Buying citizenship is a $7 billion industry

If you have lots of money, you can buy a citizenship in many different countries. The cheapest passport will run you $45,000, from the African island nation of Comoros. In this interesting short video I learned that if you can spare 1.15 million euros, Malta will sell you citizenship and a passport that allows you to work and live anywhere in the European Union.

There's an even larger market for "golden visas," which give you resident status in exchange for a hefty investment in the country. In the last decade, Chinese have spent $24 billion on golden visas, $7.7 billions which was spent in the United States (each visa requires an investment of $500,000). Trump happily renewed this golden visa program, because "it has become a huge funding source for luxury developments," and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, uses these funds in his company's projects.