Tea Party in the Singapore Harbour

So this really isn't the kind of blog that strives to discuss matters of social importance. In fact, we mainly strive to blog about things our Mommies want to hear about, post pictures of cool things which attempt to justify why we left our fabulous friends and family in the USA  and occasionally blog out of pure boredom (we are hoping there will be a correlation between increases in friends and decreases in free time to blog- yet to be seen).

BUT- at least this once we shall briefly discuss a topic of political importance. Taxes.

If you know me, you know I hate taxes. Hate them. A little piece of my spirit died every time I saw my pay stub and realized how much money I paid to the government. Living abroad has only made me hate taxes EVEN more. Why? Because despite the fact that I live in Singapore, use their public services and pay their taxes- I still have to share a percentage of my pay check to Uncle Sam. This has become a particular issue in our lives recently because in Singapore there is no income with holding done by employers. None- not a penny. So the task of figuring out how much you owe the government (make that 2 governments) became our problem. Awesome. And having to figure out how many thousands and thousands of dollars I will send to a country that I no longer live in has been a little more than irritating.

And today, in the best newspaper in the world, there was an article on this very problem!!!!!!

New York Times- More Expatriates Give Up Citizenship

Sometimes is like the Times is reading my mind. For those of you who will not be taking the time to read the article- the gist is that expats, not unlike ourselves, are sick and tired of paying boatloads of taxes to a country that they do not live in and do not receive proportional benefits from while also paying taxes to the country they do live in. The only solution for this- renounce your citizenship.

Now before our Moms get all worried- we are not giving up our citizenship. Ever. Ev-er. We both like being US citizens more than we hate taxes. But it is interesting to think that the US is practically the only country in the world that feels entitled to money earned outside of their borders... Seems like there should be a better solution than forcing hard working American citizens to give up their citizenship to avoid taxation with out representation. I would send a note to Obama to suggest this, but it seems like he has his hands full already spreading socialism to the masses. I kid, I kid...(sort of.)

OK- now we will resume with your regularly scheduled blogging about our occasionally interesting lives in Singapore. We are headed to Borneo this weekend- so hopefully as our Starwood hotels tour of Asia continues we can entertain you with stories of monkeys and jungles and beaches, oh my!