Rich abandoning America

There is an interesting news item this week. The richest of the rich are starting to give up their citizenship in the U.S. and taking citizenship in places like Singapore and Austria. Though to many this is abhorrent to many there are also several good reasons why they are doing this. The first reason is that the Congress is completely dysfunctional. Neither the Democrats or the Republicans are actually addressing the actual problems of America. So, since no one wants to address the actual problems of America, staying loyal to America when the richest of the rich can easily live ANYWHERE on earth becomes a problem for them staying here.

2nd: If any of them die their heirs will immediately lose approximately 1/2 of their fortune even if it is in a trust. Then as the trust is being processed through court there will come a time when they are paying 112% or more taxes as it moves through the estate settlement process. So, even though FDR promised the American people to do away with inheritance taxes he died before he was able to fulfill his promise and since no one else made that promise the American people have suffered ongoing ever since and so have all their heirs. This is especially onerous if someone is giving only a business or a farm or a large or small piece of real estate because it almost always means the land or business has to be sold which is horrific to the estate being passed on usually to relatives, which are already dealing with the grief of losing their loved on on top of all this. So, often the remaining loved ones lose everything to local, state and the Federal Goverment that the relative that left them everything left them because of grief and in inability to figure out the legal system or getting a good estate lawyer.

3rd: Also, the single safest investments in the U.S. during the Great Depression was Tax Free  municipal Bonds which are tax free as a way to support the U.S. infrastructure of building hiways, canals for carrying drinking water, dams for storing water, bridges, schools and state and city colleges etc. However, as larger cities like Vallejo, Stockton and possibly Scranton in Pennsylvania go bankrupt municipal bond money might start to dry up for infrastructure nationwide or in specific areas of the country. Because who is crazy enough to invest in something where they might not only lose their interest but also their principal of their investment? So, the richest of the rich are moving from a few hundred a year or so  away  into the thousands at this present time and could get worse especially if Congress gets even more dysfunctional after the November elections which it looks like it might. The reason the elections might make Congress even more dysfunctional is the Democrats will tend to spend their way out of this (Depression like Time) and the Republicans will (Strangle the middle Class and poor) and thereby turn the country into a Banana Republic instead.

So, like I said, the Richest of the rich like it or not are simply looking at the writing on the wall for the next 20 to 25 years here in the U.S. because unlike the Great Depression which mostly affected only the U.S. and Europe, this present experience is worldwide and with 1% or 2% growth the U.S. is now the (Only Game in Town) because of Global climate change and globalization. Though I don't despair about the long term future of the world I am concerned about the difficult transition to get there as oil slowly runs out during the next 25 to 50 years. Even natural Gas and processed oil shale isn't going to last forever.