> Because US citizens, such as Brittney Griner, expect the US govt to help them when something goes wrong when they are working overseas.

Other countries don't seem to have a problem extending consular assistance to their overseas citizens.

The US government also actually tends to do a bad job* about things like this (i.e. evacuating citizen’s from foreign countries). So you have to pay the taxes but probably can’t count on the government to help. Now, I actually think all US citizens should pay their taxes, but it should be far more fair and reasonable than it currently is (we are basically just creating massive PITA for people while probably not catching offshore millionaires/billionaires.) The fact that you are forced to pay taxes but then will have to try to hitch a ride out of the country with Canada is unacceptable.

* https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-tra... https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/16/us/politics/us-evacuation...

The real question is, does the US provide all the consular services to its citizens for free because of the taxation?

I know that a lot of other countries levy fees on their citizens for some services, especially those that are "nice to have" but not all that important.

Jesus, man, consular assistance should not be contingent on income.

That's a disgusting idea.