> A multinational can change its base of incorporation, and many people can and will change their citizenship over a million bucks, let alone a billion.
I see this argument, but it is completely non-sensical. Someone who just cashed in to the tune of $5 billion is going to leave the US to avoid paying $2 billion in tax? To where? Europe, with its super low tax rates? The developing world? Every place worth living has higher tax rates than the U.S.
Singapore and Hong Kong collectively are smaller than Los Angeles or New York. Last I checked, the local tax rates in Los Angeles and New York are pretty damn low.
Scale changes everything. It's possible to do things in a nation of only 7 million that isn't possible in a nation of more than 300 million.
Both Singapore and Hong Kong are embedded in the most populous region on earth: the far east. Hong Kong is indeed part of the most populous nation. The concept that they're some kind of run down backwaters next to "real" big cities like LA, NY et al is just silly -- they're major global centres in their own right and have far lower taxes than pretty every other such centre that I can think of.
Yes! It's so amazing that engineers understand all about scale when it comes to databases but so many completely fail to appreciate issues of scale when it comes to political systems.
I see this argument, but it is completely non-sensical. Someone who just cashed in to the tune of $5 billion is going to leave the US to avoid paying $2 billion in tax? To where? Europe, with its super low tax rates? The developing world? Every place worth living has higher tax rates than the U.S.