Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Would You Give Up Your US Citizenship?

My short answer is no, for reasons I will explain below. I have, however, noted quite a few recent articles about Americans choosing to do just that. Including this post, this post, and this post.
I am all for people becoming "citizens of the world". Living and traveling abroad, working abroad, and building friendships and relationships with people all over the world. However, there would have to be something fairly major, which I can not right now conceive of, that would make me want to give up my US citizenship.
Even though the US has problems (many), I don't know of any other country that would be "better". Some countries have better tax rates, other countries have better health care, and still other countries offer different freedoms than are available in the US. Being a US citizen, however, gives me a certain piece of mind despite the many problems that our country has.
I have looked into dual citizenship but have not been motivated to make an effort to do this yet.
Obviously some people may have compelling reasons to renounce their citizenship (taxes, as was pointed out in the articles), to have the same citizenship as their spouse and children, or to "escape" from the US, but none of these apply to me. Should I ever become a billionaire, I may reconsider.
For now, I will be content with my US passport as I travel around the world, always with the thought in mind of coming "home" to the US. For those times when I am comprehensively annoyed with particular problems in the US, I will continue to devise "work arounds" in which my needs get met with a minimum of BS from my government.

2 comments:

  1. Wait a while: You might change your mind, as freaking far left as it appears we're set to go.

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  2. While I sympathize with the plight facing America, and agree that we have more then our fair share of problems (mostly created by ourselves) I would never give up the pride that I feel when I sing the National Anthem or see an military fighter fly overhead. There's something uniquely great about being an American that no other country can claim.

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