5 ms·

Why do people think this is a "bad thing"? It's no different than buying an expensive home anywhere in the world, except it comes with a citizenship. I doubt he

Why do people think this is a "bad thing"? It's no different than buying an expensive home anywhere in the world, except it comes with a citizenship. I doubt he can use the favorable taxation - he would have to renounce his US citizenship for that.

gameswithgo 6y ago
Some people might see the ultra wealthy in the USA of late as having taken part in destroying the country and also preparing to leave it, which they can do thanks to their wealth. Pete Thiel and his New Zealand plans are another more explicit example.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 6y ago
  Dyson leaving the U.K. was another specific and obvious example of this.
- TopInvestor 6y ago
  Some people might see he knows who won the reelection.
- magicnubs 6y ago
  Gabe Newell just applied for NZ citizenship as well
- JAlexoid 6y ago
  Well.... I'd go to NZ as well, given the chance. In the upcoming world war, NZ will just be forgotten. It's even missing from many maps ;)
EdwinLarkin 6y ago
How different is this from oligarchs using private jets to escape lockdowns?
- cblconfederate 6y ago
  True, however right now US people can't travel to cyprus due to restrictions. Plus i m not sure why he would want to travel to europe since everything is locked down atm Plus he probably has a private jet
- ashtonkem 6y ago
  People escaping lock downs in jets and boats are annoying, but at least understandable. Given the opportunity to escape to somewhere physically safer, I’d probably do the same thing. Expatriating your massive wealth to avoid paying taxes makes it feel like they’re performing a smash and grab job on the whole country. Doubly so because the people doing this would still be fantastically wealthy if they stayed and paid their taxes; they’re just doing it to be even richer still.
- kjksf 6y ago
  The same way me eating a chicken liver is different from Hannibal Lecter eating your liver. Yes, we're both eating a liver but we're not the same kind of person. Oligarchs travel, just like you and me. That's not what makes them oligarchs. And where exactly do they travel that is not accessible to you and me? I'm pretty sure that when governments ban air travel, they also ban private jet travel.
acvny 6y ago
This is being done for the sole purpose of avoiding taxes. The poor of the US will become poorer.
FDSGSG 6y ago
FWIW Cyprus is kind of a shithole, so it's not exactly like "buying an expensive home anywhere in the world". These people want the citizenship, not the real estate. Not that I think there's anything wrong with this, probably half of my friends have these passports. Until recently this was the easiest way for Russians to move to the EU.
- cblconfederate 6y ago
  > kind of a shithole, well not exactly
  - FDSGSG 6y ago
    It really is, my wives' family has property there thanks to this very citizenship scheme. Sometimes we holiday there because it's literally free, but the place really doesn't have any redeeming qualities. There's nothing that Cyprus offers that's not done better somewhere else in Europe if you have the money to spend. Sure, there are worse places out there. But to the Eric Schmidts of the world it firmly falls in the shithole category.
freehunter 6y ago
When a billionaire makes a move like this (getting citizenship in another country) it’s often criticized as an “escape plan”, or somewhere to run if any number of bad things happen to or in the USA. It’s viewed a little differently from most other ex-pats because these are the people who have the money and power to dramatically influence the government, so if they’re running from something here in the US, it’s either “their” (by that I mean billionaires in general) fault for pushing the government in the wrong direction, or within “their” power to fix. For example, if mass civil unrest breaks out in the US as a result of the recent election, Eric Schmidt can flee to his estate in Cyprus and ignore the fact that he owned a social network (Youtube) that knowingly hosted radical content and disinformation which would have (in part) caused the civil unrest he’s fleeing from. Whether or not that’s his intention, it doesn’t matter. True or not, what people are seeing is billionaires knowingly destabilizing the country in order to make a lot of money, then using that money to protect themselves against the country they just damaged. That very thing happened earlier this year at the start of the pandemic, SV billionaires fled the country to go to a private island in New Zealand, while their employees suffered and died back here in the US: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronavirus-underground-bunker-new-zealand-us-death-toll-latest-a9476931.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronaviru...
- onlyrealcuzzo 6y ago
  Google bought YouTube in 2006. Schmidt was CEO until 2011. YouTube got out of control with disinformation mostly after 2011. And he probably had almost nothing to do with YouTube in the five years he was CEO after Google purchased YouTube. I wouldn't blame Schmidt much for YouTube's disinformation problem. I'd blame the people directly running YouTube (especially people running it recently / now).
  - throwaways885 6y ago
    Sadly I think the radicalisation started when the censorship did. I honestly believe they're making things worse by clamping down on misinformation. Streisand effect is real.
- 6y ago
howzit00 6y ago
It’s not good or bad it’s whether society as a whole should be bestowing such gifts on banal office administrators, in terms of real daily work. If they want to leave the nation that built them, it’s America’s wealth; fat tax inbound. These are normal mortal men. Believing they can live some decoupled free agent life on humanities tab for their accomplishments which are banal business at the core of it, not novel science, is no different from creating a monarchy and its regents, etc They are normal men. Not deities. This is the first era where their mess being left behind isn’t just some stone fortresses and a handful of factories. This has been accomplished at great environmental cost. They’re just people.
DyslexicAtheist 6y ago
> I doubt he can use the favorable taxation countries like Malta and Cyprus have plenty schemes under which they attract HNWI's like him. I'm surprised about Cyprus considering Schmidt is from the US which is an odd choice since it's usually Russians and Russian companies that launder their money through Cyprus. Malta is much more popular among expat Brits and native English speakers and also (still) has a cleaner reputation compared to Cyprus. Both jurisdictions fill a void that opened when Switzerland agreed to hand over data on US citizens to the USA. Technically Cyprus/Malta too shares data but while the Swiss banking is a lot cleaner now than it was 20 years ago and certainly lot of things are now impossible that places like Nevada, New Mexico etc still allow. Both Cyprus/Malta have no shortage of crooks dressed as lawyers, accountants, notaries and bankers that will help him bypass the tax-men if he wants to but I strongly doubt that is the reason simply because he has better chances doing that at home. The US is now the biggest tax-haven in the world. It sounds more personal than this. Maybe he is planning to do business with wealthy Russians (unlikely) maybe he watched Mama-Mia and is now obsessed with the idea of falling in love on a Greek island, or maybe he wants to live in a city that is politically divided as much as his home planet. (Nicosia) /s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Islands:_Tax_Havens_and_the_Men_Who_Stole_the_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Islands:_Tax_Havens_a...
- cblconfederate 6y ago
  cyprus has 12.5% tax (like Ireland) and are not in OECD's tax haven list since many years ago . They also participate in every EU exchange of information programs and audits etc. They aren't even considered cheap compared to other EU low-tax places

gameswithgo 6y ago

Some people might see the ultra wealthy in the USA of late as having taken part in destroying the country and also preparing to leave it, which they can do thanks to their wealth. Pete Thiel and his New Zealand plans are another more explicit example.

SOLAR_FIELDS 6y ago
Dyson leaving the U.K. was another specific and obvious example of this.
TopInvestor 6y ago
Some people might see he knows who won the reelection.
magicnubs 6y ago
Gabe Newell just applied for NZ citizenship as well
JAlexoid 6y ago
Well.... I'd go to NZ as well, given the chance. In the upcoming world war, NZ will just be forgotten. It's even missing from many maps ;)

EdwinLarkin 6y ago

How different is this from oligarchs using private jets to escape lockdowns?

cblconfederate 6y ago
True, however right now US people can't travel to cyprus due to restrictions. Plus i m not sure why he would want to travel to europe since everything is locked down atm Plus he probably has a private jet
ashtonkem 6y ago
People escaping lock downs in jets and boats are annoying, but at least understandable. Given the opportunity to escape to somewhere physically safer, I’d probably do the same thing. Expatriating your massive wealth to avoid paying taxes makes it feel like they’re performing a smash and grab job on the whole country. Doubly so because the people doing this would still be fantastically wealthy if they stayed and paid their taxes; they’re just doing it to be even richer still.
kjksf 6y ago
The same way me eating a chicken liver is different from Hannibal Lecter eating your liver. Yes, we're both eating a liver but we're not the same kind of person. Oligarchs travel, just like you and me. That's not what makes them oligarchs. And where exactly do they travel that is not accessible to you and me? I'm pretty sure that when governments ban air travel, they also ban private jet travel.

acvny 6y ago

This is being done for the sole purpose of avoiding taxes. The poor of the US will become poorer.

FDSGSG 6y ago

FWIW Cyprus is kind of a shithole, so it's not exactly like "buying an expensive home anywhere in the world". These people want the citizenship, not the real estate. Not that I think there's anything wrong with this, probably half of my friends have these passports. Until recently this was the easiest way for Russians to move to the EU.

cblconfederate 6y ago
> kind of a shithole, well not exactly
- FDSGSG 6y ago
  It really is, my wives' family has property there thanks to this very citizenship scheme. Sometimes we holiday there because it's literally free, but the place really doesn't have any redeeming qualities. There's nothing that Cyprus offers that's not done better somewhere else in Europe if you have the money to spend. Sure, there are worse places out there. But to the Eric Schmidts of the world it firmly falls in the shithole category.

freehunter 6y ago

When a billionaire makes a move like this (getting citizenship in another country) it’s often criticized as an “escape plan”, or somewhere to run if any number of bad things happen to or in the USA. It’s viewed a little differently from most other ex-pats because these are the people who have the money and power to dramatically influence the government, so if they’re running from something here in the US, it’s either “their” (by that I mean billionaires in general) fault for pushing the government in the wrong direction, or within “their” power to fix. For example, if mass civil unrest breaks out in the US as a result of the recent election, Eric Schmidt can flee to his estate in Cyprus and ignore the fact that he owned a social network (Youtube) that knowingly hosted radical content and disinformation which would have (in part) caused the civil unrest he’s fleeing from. Whether or not that’s his intention, it doesn’t matter. True or not, what people are seeing is billionaires knowingly destabilizing the country in order to make a lot of money, then using that money to protect themselves against the country they just damaged. That very thing happened earlier this year at the start of the pandemic, SV billionaires fled the country to go to a private island in New Zealand, while their employees suffered and died back here in the US: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronavirus-underground-bunker-new-zealand-us-death-toll-latest-a9476931.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronaviru...

onlyrealcuzzo 6y ago
Google bought YouTube in 2006. Schmidt was CEO until 2011. YouTube got out of control with disinformation mostly after 2011. And he probably had almost nothing to do with YouTube in the five years he was CEO after Google purchased YouTube. I wouldn't blame Schmidt much for YouTube's disinformation problem. I'd blame the people directly running YouTube (especially people running it recently / now).
- throwaways885 6y ago
  Sadly I think the radicalisation started when the censorship did. I honestly believe they're making things worse by clamping down on misinformation. Streisand effect is real.
6y ago

howzit00 6y ago

It’s not good or bad it’s whether society as a whole should be bestowing such gifts on banal office administrators, in terms of real daily work. If they want to leave the nation that built them, it’s America’s wealth; fat tax inbound. These are normal mortal men. Believing they can live some decoupled free agent life on humanities tab for their accomplishments which are banal business at the core of it, not novel science, is no different from creating a monarchy and its regents, etc They are normal men. Not deities. This is the first era where their mess being left behind isn’t just some stone fortresses and a handful of factories. This has been accomplished at great environmental cost. They’re just people.

DyslexicAtheist 6y ago

> I doubt he can use the favorable taxation countries like Malta and Cyprus have plenty schemes under which they attract HNWI's like him. I'm surprised about Cyprus considering Schmidt is from the US which is an odd choice since it's usually Russians and Russian companies that launder their money through Cyprus. Malta is much more popular among expat Brits and native English speakers and also (still) has a cleaner reputation compared to Cyprus. Both jurisdictions fill a void that opened when Switzerland agreed to hand over data on US citizens to the USA. Technically Cyprus/Malta too shares data but while the Swiss banking is a lot cleaner now than it was 20 years ago and certainly lot of things are now impossible that places like Nevada, New Mexico etc still allow. Both Cyprus/Malta have no shortage of crooks dressed as lawyers, accountants, notaries and bankers that will help him bypass the tax-men if he wants to but I strongly doubt that is the reason simply because he has better chances doing that at home. The US is now the biggest tax-haven in the world. It sounds more personal than this. Maybe he is planning to do business with wealthy Russians (unlikely) maybe he watched Mama-Mia and is now obsessed with the idea of falling in love on a Greek island, or maybe he wants to live in a city that is politically divided as much as his home planet. (Nicosia) /s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Islands:_Tax_Havens_and_the_Men_Who_Stole_the_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Islands:_Tax_Havens_a...

cblconfederate 6y ago
cyprus has 12.5% tax (like Ireland) and are not in OECD's tax haven list since many years ago . They also participate in every EU exchange of information programs and audits etc. They aren't even considered cheap compared to other EU low-tax places