
How Peter Thiel Got New Zealand Citizenship - polemic
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11790034
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RichardHeart
In a perfect world, everyone would be a citizen of everywhere. In this world,
people are deprived of citizenship to protect the interests of current
citizens. A question would be, which is more likely, that a billionaire
investor adds or subtracts from your society.

There seems to be more economic residencies and citizenships available now
than ever, I assume those nations with said programs have decided wealthy
people are net positive.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
Or the people who make the laws and/or decisions have decided it's a net
positive for them anyway.

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laingc
As a New Zealander, I think it's absolutely fantastic that Peter Thiel is a
fellow citizen. I welcome him, as well as other law-abiding wealth creators
with open arms, and hope that Government policy of providing such persons with
easy paths to citizenship continues.

~~~
gonvaled
Sure, sure, that's the great thinking of the day: billionaires can do anything
they want, enter your country, become citizens, even pay reduced taxes, while
rich countries (read US and UK for the time being) are closing the borders to
people in real need.

So that either those people will not get at all help, or a reduced amount of
countries (and maybe even poor countries) will be forced to bear the burden of
helping them.

You get richer by getting trickle down economics of wealthy individuals[1],
and the rest get poorer.

[1] The more plausible outcome is that, as one sibling comment mentions, you
will not get that much from those wealthy individuals. They will come with
their millions, squander your resources, workforce and capital, and move to
the next bidder in a couple of years.

~~~
laingc
Yes, they can enter your country, donate a million dollars to a city crippled
by earthquakes, invest in your most dynamic startup to fund their US
expansion, and bring a massive network of contacts to a country with little
access to venture capital.

Peter Thiel would be an asset to any country, but to New Zealand in
particular, he is immensely valuable.

~~~
erikpukinskis
Peter Thiel is valuable because he has the money, but the people who created
that money for him are not inherently valuable. They are interchangeable so
they have no real value.

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kennywinker
The opening five words of the story "Billionaire venture capitalist Peter
Thiel" pretty much answers the titular question for me.

We live in a deeply flawed world.

~~~
drakonandor
Billionaires are people too. It shouldn't be any surprise that countries let
in people who are an asset financially faster than they would let in people
who are a burden.

~~~
kennywinker
By most accounts, on average, immigration is never a burden. At worst, it's a
short term burden and a long term benefit.

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magicbuzz
Didn't even bother to fly to New Zealand to get his citizenship.

