Thank you, Uncle Sam!

Yesterday in the mail we received a check, dated July 4, 2008, for $600 from the United States Treasury, our 2008 economic stimulus payment. Thank you, Uncle Sam! This is especially generous on your part, considering we have not paid one cent in income taxes to the U.S. government, for a few reasons, since we left the country in 2003. What a deal – don’t pay taxes for about five years, but get a refund, essentially! Uncle Sam gave us a gift on his birthday!

Other benefits we have received from the U.S. government since 2003 with no financial support from us:

• all of us have been issued new passports (well, I suppose we paid for these directly, but it has the perk of allowing us free passage to most places in the world)
• Lexi got a birth certificate of sorts (from the U.S. consulate in Geneva), which will be more acceptable to Americans that the birth certificate the Swiss issued to her
• two wars fought on our behalf so we can enjoy the blessings of liberty in a world free from terror, courtesy of George W. Bush personally (not!)

And some good this $600 will do for the U.S. economy in the hands of Americans living in Africa. I know Dubbya thought we would immediately run out and buy that new fridge from Sears that we’ve been eyeing as a way of stimulating the economy. Actually, though, we plan to deposit most of it into Lexi’s college savings account, so the money will make its way back to the U.S. and aid in the creation of more money when it gets in the hands of the investment company, so I guess it will help.