"America's homeless and panhandlers (who are often different people—some homeless don't panhandle and some panhandlers aren't homeless) are actually quite wealthy. Almost all own an asset—their United States citizenship—that is worth several hundred thousand dollars. The problem is that they are denied the right to sell that asset."
-TCS Daily
What do you make of that idea, that citizens be allowed to sell their citizenship on the condition they promise to leave the country?
-T
(nod to EconLog)
My first reaction was "This is a great idea". Then the practicality hit. Questions:
ReplyDelete1. How do you guarantee passage for the now citizenshipless Americans and where do they go?
2. How do you guarantee that deceased citizens are not "selling" their citizenship?
There seem to be a lot more practical problems with this than say, organ selling which would be another interesting topic. If there were a more detailed plan it would be easier to give a thumbs up or thumbs down. Currently I give it a thumbs down with a desire to see some plan like this work.
I thought of another stumbling block: How would this affect our current political process? Currently of course, only U.S. citizens can run for higher offices. Could a rich Saudi suddenly buy citizenship one year and run for the U.S. Senate the next? How about a group of Saudis?
ReplyDeleteIs citizenship a necessary block on quick changes in power, much like staggered elections and the separtion of powers?
Selling the citizenship implies that the buyer's only qualification is the money put forth. I've never heard of a country that doesn't have a severe naturalization examination. Undoubtably it is glossed over in some cases, at the discretion of the naturalization service. The point is the same: the country has a choice in who joins their club.
ReplyDeleteI think countries will want to maintain the right to refuse granting citizenship. This proposal quickly turns into an unwieldly four-party transaction.
Good points, how about "Leasing" citizenship? And perhaps not citizenship but, rights to reside and work in a country?
ReplyDeleteThere's definitely a huge market for those who would like to reside and work in another country but can't. Professionals could lease rights from the indigent at a rate that allows them to support themselves without working, and they could move to a thirdworld country where they're allowed to live off of the proceeds. (but not work, plenty of 3w countries are already trying to bring in 1w retirees, basically the same thing)
The problem is that there really isn't a shortage of americans who'd be willing to lease their work rights, so the value to be gained by leasing might be negligible. Won't know untill we try though!
Brilliant idea!