Andylusion
Platinum Member
You can't compare Puerto Rica to a state because it's not a state. It's a Caribbean island that happens to be a US territory. Officially a U.S. commonwealth, Puerto Rico is treated in some ways like a foreign country, in other ways like a state, and in still other ways unlike anywhere else. But it has never had full control over its destiny. The best thing for Puerto Rica and the US is independence from the US. It would no longer be confined by US laws, taxes, and regulations. It would be able to operate as other Caribbean Islands do. If not independence, statehood would be the best next alternative, but we know that's not going to happen. The worse case is to remain part of the US in some ways and a foreign country in other ways.Just read an article (sorry, no link) where there are 330,000 vacant homes on the island. In addition, tens of thousands live in cobbled together shacks with no running water, electricity, or sewage on land they don't own.
Wanna bet these have all the utilities up and running?
Or this place:
After the lengthy process, FEMA gives money to rebuild homes and the owners don't use it for that purpose. And how do you restore services to neighborhoods that don't officially exist?
Do you think that if Puerto Rico became an actually US state, and was in fact part of the United States... you know the name of our country... do you think the problems we see there would still exist?
I don't know. What do you think?
You cannot change an ages-old mindset. It comes from the time Spain ran the place, the same one in all Hispanic nations.
I highly doubt that.
I honestly believe that it is simply a matter of economic incentives.
The exact same problem with the crap sticks of Miss, or Alabama, is the same problem in Puerto Rico. We have institutions that promote staying in crappy situations.
This is the same problem with all people stuck in the welfare system.
If you subsidize crap life styles, more people stay in crappy life styles. When I worked at Wendy's we had a lady that came in, told us she intended to only work until she qualified for welfare again, and sure enough the day she qualified, she stopped showing up for work. That lady will be poor and impoverished until she dies, and it is entirely the result of the welfare state.
Now my understanding of Puerto Rico is that they have tons of government support, which is why for example the subsidized electricity system is broke, and they don't have money to restore power.
Well subsidized electricity seems like a great idea, because it allows people to stay in low-income living conditions... until of course that cheap power can't be restored because the system has no money to make repairs.
Solution to Puerto Rico, and Alabama, and everywhere else with these problems, is to simply cut government support for bad life styles.
If they didn't get paid to quit Wendy's and live off the government, they wouldn't. They would find a way to move up the income ladder, and better themselves. This would equally cause more tax revenue for the government, which would support the basic needs of society, like police, fire, roads and so on. Of course without subsidized power, the power company (being privatized) would charge a price high enough to cover fixing and maintaining the power grid. Why? Because in a capitalist system, customers without power, don't pay the power company. In order to make more profit, they'll make sure they have more customers.
I do not believe this idea that it is simply a "Spanish mentality". Or any mentality tied to a race. It is simply the results of economic incentives.
If they imposed the same incentives in Sweden or Germany, they would end up with the same problems.
I think we can compare economic incentives between the US and anywhere.
That said, I would rather that they choose in, or out of the US, and not some sort of stuck in the middle quasi state status.
However, I don't necessarily think that being completely independent is automatically a win. Depends on how they handle it. They could easily end up destroying themselves like Jamaica or Haiti.
Beyond that, why would they not become a state again? My understanding from the BBC on this, was that the push for formally adopting state hood inside Puerto Rico was higher today than at any time in history, and that the last vote on the matter only failed by a very slim margin.
Why do you assume it will never happen?
