Originally Posted by stilton
Why on earth would you renounce your citizenship? What possible reason would there be to take such an action?
Money would be the big one. For instance, Murdoch found out a foreigner couldn't own 51% of a US news outlet and was sworn in as a US citizen the next day, Aussie citizenship discarded. I think the Aussie prime minister of the day said he could F-off (or something)
Power. Has Schwartzenegger revoked his Austrian citizenship? Might have made him more electable.
Taxes. Let's say you won the UK lottery jackpot where tax is not payable, only to have the Yanks claim 39%. Think you might just dispose of your US passport before you claimed the money?
And then there are people like John Paul Getty. He decided he liked English Cricket so much he took UK citizenship and turned in his US passport. The US embassy in London told him he was making a huge mistake but Getty said Not So. That is a good counter argument against those Americans who think the whole world wants to be Yanks, but then Americans who think that probably wouldn't listen anyway.
Final 3 Greens, You can say the same thing about most Europeans gross misunderstanding of what America is all about. Americans don't need to travel, the US has amazing natural beauty. Have you seen the visitor stats for Yosemite? I think 15% are German, 13% are British, and the rest of the world takes it to around 50%. I find that very interesting.