Re: Response to Duncan

[frissell@panix.com (Duncan Frissell)]

Only solid factual info & techniques to follow...

At 11:49 AM 7/20/94 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote:

>Facile nonsense! (No offense, Duncan.) Marc Rich is a virtual exile in
>Zug, unable to visit the U.S., and with an army of lawyers. I'm far
>from being Marc Rich, in more ways that one, and I have family and
>friends here in the States. Leaving and not being able to return is
>"not an option." 

Marc Rich was born in Belgium and currently holds Spanish citizenship.  He
is free to travel anywhere but the US and has $0.5 Billion in compensation.
I doubt that he misses New York.  It is possible to "internationalize" your
family and friends.  I did it.  It is even easier these days because of
cheap travel and telecoms.  It is unfortunate that the US (and the
Phillipines) claim to tax a national's earnings anywhere on earth but there
you have it.

>(If Duncan's main advice is that I simply "take the money and run," this
>is precisely the "one way street," the not easily reversed decision I
>have said that I may someday take, but not casually 

I'm not really speaking to Tim in these pieces (I'm sure that he can take
care of himself) but to others.  It is quite common for otherwise
sophisticated Americans to avoid thinking about expatriation even though
objectively it may be their best financial move.  I was recently working
with a businessman who has been self-employed and successful since he was a
teenager.  A libertarian, he was heavily involved in Foreign Asset
Protection Trusts (FOAPTs).  But even this guy was jumpy about expatriation
of self and money until he really checked things out.  Americans are too
provincal.

>"Wait ten years" seems to be the key. The IRS considers expats to be
>responsible for U.S. taxes for each of these 10 years (some details
>complicate the issue, but the basic point is that failure to file
>while living abroad is comparable to failing to file here).

However 60% of expatriate Americans don't file.  A high rate of non-compliance.

>I agree that such self-questioning is stupid. What's it got to do with
>the issues here, except to confirm that you, like me, and like a big
>fraction of the subscribers here, are politically incorrect and of an
>independent mind?

The fact that attempts at social control via political correctness dissolve
if you merely refuse to accept them shows a general method of political
resistance.  The technique applies in many situations.  Many control
attempts fail if you do no more than oppose them.  I know it sounds banal
but why don't more people do it?  I read constant pissing and moaning on the
Nets about the big bad government and I see few people trying to demonstrate
a little optimism.  There are so many show stoppers out there that are
guaranteed to get most control freaks to leave you alone:

"My father doesn't believe in sending us to your schools.  He says they are
controlled by communists." -- My daughter used this one.

"I am morally opposed to recycling." -- A real jaw dropper.

"But I'm not a resident of this state." -- Saved a guy I know a $400 fine
and automatic license suspension.

"Where's your warrant." -- Surprising how few people employ this one.

"All this agitprop about spousal abuse is merely an attempt to destroy the
bourgeois family so that it can be replaced by individuals and weak entities
that are dependent upon and hence supportive of the coercive state
apparatus." -- They *really* leave you alone after this one.

>Maybe this has been the crux of the issue in all these round and round
>in circles debates: I have no interest in general ideological
>sloganeering, only in the concrete "nuts and bolts." 
>
>"Cypherpunks write code" has resonances elsewhere.

I know that I am given to rhetoric.  My wife complains about it all the
time.  But words are things too.  They are code.  I do recall that in "Snow
Crash" our heroine employed Jesuit Rhetorical programming to protect herself
against a Sumerian brain virus.  There are "magic words" that will help in
most situations.

I do have quite a few actual techniques (residential ambiguity,
contract/self employment, expatriation both real and virtual, avoidance of
database links or key fields, conventional tax planning, multiplication of
entities, clean team/dirty team, etc.).  I must have talked about all of
these on the list from time to time.

Sandy and I will be doing so again in our virtual privacy seminar coming
soon to a majordomo server near you.  All are welcome.  We invite public
officials to drop by.  Since you are rapidly becoming "market actors" like
the rest of us you can probably use the info.

DCF

"Your children will be vastly richer and freer than you are.  Be sure to
inform them of this fact whenever they complain about life."