Right-Wing Lauds Facebook Co-Founder’s Decision To Renounce US Citizenship: He’s ‘An American Hero’

[Galraedia]

Source: ThinkProgress

Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Facebook whose falling out with the company and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg was the subject of the 2010 blockbuster The Social Network, renounced his US citizenship last week, and the right has wasted no time labeling him a hero.

Saverin, who owns a roughly four percent stake of Facebook, announced that he was expatriating last week, just in time to avoid paying a federal capital gains tax on the fortune heading his way when the social site files its IPO.

Forbes Magazine, the conservative-leaning and business friendly magazine, ran an article with the headline “For De-Friending The U.S., Facebook’s Eduardo Saverin Is An American Hero.” John Tamny writes:

Saverin’s departure is also a reminder to politicians that while they can obnoxiously decree what percentage of our income we’ll hand them in taxes, what they vote for won’t necessarily reflect reality. Indeed, as evidenced by Saverin’s renunciation, tax rates and collection of monies on those rates are two different things. Assuming nosebleed rates of taxation were a driver of Saverin’s decision, politicians will hopefully see that if too greedy about collecting the money of others, they’ll eventually collect nothing.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/media/2012/05/14/484102/eduardo-saverin-renouce-us-citizenship/

[may3rd]

1. Maybe people should boycott FB

I doubt that idea would get many likes

[LynneSin]

13. He owns 4% of it so not really worth the boycott

Anyhow I thought he was not really a part of FB anymore after the falling out with Zuckenberg - wasn't that the whole purpose of the movie?

[Bjorn Against]

19. There was a falling out, but he now owns a part of the company

I am pretty sure that it was part of his settlement in the legal battles that he was entitled to a share of the company, I am pretty sure that there is still bad blood between him and Zuckerberg but they are both greedy assholes.

[LynneSin]

30. So if anything, my continued posting at facebook would piss the guy off

problem solved?

[cstanleytech]

2. If he gives up his american citizenship how can he be an american hero?

[du_grad]

22. I thought I was the only one wondering about that!

[LynneSin]

31. first find yourself a large blunt object

then give yourself a heavy blow to the head.

Now ask yourself that question. By then you should have enough IQ points knocked out of you that your answer would make sense.

Actually please don't hurt yourself - just know that is what it would take to find the answers

[cstanleytech]

55. In other words I need the IQ of a ground squirrel aka tea party cult follower? nt

[lunatica]

32. Well, it is according to Forbes isn't it?

Greed is an American value to them. Not paying taxes is heroic and therefore intrinsically laudable and American. What's not to understand?

[treestar]

41. This

Exactly.

[Bjorn Against]

3. Well I hope the right-wing is very vocal about praising him as a hero

I hate using the words "anti-American" because far too often those words are an attack on dissent, but this is one case that I think the term anti-American truly applies and I think most people would agree. The guy is saying he is no longer American so that he does not have to pay for the services he receives from our nation despite the fact that he can easily afford to pay taxes. For all the right-wing complains about the poor "leeching off the public dole" they sure don't seem to hold the same opinion of extremely wealthy people who take advantage of government services but feel they should not have to pay a dime to fund those services.

[wordpix]

7. +1000, let this campaign begin, starting with Offshore Tax Haven Mitt

[SemperEadem]

34. IMO, this guy is saying

he was American when it suited his purposes and was convenient for him to be one. When it ceased being convenient for him to be one, then he no longer wants to be one.

When kidnappers in Singapore threaten to kidnap his children, he should man up and keep his ass over there and not look to the American Embassy or any facet of this country to come bail his stingy ass out.

[EFerrari]

4. How are we going to pay for all these Republican wars without taxes?

And why hasn't the Teabagger Congress balanced the budget by now?

[cstanleytech]

23. They havent balanced it because they want to use it to get obama out of office and to

also weaken the ability of congress to conduct business at the federal level thus protecting their biggest contributers and supporters........big business.
After all without their support the telecommunications mergers over the past 10 years would have been near impossible to pull off not to mention drug companies might have been forced to cut prices closer to what the drugs actually cost rather than gouging the american people and then there is the oil companies.
Without the support of congress there might have been an even more in depth investigation into things like the closed door meeting Cheney had with them as well as investigations into potential price manipulation.

[EC]

5. So what country is he

a citizen of then? Or is he now a man without a country?

[wordpix]

9. good riddance to him - he wants his highways, airports, police, parks etc. but doesn't want

to pay for them.

Have fun dealing with the locals wherever you go, asshat.

[Son of Gob]

26. Singapore

Where he's lived for the last 3 years.

[lunatica]

33. I'm sure wherever his vast wealth resides is where his allegiance is

He may be loyal to quite a few countries.

[Roland99]

37. Born in Brazil. Resides in Singapore.

I don't get why people are freaking out. Not everyone is born and raised in the US and loves this country with a passion.

[Daniel537]

51. +1

He wanted out, he got out. No biggie.

[Xithras]

56. Exactly. He's not a hero OR a traitor.

He's Brazilian. Became a dual-US/Brazilian citizen in 1998, and moved to Singapore in 2009, where he's lived ever since, allegedly plans on living permanently, and where he now holds dual Brazilian/Singaporean citizenship.

He's just a guy who moved, and he moved long before the IPO thing started.

[think]

6. He is not a hero. He is a traitor. /nt

[freshwest]

25. Yes, he is. Typical Libertarian Republican. They've been advocating this for years.

In the meanwhile their Teabagger stooges go nuts over immigration, Islam and socialism but they don't care they go so long as they can enter the jet set and take off.

Some say they will NOT bring their money back to the USA until the wages and benefits here are like they give workers in China.

They hate Obama for being a Muslim, but don't mind having homes and businesses in the UAE and other places like that.

Some even live in Venezuela and enjoy the largesse of socialism there, but hate it while they take it.

Others live here and take their social security but want everyone else off.

This is why you can't reason with them, they're so dishonest. They truly do hate what most of us were brought up to believe America was striving to become.

[CBGLuthier]

47. are all tax exiles who renounce their US citizenship traitors?

Interesting concept. I got a sister in law who did the same thing. She wasn't coming into a huge stock settlement or anything she just got tired of paying taxes to a country she had not lived in for decades and never will live in again. In addition to paying taxes to the country she DID live in of course.

WTF is is so damned special about US citizenship? Has this place become jingoism central just because it hates the wealthy so damned much?

[think]

48. No. Nor did I imply that. The two situations aren't even remotely similar.

Do you think it's ok to start a company in the US and then renounce your citizenship when you reap a windfall from it just to avoid paying taxes?

My calling him a traitor may be over the top but it was in direct response to the right wingers calling him a hero.

But if you think what he's doing is appropriate so be it.

[Daniel537]

49. Why would it not be appropriate?

People are free to renounce their citizenship for whatever reason they see fit. Don't see any problem with that at all, unless your a totalitarian of some kind.

[think]

53. He has every right to cut and run. Hell, some might even consider him a hero.

People called me a traitor for not supporting the Iraq war. At least I paid my taxes for a war I didn't support.

[think]

54. Ok I just read down stream that he doesn't live in the country. I apologise

I thought he was still living in the US and planned to leave the country strictly to avoid paying taxes.

I'm sorry for not seeing this. The original story posted above did not say he was living abroad and made it sound like he was just now leaving America for this reason.

Again I am sorry for not seeing the new information provided below.

[provis99]

8. shitting all over your country makes you a patriotic hero?

Orwell is vomiting right now as he spins rapidly in his grave.

[wordpix]

10. yes, if you're a repug you should have it all and not pay a penny in tax

That's the Rethuglican way

[Crowman1979]

11. Secession is patriotism, according to the teabaggers.

[Starry Messenger]

12. Um, technically not, anymore. Not that he was in the first place.

But I think you have to be an American to qualify for American hero status.

[baldguy]

14. These people think Robt E Lee and Stonewall Jackson are "American Heroes" too.

I guess the first & most important criteria for being an "American Hero" is wanting to destroy America.

[gratuitous]

15. By Tamny's standard

I hope the readers of Forbes Magazine give us a thousand, nay ten thousand, more heroes.

[alp227]

16. Make up your minds, right-wingers!

You call liberals anti-American just because they DARE entertain the idea that the US flag is not sacred and that the President may not be right or that war is not the answer. But this rich man who gives up his US citizenship presumably to evade taxes is a hero? WHAT?

[LadyHawkAZ]

17. How can you be an American hero

if you're not American?

[Octafish]

18. Tax Dodger

Hope the little shit goes broke.

[cstanleytech]

24. Might not work. I recall reading somewhere I believe that they can still come after you if they

believe your only reason for renouncing citizenship is to dodge taxes which is what this sounds like to me.

[Daniel537]

50. If you still owe taxes the IRS can try to collect on that

but unless he still has bank accounts in the US, i doubt they'll have much success, that is of course assuming he owes anything in the first place.

[Ken Burch]

20. Just heard about this now(was away from computers most of last week)...and DAMN, I'm disappointed.

When I saw the thread title, I was SURE it was gonna be Zuckerberg himself...!

(Millions of women are crushed to find out it wasn't, I'm sure).

[nanabugg]

21. I just don't understand how people who make so much money, more than they will ever spend in

their lifetime, can not want to pay a fair amount of taxes to support the country that enabled them to make their fortune. Greed has no conscience.

[Son of Gob]

27. He wasn't American to begin with

One simple google search and I found out he was born and raised in Brazil until he was 11. Which makes any right wingers praising him hilarious. He's lived in Singapore since 2009. Who cares if he renounces his citizenship? He moved out of the country 3 years ago. I doubt anyone would want to be paying taxes in a country they don't plan on living in anymore.

Eduardo Saverin was born in São Paulo, Brazil, to a wealthy Jewish Brazilian family,[10][11][12][13] and was raised in Miami, Florida. Eduardo's father was a Brazilian industrialist working in export, clothing, shipping, and real estate.[14]

By 1993, Saverin's father had become wealthy, and in 1993 it was discovered that his son Eduardo´s name had been placed on a list of kidnapping victims by gangs specializing in kidnapping for ransom. As a result, the family moved to Miami to find a safer place to live. Saverin attended Gulliver Preparatory School in Miami, and went on to Harvard University, where he was a member of the Phoenix S.K. Club as well as president of the Harvard Investment Association.

While an undergraduate at Harvard, Saverin took advantage of Brazil's lax insider trading regulations and made $300,000 via strategic investments in the oil industry.[15][14][16] In 2006, Saverin graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in economics. He is a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity (Eta Psi chapter of Harvard University).

Saverin has lived in Singapore since 2009.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Saverin#cite_note-NYT_Jan_2011-16



http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/28/where-in-the-world-is-eduardo-saverin-in-singapore-funding-facebook-games/

[Baby Bear]

28. Go In Peace, Eduardo

I don't think the Federal Government should have to rely on donations to raise revenue. We should raise taxes on the rich, close the loopholes, and lay off the personal attacks on individuals.

[JDPriestly]

39. Actually, we should raise corporate taxes and not permit corporations

to include the cost of their rent or interest on loans as deductible business expenses after the fifth year that they are in business.

A lot of pay-backs and profits can be hidden and then watered down in terms of tax liability with leases and loans that are not what they appear to be.

[ingac70]

29. Well they can all follow him....

don't let the door hit you in the ass, pukes!

[SemperEadem]

35. I wish the rest of his ilk would just follow him over there

and renounce their citizenship. Maybe this country would finally return to peace and prosperity once the rabble is gone.

[tanyev]

36. Gosh, they think it's un-American when liberal celebrites say they are going to do it.

[JDPriestly]

38. Saverin is an ungrateful egotist.

I'm not on Facebook, and the personalities of the founders and managers of it are part of the reason at this time.

How can you trust a person like Saverin with your personal information, with your secrets and the most intimate details of your life?

[Evasporque]

40. Queue the Bachmanns.....nt

[Renew Deal]

42. He's a tax cheat and a traitor.

That's about it.

[NoGOPZone]

43. Why does he hate America? nt

[yellowcanine]

44. How does renouncing your citizenship for financial gain make you a hero?

Just askin.

[maxrandb]

45. Sometime, I think Napolean was right...

"Religion is the only thing that keeps the poor from eating the rich".

[randr]

46. The phrase "love it or leave it" was once

a slur the right threw at the anti Viet Nam War protesters. Now it is a phrase that would fit a large number of right wing fundamentalists and apparently they would relish it.
Saverin's company should be denied use of the WWW, which was conveniently created for their use by the citizens of the world.

[ieoeja]

52. 1-Money Laundering ... 2-Brazilian living in Singapore

First, he says this has nothing to do with taxes. He is doing this because a lot of overseas banks refuse American clients. They refuse American clients because we demand they report those accounts to the United States. We do this to stop money laundering. Primarily in the name of wars on Drugs and Terrorism.

So is the GOP now opposed to the War on Drugs? If so, good for them!

Secondly, he is Brazilian by birth and Singaporan by residence. I can see where he would not feel overly attached to the US.