You don't have to do anything to keep your American citizenship. You can't get rid of it without a significant amount of effort.

America is one of the only nations in the world that taxes its expats also. You can't escape the USA. You are the property of the tax farm.

I believe the reason for this is simple (though understandably unpopular):

A lot of people that get rich because of America would just drop American citizenship once they do get rich to avoid paying back into the system that allowed them to become successful.

There is no other country that offers as much upward mobility as the US to its citizens. Hence the tax.

Nope. First of all, social mobility in the US is not better than anywhere else (https://www.epi.org/publication/usa-lags-peer-countries-mobi...) . Secondly, it's not that much harder to renounce US citizenship than other countries - in fact, in some ways it's easier because the US is the only country I know of that allows you to renounce citizenship without having another citizenship already. My point was only that you don't have to "actively keep" your citizenship, by visiting the US or any other means.

This is a pleasant fiction, isn’t it? A quick look will tell you that the US is far below the Nordic countries in social mobility. For instance:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobility

Also the services that the US Government provides to even their overseas expats is pretty remarkable. I’m not sure there’s another country in the world that can bail you out of a dicey situation within hours in almost any spot on earth.

You don't know what you are talking about. The US overseas generally won't lift a finger unless it has invaded the country in question. Canada, the UK, Germany, Ireland, Japan: all in fact assist.

Maybe they meant to renew the foreign visa

But yeah that also wouldn’t require coming back to the US necessarily

Yeah, you would just drive to Laos or Cambodia or take a short flight to one of the nearby island countries for a week.

>This obsession with cheap places to live intrigues me.

That's... pretty damn bizarre that you'd find it intriguing.

>In Memphis, TN you can rent a decent apartment in a shitty part of town for $300 a month.

Who _wants_ to live in the shitty part of town? You've deconstructed your own argument in a sentence.

Also, with American money you can live in Vietnam like royalty, and in an area that looks like paradise. There's a reason the places you are talking about are in the "flyover states".

> Who _wants_ to live in the shitty part of town? You've deconstructed your own argument in a sentence.

Let's say you just quit your job to live your dream of creating an indie video game. You'll probably want as much runway as possible while you build.

Startups tend to need rapid iteration and experimentation unless they're highly technical, which is why this plan is probably better for things you can do solo and completely cut off.

On the other hand, maybe someone just wants to spend a few years playing video games and reading books? Why not do it cheaply?

Sure, I don’t mean to suggest it’s a good idea for all or even most Americans to retire in Vietnam vs. a cheaper city in the USA. However I do think a sizeable amount (maybe some 5% of retirees?) would be a good match for that

Its not about the cheapest place to live it’s about not-Birmingham, not-Memphis

The Bi-coastal Americans in this article will take communism on a bankroll over the Bible Belt, take a hint

Tropical weather and ocean access helps. A flat land with extremes of hot and cold, tornadoes and drastic divergences in daily temperature are more worrisome than being on the head with a Bible, personally.

Yes all that is geographically part of the Bible Belt:

Shitty extremes of temperature

Shitty hostile weather patterns

Shitty viability of opportunities as a result of ongoing talent drain towards the coasts with everyone wondering why its so cheap

Shitty isolationist mentality and nationalism to rationalize why their dystopian nightmare is okay

Shitty extremes of religion that were literally kicked out of Europe

Shitty public policy and services as a byproduct of the prior two realities

When people want to enjoy their money its an easy and hard pass on the bible belt. Social welfare states and full blown communist states by the water give you everything for free all while you can buy luxury in liberalized state planned economies.

I’m sitting here in New Orleans chuckling at your handle

A resort town in SE Asia is pretty nice; you also have to consider much cheaper services that you aren’t going to get in a cheap Deep South city. It has nothing to do with communism or Bible belts.

Also you get access to democracy and safety.

In a nice resort town in SE Asia vs a failing city in the Deep South....I’m not sure which one you are referring to?