Comments by "Matthew Nirenberg" (@matthewnirenberg) on "What Happens if My Country Taxes Citizens?" video.

  1. The worst part about citizenship based taxation is that the countries that do it and those that want to do it love to use the argument of "but all citizens benefit from it no matter where in the world they are" which is simply 100% false. If you're not in the country you don't benefit! If the politicians had to earn their income like the rest of us, not have it guaranteed to them, they wouldn't make half the claims and laws they currently do! I say this as in the case of Australia (if you're a citizen regardless of whether or not you're in the country), once your assets (worldwide) exceed certain ever lowering thresholds, your ability to benefit from government assistance (in any capacity), pensions and even in certain circumstances access to super (Australia's equivalent of a retirement fund), all disappear. In Australia, if you own your own house or apartment and have a pre-tax income of over $100,000 your access to government assistance almost completely disappears, your ability to receive a pension disappears once your net worth exceeds a threshold (which includes an assets test) - regardless of how much you've paid in taxes over the years. Income Tax was originally supposed to guarantee a basic pension to everyone but now since Australia became a welfare state (most people live on welfare, the minority pay all the taxes) they say "You're not entitled to a pension" whilst giving absolute bludgers welfare cheques for doing literally nothing. Now the government regularly talks about making access to super (Australia's equivalent of a retirement fund) subject to the same rules and means testing as a pension. All part of your "social contract" which we've never agreed to - a made up load of BS to justify stealing from us all! Further, once you exceed the lowest taxable income, you now have to pay medicare levies which are only viable if you can claim the lower levy by having private health insurance which isn't cheap. Once you have private health insurance the system in Australia does everything it can to force you to get everything done private (expensive) wherever they can so you basically loose benefits of public health. Need to see a doctor? There's a government mandated fee for that on top of the doctors fee! If you're not living in the country, your kids aren't going to public school there (the quality of public education in Australia is a joke compared to that of Private Education in Australia - speaking from personal experience on this one). Nor are you using the roads which get paid for through car rego, licencing and fuel excise (a tax on fuel from WW2 that never went away) plus the GST collected on fuel. So far, still absolutely no benefits beyond having the passport and being allowed in the country indefinitely... Australia is the perfect example of why people shouldn't just be allowed onto welfare without strict requirements and why the government should have to get the best deal on anything they spend money on. The Australian Government waste more money than most other nations do. The cost of living and the taxes are absolutely horrible, as is the redtape and over regulation. I literally got qualified as both a Mechanical Engineering Technician - (CAD / CNC Operator / Machininst / hydraulics and pneumatics / materials science / fluid dynamics / fluid mechanics / thermodynamics, etc.) and then as a degree qualified Mechanical Engineer. What happened the moment I finished my degree? The government introduced lesser qualifications for each part of the qualifications I have, which resulted in companies wanting people who only had certificates in only what they wanted, as they could pay them less by law. Examples include: Cert 2 Engineering Fabrication (CNC operation), Cert 4 in Fluid power (hydraulics & pneumatics), etc. Then the government brought in Mandatory Engineering Registration with CPD (Continuing Professional Development) and made the criteria excessively expensive and burdensome so that most people don't qualify for it regardless of having the correct qualifications. Did you know that working for a small (=< 10 employee business doesn't qualify for experience / work experience at all in any capacity in Australia even if working under a more experienced and appropriately qualified mentor, only working for big businesses does - at least as far as mandatory registration is concerned). So I have no choice but to leave ASAP so I can go where I can actually work or as Andrew puts it "to go where [i'm] treated best". This is why my friends and I are going overseas to a better country as soon as the border opens. Currently we are stuck in Australia as the border is like the iron curtain - no one in or out, no clue when if ever it will reopen - it was shut without warning otherwise we'd have gone before it shut. I hate to say it but the "Western / CANZUK" countries are basically lost. High taxes, high cost of living, excessive redtape and over regulation, excessively unaffordable house prices, increasing hate of anyone with any amount of wealth (even just owning your own house gets you hated), the ever increasing push for socialism and communism... the list goes on. If it wasn't for Andrew and this channel I wouldn't have been able to make a plan. Thank you for this channel! Please keep up the great work Andrew!
    1