Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus • Hacker News Board

Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#11

Post by gameswithgo » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 6:35 PM UTC

cblconfederate wrote: post #9

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #6

I don't blame him for taking advantage of the system. What I blame him for is all of his supposed altruistic bloviating. No different than a Russian oligarch.

Why do people think this is a "bad thing"? It's no different than buying an expensive home anywhere in the world, except it comes with a citizenship. I doubt he can use the favorable taxation - he would have to renounce his US citizenship for that.

Some people might see the ultra wealthy in the USA of late as having taken part in destroying the country and also preparing to leave it, which they can do thanks to their wealth. Pete Thiel and his New Zealand plans are another more explicit example.

Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#12

Post by EdwinLarkin » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 6:35 PM UTC

cblconfederate wrote: post #9

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #6

I don't blame him for taking advantage of the system. What I blame him for is all of his supposed altruistic bloviating. No different than a Russian oligarch.

Why do people think this is a "bad thing"? It's no different than buying an expensive home anywhere in the world, except it comes with a citizenship. I doubt he can use the favorable taxation - he would have to renounce his US citizenship for that.

How different is this from oligarchs using private jets to escape lockdowns?

Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#13

Post by slg » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 6:38 PM UTC

I literally just read an article 10 minutes ago saying he is expected to lead a tech industry taskforce for the Biden administration. Not a good look to be taking on a more involved role in US governance the exact same moment you're applying for citizenship of a different country.

Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#14

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 6:38 PM UTC

gameswithgo wrote: post #11

cblconfederate wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people think this is a "bad thing"? It's no different than buying an expensive home anywhere in the world, except it comes with a citizenship. I doubt he can use the favorable taxation - he would have to renounce his US citizenship for that.

Some people might see the ultra wealthy in the USA of late as having taken part in destroying the country and also preparing to leave it, which they can do thanks to their wealth. Pete Thiel and his New Zealand plans are another more explicit example.

Dyson leaving the U.K. was another specific and obvious example of this.

Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#15

Post by cblconfederate » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 6:39 PM UTC

EdwinLarkin wrote: post #12

cblconfederate wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people think this is a "bad thing"? It's no different than buying an expensive home anywhere in the world, except it comes with a citizenship. I doubt he can use the favorable taxation - he would have to renounce his US citizenship for that.

How different is this from oligarchs using private jets to escape lockdowns?

True, however right now US people can't travel to cyprus due to restrictions. Plus i m not sure why he would want to travel to europe since everything is locked down atm

Plus he probably has a private jet

Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#16

Post by an_opabinia » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 6:41 PM UTC

pinewurst wrote: post #10

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #6

I don't blame him for taking advantage of the system. What I blame him for is all of his supposed altruistic bloviating. No different than a Russian oligarch.

Thanks for writing that - he's such a supreme hypocrite, but why expect more from the originator of, "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." So many of his own peccadilloes are out there too, despite his personal attempts to delete them from Google.

Some randos on the Internet aren’t going to know why he ultimately gets #MeToo’d.

However it should be obvious that every potential acquirer of Android was aware of enabling Andy Rubin to enter “ownership” relationships with his subordinates, at a time it was obvious to every huge tech CEO they had to develop an iPhone competitor.

It remains to be explained why Google alone decided to enable him, and what role Eric Schmidt played in that. Like quite concretely, when he looks at the private investigator’s report about Andy Rubin, and everyone else’s people doing the same thing at all the other companies saying “don’t do this deal,” despite the money on the line, why did he say yes?

I would add that of course all the major tech companies were aware of the iPhone before it was released, in addition to being aware of Andy Rubin’s ownership relationships of subordinates, and also Eric Schmidt sat on Apple’s board and was aware, and it was of course instrumental to Android’s acquisition.

Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#17

Post by acvny » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 6:45 PM UTC

cblconfederate wrote: post #9

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #6

I don't blame him for taking advantage of the system. What I blame him for is all of his supposed altruistic bloviating. No different than a Russian oligarch.

Why do people think this is a "bad thing"? It's no different than buying an expensive home anywhere in the world, except it comes with a citizenship. I doubt he can use the favorable taxation - he would have to renounce his US citizenship for that.

This is being done for the sole purpose of avoiding taxes. The poor of the US will become poorer.

Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#18

Post by FDSGSG » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 6:47 PM UTC

cblconfederate wrote: post #9

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #6

I don't blame him for taking advantage of the system. What I blame him for is all of his supposed altruistic bloviating. No different than a Russian oligarch.

Why do people think this is a "bad thing"? It's no different than buying an expensive home anywhere in the world, except it comes with a citizenship. I doubt he can use the favorable taxation - he would have to renounce his US citizenship for that.

FWIW Cyprus is kind of a shithole, so it's not exactly like "buying an expensive home anywhere in the world". These people want the citizenship, not the real estate.

Not that I think there's anything wrong with this, probably half of my friends have these passports. Until recently this was the easiest way for Russians to move to the EU.

Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#19

Post by esarbe » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 6:47 PM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #6

I don't blame him for taking advantage of the system. What I blame him for is all of his supposed altruistic bloviating. No different than a Russian oligarch.

Huh, why not? If not for people taking advantage of "the system", "the system" would not exist.

I mean; here we have a guy that has taken all the advantage of all the benefits a developed industrial country has to offer and then in turn does everything in his power to give back as little as possible.

Hell yeah I'm going to blame him. It's not moral behavior. I don't care whether it is legal or not, he's behaving like a parasite and should be judged according to his behavior.

Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#20

Post by freehunter » Mon, Nov 09, 2020, 6:48 PM UTC

cblconfederate wrote: post #9

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #6

I don't blame him for taking advantage of the system. What I blame him for is all of his supposed altruistic bloviating. No different than a Russian oligarch.

Why do people think this is a "bad thing"? It's no different than buying an expensive home anywhere in the world, except it comes with a citizenship. I doubt he can use the favorable taxation - he would have to renounce his US citizenship for that.

When a billionaire makes a move like this (getting citizenship in another country) it’s often criticized as an “escape plan”, or somewhere to run if any number of bad things happen to or in the USA. It’s viewed a little differently from most other ex-pats because these are the people who have the money and power to dramatically influence the government, so if they’re running from something here in the US, it’s either “their” (by that I mean billionaires in general) fault for pushing the government in the wrong direction, or within “their” power to fix.

For example, if mass civil unrest breaks out in the US as a result of the recent election, Eric Schmidt can flee to his estate in Cyprus and ignore the fact that he owned a social network (Youtube) that knowingly hosted radical content and disinformation which would have (in part) caused the civil unrest he’s fleeing from.

Whether or not that’s his intention, it doesn’t matter. True or not, what people are seeing is billionaires knowingly destabilizing the country in order to make a lot of money, then using that money to protect themselves against the country they just damaged.

That very thing happened earlier this year at the start of the pandemic, SV billionaires fled the country to go to a private island in New Zealand, while their employees suffered and died back here in the US: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronaviru...