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Comment by masonic | Hacker News Reader

If you consider citizenship to be "no benefit" (you can still vote, collect Social Security, etc. overseas), you could always renounce your citizenship.

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The US still charges taxes for 10 years after you renounce your citizenship if you spend more than 30 days in the country and they charge an exit tax.

Being stateless is a pretty terrible option.

Social Security is not a "benefit". It is getting money back that I have paid in to the system.

And as for voting, why? I have no representative to vote for.

If you're registered to vote in the US, you have representatives to vote for.

https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/abroad/legal-m...

If you honestly see no benefit of your US citizenship, or the costs outweigh the benefits, it sounds like you should change your citizenship status, perhaps to the country you're a resident in, or maybe move back to the US.

Yes Social Security is a "benefit", you more than likely will get back everything you paid in plus interest plus continue drawing a Social Security check beyond that. Last time I crunched the numbers a retiree would on average get back everything they paid in plus interest in just under 9 years. And that is a generous estimate since I averaged payments into the system over a typical working life instead of weighing them towards later in life (people tend to make more as they gain experience and their career advances).

Social Security is not a savings plan no matter how much you would like to think it is.

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