Thoughts on Singapore
by Marwood Dent (a pseudonym)
International Man
I have been living in Singapore for three years and
have not regretted my decision for a second. Partly, this is
because Singapore is my fourth country of residence and I have no
attachment to any group, apart from those with whom I feel
psychological affinity.
Moving to a different country might not be for
everyone, but it can help you maximize your living conditions and
feel freer by escaping increasingly controlling and restrictive
governments.
If you live in the Western world, consider the
demographics. When you couple the increasing sense of entitlements
and Social Security payments with decreasing tax revenues and
decreasing growth-rates... it makes it extremely important to
secure your hard-earned wealth from being taxed away by your
government.
It is conceivable they might even at some point make
it impossibleDESIGNING YOUR
LIFE
By keeping a couple of passports and living in a third country (and
using cash wherever possible), one can design a life of anonymity
and freedom – all legally.
If you want to make your life and, at least in some sense, your
money, your own... you have no choice but to be "paranoid".
Interestingly, by being paranoid and then acting to
internationalize yourself, you can eliminate your paranoia. Then
you need not fear becoming a tax slave. Instead, wherever you go,
you will be welcomed as a tourist and seen as a contributor to the
local economy.
As I write this, most of my wealth is located in countries with
which I have had no tax or residential connection for the last five
years. And the best part is... they don't care. These
countries are all grateful for my investments and know full well
that, having no jurisdiction over me, if they create problems for
me my capital would leave in seconds.
I live in Singapore but keep minimal wealth here.
Singapore does not tax your wealth and hence does not care where
you keep your capital.
But why give them a chance to trouble you? The next generation of
Singaporeans might be entitlement-oriented (and they are), and
therefore I want to be in a position to leave again when the time
comes.
If I am fortunate, that time may never come, as its
tax regime is its core competency and main
attraction.
WHY SINGAPORE?
I am often asked, "Why
would someone as fanatically libertarian as you go to a country
where there is no democracy, where you get capital punishment for
owning guns and drugs?"
It's a good question. Why would I choose to live
in a country that is constantly ridiculed for the use of caning as
a punishment, and that lacks freedom of speech?
Singapore's reputation makes people question if they must sacrifice
their freedom in order to save taxes.
Allow me to address each of these issues.
First, it is a myth that democracies (read: dictatorship
of the masses) by definition offer more benevolent living
conditions. In my experience, democracies have seeds of
self-destruction. Singapore, on the other hand, is more like a
family-run corporation – a political system I prefer over
democracy.
Here I don't see any busybodies around. Bureaucratic interferences
in your life are minimal. They focus on governance and they do it
relatively well. They are nowhere close to an ideal government, but
compared to what you get elsewhere, Singapore is a treat.
Second, while it is true that they do have tough drug and gun laws,
they are effective. Singapore is one of the safest cities on the
planet and a young girl here can feel comfortable walking by
herself just about anywhere, even late at night. Since I have no
reason to own a gun nor do I consume drugs, Singapore fits in my
life design plan just fine.
Third, while this may sound quite shocking, to me, caning as a mode
of punishment looks quite appropriate in many situations.
For example, I recently saw a video of three teenagers beating an
old man for fun in the U.S. The teenagers likely went unpunished. I
would prefer that they had to slog for several years to make
monetary retribution to the old man. But lacking that, I certainly
think caning is a better form of punishment than letting the
culprits go.
Lastly, freedom
of speech is limited only in the arena of
politics.
Quite honestly, if more freedom of speech were
allowed in Singapore, it would likely also degenerate into a
"dictatorship of the mobs", in which Peter lobbies or protests to
steal what is Paul's. Personally, my only
reason for participating in mass protests is war. But since
Singapore does not participate in attacking other countries, there
is no need for antiwar protests anyway. So again this is acceptable
to me in my life design plan.
TAX CONSIDERATIONS
In Singapore, only your income is taxed, and at a maximum marginal
rate of 20%. There is no capital gains tax. The benefit here being
that, not only do you not have to pay tax on capital gains, more
importantly, there is no way for the government
to know what you actually own. (This removes the possibility
of your capital being taken away from you on some pretext, as you
can expect to happen someday very soon in the U.S.)
Similarly, because
you don't declare tax on interest earned from bank deposits, the
government has no way of finding out how much you have and in which
bank.
I like my privacy. Indeed, here you don't have to worry about
keeping detailed bank records and having to calculate gains on
owning different currencies, a virtually impossible job. The last
time I did my taxes here it took me just three minutes.
Singapore also has double taxation avoidance agreements with many
countries. If your country is one of them, you might be able to
stay up to one day less than six months in your home country and
still become a Singaporean tax-resident. These
treaties perhaps give Singapore the edge over Hong Kong in terms of
where to live. (I still go to Hong Kong, though, to do my shopping
since there is no sales tax there.)
DON'T DELAY
Contrary to the rationalizations of procrastinators, it is much
easier to move to a new country when you are still young, have no family and do not have
much wealth. Once you are settled in a job in your home
country, your unrealized capital gains keep accumulating. After a
certain threshold, this might make your exit tax requirement so
prohibitive that... ironically... for tax reasons, you do not go
even if you have every intention and reason to leave your
country.
The life of an international man requires him to stop seeing the
world in black and white.
He must not pigeonhole countries, but design his life in order to
secure his wealth and freedom as much as he can. That can often
mean giving up residence in what is generally perceived as a
relatively "free" country.
You have to design your own freedom.
Shop where goods are cheap and there is no sales tax... Be a tax
resident where you have minimal tax requirements... Spend time in
places where the cost of living is low and the quality of life is
high... Seek a jurisdiction where real freedom and anonymity
exist... Keep most of your money in countries different from where
you live... Own passports for countries where you don't live.
And best of all, with a bit of effort, this can all be done
perfectly legally and will let you stay one step ahead of your
government.
http://lewrockwell.com/rep3/thoughts-on-singapore.html
Left Wing counterattack
against libertarianism
General Pinochet’s Chile was a longtime favorite. But seeing as how
it relied on a fascist coup—with a big
assist from Nixon and Kissinger—Chile’s lost a bit of that Cold War
luster. So these days, for the slightly more with-it libertarian,
we get Singapore as
the model of choice.
Hey, isn’t that where the Facebook guy
lives these days? That’s pretty “hip”!
Ah, Singapore: a city-state near the very top in the world when it
comes to “number of police” and “execution rate” per capita. It’s a
charming little one-party state where soft-core pornography is
outlawed, labor rights are almost nonexistent and gay sex is
banned. Expect a caning if you break a window. And death for a
baggie of cocaine.
But hey: no capital gains tax! (Freedom!)....
http://exiledonline.com/its-hip-its-cool-its-libertarianism/
BY MICHAEL
LIND
http://www.salon.com/2011/08/30/lind_libertariansim/