Unfortunately, it isn't exactly a fair competition for overseas Americans due to the long reach of US financial laws. Aside from having to file taxes to both t

Unfortunately, it isn't exactly a fair competition for overseas Americans due to the long reach of US financial laws. Aside from having to file taxes to both the country of residence and the US, there are a number of financial reporting rules about even fairly modest sums of money (>$10k) in foreign bank accounts. Most troubling is that the failure to keep up with the ever-changing accounting regulations results in draconian penalties which are often more than the person's entire net worth. I find the threat of being completely wiped out financially or even being put in prison simply for not keeping track of whether a paycheck has put my bank account over $10k or not far more worrying than owing a bit of money in taxes. This gives Americans a modest disincentive to move abroad and compete with the people from Japan/Canada/UK etc... who don't face those dangers.