| Because we don't have a democratic capitalist system, we have a corporatist oligopoly. The federal govt was set up to be toothless -- and consequently lacking in responsibility -- on purpose. Then it overstepped those bounds in terms of power, but never in terms of responsibility. So you have a rate of federal income tax that is double, triple, or more that of your resident state, while getting almost nothing in return in the form of social services. (Medicare, Social Security/FICA are on top of the base federal income tax.) States will have a very hard time raising taxes because the fed govt already takes so much from their citizens, and tehy cannot overrule the federal govt tax rate. And, states are too interconnected by trade to be self-sufficient unto themselves, even with higher taxes. And the federal govt controls states without helping much - and what aid they give comes with control issues. The govt of the USA simply doesn't work in this century. It needs to be either more state-oriented, or more federalist, not this unholy half-breed. Consider the following: I'm an American citizen living abroad permanently. I have to pay federal income taxes even though I never intend to return. And better yet, I can't even vote in any election. Because I won't declare myself a resident of a state (and subject to those income taxes). Without paying state income tax, I cannot vote in the federal elections. Tell me that's not fucked up. (And no, I can't just declare myself a resident of a state that has no income tax. That doesn't work.) |
I know many expats, my cousin and sister included, who establish residency in South Dakota for this purpose. The state only requires a one night stay and a mailing address to establish residency. Once you stay overnight you can get a driver's license which I think is good for 10 years. Many retired people who live in Mexico do this and there are mail forwarding agencies who will act as your mailing address for a fee.
It might be a pain in the ass for people who grew up in more populated areas, but I'm from the high plains so it wasn't such a radical idea. Some of my relatives actually live, or have lived in SD. There may be other states with similarly lax residency requirements.
edit: here's more info from a quick google search: http://www.roamingtimes.com/blog/south-dakota-residency.htm
note that it says "a handful of states make it easy to establish residency." i tried another google search to find a list of the residency requirements of each state. i found this:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781452.html
From a cursory look at this list I THINK that SD is the only state with no state income tax and very relaxed residency requirements.