It’s actually rather difficult and costly to renounce citizenship —- you must pay for that privilege. The passport fee should be more than enough (as it is for literally every other country), especially for a passport that barely cracks the top 20 to top 10 in various indices of passport strength. We are being exploited and there’s really no good reason.
> The passport fee should be more than enough (as it is for literally every other country)
The US does have an extremely good network of embassies, and the US is also probably the most effective country on earth at being able to evacuate their citizens from areas that turn hostile.
And of course... a passport is nothing without the state to back it up. That requires more funding than just a passport fee.
>The US does have an extremely good network of embassies
The only reason most citizens would go to an embassy is to renew their passport, so these embassies are needed once every 5-10 years. Do you really think that US embassies offer such high level of service coverage and quality that it is worth paying through the nose for?
>US is also probably the most effective country on earth at being able to evacuate their citizens from areas that turn hostile.
This is hardly a real benefit if you don't actively travel to unstable areas. How often does the need for evacuation from hostile areas come as a total surprise?
> the US is also probably the most effective country on earth at being able to evacuate their citizens from areas that turn hostile
Countries turning hostile is a low risk for expats. And whenever major natural disasters have occurred in recent decades, it is often reported that smaller European countries evacuated their citizens better and more kindly than the US.
It costs money to maintain the meaning of a citizenship. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask people to pay for it.