One of the more inspiring perennial stories of my youth were of defectors, people who left their Communist-controlled countries to reach freedom . . . on American soil.
Many, many Soviet and Eastern bloc subjects smuggled themselves out of their countries, or “jumped ship” while visiting the U.S. or other Western nations. The list of freedom seekers is long, impressive, and inspiring.
And this isn’t just “ancient history.”
After an international tour, seven members of Cuba’s National Ballet were confirmed by homeland sources as “not having returned.” And a Cuban exile website has informed us that six of the defectors are now in the U.S., while the seventh remains in Mexico, where the troupe had broken free:
“We were intent on seeking a better artistic life and economic well-being for our families,” Cafe Fuerte quoted one of the group, Annie Ruiz Diaz, as saying.
Correspondents say Cuba’s National Ballet has suffered from a number of high-profile defections over the years, as performers stay abroad in search of greater creative and economic opportunities.
But this is only the tip of the proverbial floating mass of frozen water. In truth, thousands of people defect to the United States every year. Leaving their countries of origin, they flee poverty, tyranny, reckless government and outrageous criminality (too often these latter are the same thing), seeking the comparatively peaceful life found under a nation run by the rule of law.
Alas, defection is going the other way, too, as more and more Americans attempt to escape from increasingly burdensome taxation, oppressive regulations, and selective enforcement of innumerable laws.
We honor the heroic defectors from Cuba only by making the U.S. a place that fewer and fewer peaceful folks would be tempted to flee from.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
6 replies on “Flight to Freedom”
In addition to the taxes paid on all earnings the US now imposes an ADDITIONAL tax of half of any and every asset earned and saved over your lifetime if you decide to try to permanently leave. After a few more years of racking up debt at the rate the government is planning, the taxing necessary to keep this from toppling over will make that seem like a bargain.
I think mostly of finishing my life here in my home with the ones I love without any fear, and dying as a free person.
I also sometimes wonder if there is any intelligent conversation about settling elsewhere.
But I would like either way not to have to constantly be thinking about what the collectivists and tyrannists/world governance adherants are doing; it takes up too much mental bandwidth and energy that could otherwise be used for discovery of many new frontiers. We have the power right now to revisit and reexamine all previously “settled” knowledge.
..even as we approach our own second civil war…
That above post is a flame. No one is talking about a civil war.
What happens when govenrments hyperinflate the currency is an uncivil war, aka riots. As happened in Argentina and the Weimar Republic, first the currency dramatically escalates in its loss in value, then the GDP falls, then default on the debt, then widespread unemployment, then the government welfare and unemployment(hush money) can’t keep up, then riots, the rise of alternative currencies, then the collapse of the government. The government initially does very well, ruling with more and more iron control. This is resisted and eventually becomes less and less effective. Look at our trajectory and tell me that we are not en route to exactly that.
Probably won’t happen before February, since Bernanke has announced that he is not going to bail before then. He admitted in an interview that there is no exit plan for the country from our current direction. The next Fed mananger is not going to be as bright as Bernanke.
Expect Presbo to be holed up in Hawaii with a huge stock of supplies and a private army before it goes south.
Semantics, John. Since a civil war is a rebellion against and an atttempt to overthrow a government and to seize control, we have never yet had a first civil war.