No one is taking 80% of anything.
Its a graduated tax rate.
If we want to use 80% as a starter, ok.
The person making the 800,000 dollars still pays 10% on his first x amount, then 15% ,then 25% then 33% and finally 37.5 % the 37.5(never mind 80) is never applied to his/her entire earnings no matter how many bazzillions of dollars one makes.
If there was an 80% top tax rate on income above 800,000 dollars are you saying no one would ever try to make more than 800,000 dollars?
People did it back then when it was higher (with great economic expansion)and people do it now, no one ever tries to stop earning more money, because it doesnt work that way.The government does not go apply that higher tax rate to money under neath the higher tax bracket.It is only applied on the higher amount and that earned above.
Bottom line is there is still more money to be made, not more taken away.
More would be taken away only in a situation of applying the highest rate retroactively once you hit a certain income, that is not what happens.
As for moving and living off your assets in a third world country, how did that work out for John Mcaffee in Belize?(neighbor of Costa Rica)
That is a huge risk as one quickly realizes they have no protections as they did in America, and the corruption in government and the legal systems are insane as compared to ours.
If you think the mexican border with us is porous, can you imagine what it is in the central american countries?
I know alot about Costa Rica.I have seen your posts about it but have refrained from comment.But please do a ton of research if you do decide to make the move.Read the tico times(San Jose's main newspaper) Read some blogs about crime.One area that sounded like heaven a few years ago is turning into a war zone,Puerto Viejo.
Read what is happening because of the drug trade.
Sorry I went off topic of taxes......
Gotta go to church now, Happy Easter...
What you aren't seeing is that between paying federal, state, local taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, etc and a gov't(and citizenry) determined to make them pay even more, one could very well surrender 80% of his income in the future. Don't get locked into the $800,000, just used for an example.
Actually I've done extensive research on every Latin American country and am not interested in Costa Rica. And am very familiar with Tico Times. What you don't seem to realize is I'm not reinventing the wheel, there are 100's of thousands of Americans living just fine in Central and South America. And lifestyles range from very basic with willingness to make huge adjustments, to living a first world lifestyle for maybe 20% less than it would cost in the States. It's not perfect by a long shot, but with Internet, satellite tv, movie theaters playing the latest American movies in English, plus in many places an excellent climate and beautiful scenery, it sure beats the alternative of working until you drop. By the way, the Tico Times is an expat paper in English. That reflects how large the American and Canadian population is there. Costa Rica's problem isn't drug crime, it's too expensive due to all the expats. And McAfee appears to be nuts. And during all the violence in Mexico hundreds of thousands of Americans were living there. It's a matter of not being involved in the drug trade, staying out of bad areas. You wouldn't get involved in that here in the States, and you know better than to drive through a bad area at night in a large American city. That's not to say bad things don't happen. It's just not the horror show that people who've never been there make it out to be.