of the US & living there, //unable to vote//is also personal choice, you can move to a US state & register to vote at any time.
Also worth noting you can choose to give up your US nationality any time you want if your taxes are up to date so if you didn't do that before you started earning that can be said to be entirely on you. If you want to keep the options being a US national gives why shouldn't you pay for that? if you think the price for retaining the option is too high then just renounce it.
Dang! it's not often I find myself agreeing with the US on something these days :) but I think they may have this one right.-- Skewed, Oct 02 2021 What is a nation, anyway? Reminds me of Heinlein's 'Starship Troopers'. He said a few things about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. What was that quote? Let's see..."Happiness consists in getting enough sleep. Just that, nothing more." Well then. Time for a nap.-- sninctown, Oct 03 2021 //Also worth noting you can choose to give up your US nationality any time you want// - if you pay an ‘administration fee’ of $2,350… - they always find a way to get you-- hippo, Oct 03 2021 //if you pay an ‘administration fee’ of $2,350//
OK that's a touch steep if you didn't make the choice to be signed up in the first place, a minor niggle perhaps though, could & probably should be lower, but I think the idea is better than what we do in the UK all in all, much too easy to use foreign residency as a plank in your tax avoidance strategy here.
Set it up right & you can pay zero UK tax on profits & earnings derived from within the UK, legally, that's not right at all.-- Skewed, Oct 03 2021 //You’re then liable for tax on your worldwide earnings, wherever you live// unless you're Trump or Bezos or any number of other blood sucking waste of space leaches.-- xenzag, Oct 03 2021 The difference between "winning" citizenship versus establishing through a means test ones position in the naturalization queue is that a winner can by stipulation skip the queue altogether.-- reensure, Oct 03 2021 I'm sure the Chinese lottery makes sense in China but its Greek to me.-- pashute, Oct 03 2021 I'm going to shock myself and suggest that even a blood-sucking leach like Bezos does in fact create more jobs and provide more services than your average blood-sucking leach.-- 4and20, Oct 04 2021 You can already buy your way in with an EB-5 visa for the pittance of a million dollar investment.-- MechE, Oct 04 2021 Also, 39 states + DC allow US citizens who have never lived in the US to vote if at least one of their parents was last domiciled in that state. Eight of them only for federal office, admittedly.-- MechE, Oct 04 2021 And finally, yes, you are required to file income taxes if you are a US Citizen or green-card holder who lives in another country. But there is a significant deduction simply for residence (107k), and another for housing (a little confusing and don't feel like figuring out IRS 2555). Plus foreign income taxes are deductible.
You're only likely to actually end up paying taxes if you're earning a fairly absurd amount.-- MechE, Oct 04 2021 Cost in UK? A gallon of petrol, a tin of Portuguese sardines and spending a day digging up vegetables on a farm in Essex.-- xenzag, Oct 04 2021 [a1] Tier 1 investment visa. £2 million. And technically it's only residency (unlike the US which is permanent residency, then apply for citizenship). You have to apply for extension once or twice (not clear) before you can apply for citizenship at 6 years.-- MechE, Oct 04 2021 Just bring the petrol. We can negotiate on the rest, oh and you better have good teeth...... it's nigh impossible to get an NHS dentist.-- xenzag, Oct 04 2021 No ice because all the children we used to employ biting the cubes out of a giant iceberg we keep in a cave in Wales, went back to Poland after Brexit.-- xenzag, Oct 05 2021 //went back to Poland after Brexit// I'm more concerned about the shortage of Pole dancers. And firemens' Poles. And what will I use to waterproof my shoes now there's a shortage of wax Polish?-- pocmloc, Oct 05 2021 //I'm going to shock myself and suggest that even a blood-sucking leach like Bezos does in fact create more jobs and provide more services than your average blood-sucking leach.//
At the expense of how many other jobs? I'll bet trading Amazon for myriads of retail stores is a jobs- negative.-- RayfordSteele, Oct 05 2021 Bezos creates jobs, yep. Nonetheless, his creations set the bar pretty high for one to say "Have a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life.".-- reensure, Oct 06 2021 Bezos certainly creates a lot of jobs in China where most of what Amazon sells is made. He then routes all his profits through tax avoidance countries, meanwhile the small independent shops that can't do this can't compete with this blood sucking greedy parasite. "People who care avoid Amazon"-- xenzag, Oct 06 2021 Amazon created a lot of temp jobs. A day in the life of a fulfillment center employee involved being hounded by the very scanner you use to check barcodes for the time between clicks, and the number of times you were away from task to go to the restroom.
Amazon made their turnover target over 100%, because new hires were cheap and not likely to unionize.
Retail has its faults but it wasn’t nearly as sick as Amazon's practices.-- RayfordSteele, Oct 06 2021 I worked in retail in the 90's and it was a tough gig. Targets, pressure and constant micro-monitoring of everything you did was very much the order of the day - in some of the stores of the company I worked for, they developed a culture where in the pre-opening daily meeting, the least-well performing sales-staff had to stand on a step-ladder with a noose* tied around their neck to remind them that they needed to do better, fun times. I can easily imagine how a monolithic behemoth like Amazon would over time develop more than a few nasty habits.
*sorry, earlier typo said "loose".-- zen_tom, Oct 06 2021 Nothing like facing our future in the wide-open world of continual process improvement, micromanaged and data driven flexibility, and pencil whipping.
Far from selling points to run a lottery-- reensure, Oct 08 2021 random, halfbakery