Live data from Hacker News

Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

vox.com

31–40 of 401 posts

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

#31
post #13

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.

Oppo dumps are a highly effective way to blow up someone's appointment in a new administration.

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

#32
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not moral behavior. Getting a second citizenship?

The act is not in question...its the motives that are.

Well, the article says it's unknown why, but even speculating what nefarious things could you do with it? Cyprus is part of the EU.

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

#33
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> It's not moral behavior. Getting a second citizenship?

Bailing on your taxes. Or what else do you think he's doing it for?

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

#34
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> It's not moral behavior. Getting a second citizenship?

Buying one. Citizenship is something that ought to be earned and given to people who show that they want to live in and contribute to a country. People like Schmidt purchase themselves a tax excemption or freedom of movement in a world where ordinary people right now lose their jobs and are locked into their country.

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

#35
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not moral behavior. Getting a second citizenship?

Bailing on your taxes. Or what else do you think he's doing it for?

Won't he also have to renounce his US citizenship, since US collects taxes on world wide income?

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

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not moral behavior. Getting a second citizenship?

Buying one. Citizenship is something that ought to be earned and given to people who show that they want to live in and contribute to a country. People like Schmidt purchase themselves a tax excemption or freedom of movement in a world where ordinary people right now lose their jobs and are locked into their country.

This feels like suggesting that it's immoral to buy a car because someone else might not be able to.

>People like Schmidt purchase themselves [...] freedom of movement

This is not immoral.

>where ordinary people [...] are locked into their country

This is

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

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 S…

Also don't forget his _strong_ partnership/culpability with Steve Jobs on their wage-fixing crime.

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

#38

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.

It’s not good or bad it’s whether society as a whole should be bestowing such gifts on banal office administrators, in terms of real daily work.

If they want to leave the nation that built them, it’s America’s wealth; fat tax inbound.

These are normal mortal men.

Believing they can live some decoupled free agent life on humanities tab for their accomplishments which are banal business at the core of it, not novel science, is no different from creating a monarchy and its regents, etc

They are normal men. Not deities. This is the first era where their mess being left behind isn’t just some stone fortresses and a handful of factories. This has been accomplished at great environmental cost.

They’re just people.

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

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not moral behavior. Getting a second citizenship?

Buying one. Citizenship is something that ought to be earned and given to people who show that they want to live in and contribute to a country. People like Schmidt purchase themselves a tax excemption or freedom of movement in a world where ordinary people right now lose their jobs and are locked into their country.

American citizens living and working abroad still must pay taxes to the US Government. As far as I am aware, the US is the only country in the world with this requirement. There is a reason the FBAR requirement is often called the "fubar" requirement.

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

#40
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not moral behavior. Getting a second citizenship?

Bailing on your taxes. Or what else do you think he's doing it for?

He'll have to renounce his US citizenship, which means he would never again be able to set foot in the US (even for "connecting flights").
Post reply on HN