It means that your fate is not decided by the law, but by arbitrary decisions of random officials. It is the opposite of rule of law.

Before then, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-taxes-foreign-idUSTRE7... reports that after 26 months of work, and at one time with a likely penalty of $172,000, the final penalty was $25,000 total. Does that count as "come across"?

Even without paying the fine, http://www.thelocal.se/20120306/39522 reports "while Pamela may no longer be facing a seven-figure penalty, she's already racked up a bill of $40,000 in accountants' and lawyers' fees." Most of the cases I've heard of (the Reuters piece includes more) are of people who paid penalties under the voluntary disclosure program or had to spend a lot on accountant fees to get things straightened out.

And there's still the stress of worrying if a minor mistake out of ignorance when I send the information to my accountant might still end up with huge penalties in the future.

What happens if someone with no plans to visit the US and no income from the US that could be garnished says "So - come and get it if you want it"?

But notice how they've been working on new rules like FATCA that go after the citizen's bank, assuming the bank does any sort of business in the US?

For all I know, in 10 years the IRS will force the bank to extract penalties directly from someone's account.

the irs got the french gov to freeze all his assets claiming he was giving up citizenship to evade taxes.