Staying in a place because you'd be punished if you try to leave is the very definition of a prison.

> And why is "the country" in scare quotes.

Because it's not a "country" asking for this. It's politicians. Who make these kind of proposals for their own, selfish goals. Lately populists have managed to gain more and more support pretending what they propose is for the good of "the country" but in the end it's them who profit the most.

> Because it's not a "country" asking for this. It's politicians.

Politicians are, more or less, democratically elected in the US. A country is just a huge net of social relations, and those social relations express power in electing a representative. A country isn't going to express any preference because it's collectively imagined, and the closest we're currently capable of expressing the preferences of those who are apart of this imagination is through democracy. These politicians don't just pop out of thin air.

Are you seriously arguing that negative incentive structures are invalid?

You also didn't address my point about the missing tax revenue on use of capital.