If S* is hitting the fan, aren't you assuming said expat lives in, to use El Jefe's words, a "S* country"? By conservation of mass, the S* comes from somewhere. Instead, most expats live in W. Europe, Canada, or Japan/Korea. Pretty safe.
" tax avoiding leeches in Silicon Valley don't feel obligated to contribute to the societies from which they extract their wealth"
Well, no. Ppl aren't complaining about paying taxes to the sovereign of where they live, even on their global income. That's another discussion. It's about paying taxes, usually mostly locally earned income, to an entity far away that has no jurisdiction and that provides nothing in return.
As others have mentioned, your American passport does provide you with services. But if you truly believe it's worthless, why maintain citizenship? To save the fee to renounce citizenship, even though it will save potentially tens of thousands of dollars annually? Doesn't make sense to me.
No, it's a safety measure. And I think people are lucky to have it, at the low cost of some of your tax dollars.
In fact I live in the US but haven't applied for US citizenship for this, among other, reasons("passport" being woefully misused word in this context). Anyway, that is a very poor advice since:
1. Most people have one citizenship, including expats (most return).
2. Giving up your US citizenship implies very many more things than not paying taxes. Look up ex-pat type laws.
"American passport does provide you with services" Well the passport surely doesn't. The citizenship might, but I've been an expat all of my life (started bouncing around the world at the tender age of three weeks). I've never used, no one in my family has every used, an no one I know has ever used our rich, Western countries' services [0]
I have used the services of the local police very many times.
"No, it's a safety measure"
The Special Forces aren't on a razor's edge ready to jump and come get you. That's BS from Hollywood. You get in trouble abroad, and yes, you can ask for the local consulate to send someone to see you in jail. That's, in the vast majority of cases, about it. But I try to avoid jail myself.
[0] We're not British. Apparently, Brits get into so much trouble abroad that the Brits have come up with a simple solution: charge the drunk louts for consular services!
EDIT: To be clear, when I move to another country, I take pains to declare that I'm no longer a resident lest I continue being eligible for that country's services.
If S* is hitting the fan, aren't you assuming said expat lives in, to use El Jefe's words, a "S* country"? By conservation of mass, the S* comes from somewhere. Instead, most expats live in W. Europe, Canada, or Japan/Korea. Pretty safe.
" tax avoiding leeches in Silicon Valley don't feel obligated to contribute to the societies from which they extract their wealth"
Well, no. Ppl aren't complaining about paying taxes to the sovereign of where they live, even on their global income. That's another discussion. It's about paying taxes, usually mostly locally earned income, to an entity far away that has no jurisdiction and that provides nothing in return.