Memo to all leeches: the game is over! We will stagger along for a while but the inevitable is going to happen and all the liberals who made all these extravagant promises will be exposed for the liars they are. We can no longer afford to support all these able-bodied people who won’t work, who feel justified in being supported by those of us who do work. The transition will be terrible but it’s about time. It’s coming and there is no way to stop it.

It doesn’t follow you if you renounce your citizenship and find a another country that will allow you to be a permanent resident or citizen.
Doomsday on April 8, 2012 at 8:48 AM

Good luck with that. You first have to find the other country that offers a better “deal” than the USA.
Have any suggestions?
And that the country will let you live AND work in their country?
And if one is 40+ years old what type of retirement plan can one get from the new country? Not much, since one is a bit old.

To renounce your US citizenship now costs $450.

http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_776.html

The comment was that if it gets “bad” enough young people will leave the US. Again, my reply: “Where to?”. The US tax laws follow you no matter where you live or work.

albill on April 8, 2012 at 6:45 AM

It doesn’t follow you if you renounce your citizenship and find a another country that will allow you to be a permanent resident or citizen.

Is there a way we can blame this on Obama?

Time Lord on April 7, 2012 at 10:31 AM

No, but I’m sure Obamao and other commie libs will attempt to blame it on GW.

Yes, but only one country will be owed the tax.
Philly on April 7, 2012 at 7:27 PM

Incorrect.
“If you are a U.S. citizen or a resident alien of the United States and you live abroad, you are taxed on your worldwide income. However, you may qualify to exclude from income up to an amount of your foreign earnings that is now adjusted for inflation ($91,400 for 2009, $91,500 for 2010, $92,900 for 2011, $95,100 for 2012).”
Anything over that amount is double-taxed in the US and the foreign country one resides in.
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=97130,00.html

Philly – as an American citizen living in Germany who files both German and American tax forms I think I know the tax rules. The IRS sends me a letter and forms every year reminding me of them.
Plus the IRS wants to know every bank account one has overseas with $10,000+ in it.

And US Social Security while working overseas?
One could have to pay that to:
Social Security Tax Consequences of Working Abroad
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=97160,00.html

The comment was that if it gets “bad” enough young people will leave the US. Again, my reply: “Where to?”. The US tax laws follow you no matter where you live or work.

We certainly haven’ stumbled upon a solution to this riddle yet. Let’s see if the Germans can figure it out.

I’m not a fan of social welfare states, but I think that it is well understood how to design health and retirement benefits programs to be immune from demographic variations. Switch from a defined benefit model to a defined contribution model (AKA personal accounts).

Deregulate, fools.

J.E. Dyer on April 7, 2012 at 2:30 PM

they can’t dereguate, they relinquished a lot of their sovereignty as a nation when they joined the EU…now they can’t just deregulate on their own…they can get out, but obviously their ruling elites think otherwise, they made a clear decision to stay when they put their taxpayers’ money on the line to save the failing economies of PIIGS…

At what point do these countries, including ours, start asking their citizens to start having more children?

Donald Draper on April 7, 2012 at 10:37 AM

They (and we) already do. But there’s a problem: the childed get tax benefits out the wazoo. Said taxes are paid, of course, by everyone ELSE because otherwise the ‘benefits’ are merely their own money recycled through the Federal system. And as has been pointed out, the system is being abused to the point of surrealism.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-trty/germany.pdf

There are reciprocity agreements in place between the US and many countries to prevent double taxation of income and property for foreign nationals who work here and US citizens who work abroad. Germany is one of those countries.
Philly on April 7, 2012 at 4:14 PM

“Your worldwide income is subject to U.S. income tax, regardless of where you reside.”
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=97324,00.html

US citizens who work and live in Germany have to file both German and US income tax returns.

Productive German youth will simply emigrate elsewhere to keep from paying bills they do not owe. AS WILL PRODUCTIVE AMERICAN YOUTH, starting in the next decade or so.

michaelo on April 7, 2012 at 12:47 PM

Where will they move to???

Americans have to pay income taxes in the country they live in PLUS US income taxes, etc. on the income they make in the foreign country!

albill on April 7, 2012 at 1:48 PM

There are reciprocity agreements in place between the US and many countries to prevent double taxation of income and property for foreign nationals who work here and US citizens who work abroad. Germany is one of those countries.

(To Europeans the US looks like a giant powder keg with the fuse already lit and ready to blow.)

;-)

albill on April 7, 2012 at 11:00 AM

That’s surprising. Thanks for the info!

We’ll just eat our young.

KOOLAID2 on April 7, 2012 at 9:03 AM

Ah, A Modest Proposal. Jonathan Swift was just a little ahead of his time.

Deregulate, fools.
J.E. Dyer on April 7, 2012 at 2:30 PM

Deregulate what?

The next European war, I mean.
Bishop on April 7, 2012 at 10:41 AM

As can everyone with eyes and a working brain.
logis on April 7, 2012 at 2:22 PM

Who would this war be between???
And when?

Deregulate, fools.

J.E. Dyer on April 7, 2012 at 2:30 PM

Can they? If Germans started to guard their future, wouldn’t that put them in violation of dozens of points of EU, global and American consensus?

You can see it coming. The next European war, I mean.
Bishop on April 7, 2012 at 10:41 AM

As can everyone with eyes and a working brain.

A lot of people have this infantile idea that one evil man can start a world war.

A trillion tons of kindling has to be piled up first. At that point, war is inevitable. The only question is who will toss the first match.

Analysis of the economy as a static finite pie is dogma among you liberals because it helps reinforce your strawmen and the basis for many subsequent spurious arguments is then established.

Its not about whether the economy is a static finite pie. It is about whether wealth can be created in a stable enough fashion that doesn’t lead to inflation or perpetual boom-bust cycles (see American economy post Reagan for myriad examples of how we have failed to do that in recent years). The problem for American society is that the state was deeply implicated in the establishment of the American middle class. There is no American middle class, as we know it, withou the GI Bill and the FHA. There is no American middle class without the massive investment in public higher education that began to taper off on a state level in the 1980s. There is also no American middle class without a generation of older Americans who can take care of their financial needs with less assistance from younger relatives (social security and medicare).

Now conservatives are attempting to retract the state. Fine. But considering that the price of everything is going up, considering that wages are stagnant, and considering that employers have no incentive to raise wages. How will the American economy survive without those investments from the state. Will we be able to spend as much money at the malls and big boxes? Will we be able to spend as much money on more expensive locally grown produce? Perhaps the idea is that healthcare and housing are not nearly as globalized as other industries. If American incomes are restricted to sustenance and caregiving for relatives it will enrich those domestic industries. I guess maybe the conservative ideal future is one where the wealthy do what they want and the rest of us work in life sustaining service industries? Yay America.

Wait! What happened to all the millions of Muslims and Africans they imported to make sure the older Germans got their retirement Medical care and Beer money?

The retired Muslims (Turkish) move back to their Muslim countries and get their German retirements checks sent to that country.
They come back to Germany when they have a serious health problem.

Productive German youth will simply emigrate elsewhere to keep from paying bills they do not owe. AS WILL PRODUCTIVE AMERICAN YOUTH, starting in the next decade or so.

michaelo on April 7, 2012 at 12:47 PM

Where will they move to???

Americans have to pay income taxes in the country they live in PLUS US income taxes, etc. on the income they make in the foreign country!

Productive German youth will simply emigrate elsewhere to keep from paying bills they do not owe. AS WILL PRODUCTIVE AMERICAN YOUTH, starting in the next decade or so.

michaelo on April 7, 2012 at 12:47 PM

China for the Chinese, Africa for the Africans, America for everyone, except the most productive traditional Americans, who will be placed under economic pressure to leave and get out from under heavy debts contracted by the government and payable by them.

If America is a problem, this is a way to solve that problem, permanently.

Damn those pesky Unintended Consequences….