I found this article to be extremely educational for those who do not know much about Puerto Rico....which I would guess is most americans. So many don't know it's part of the US, don't know the history here, don't know the relationship between the island and the US through the military, medical industry, the Jones act, the various tax incentives and how it feels to live under TWO governments with opposing goals.
I would recommend this article to everyone who wants to understand the basics of the history and the relationships.
After living here for 4 years, I would ALSO suggest that Puerto Ricans themselves, also do not know these things for the most part or do not spend time to understand the details of them. I will give a couple of examples.
The Jones act is a stupid, authoritarian piece of legislature that does nothing at all to benefit Puerto Ricans. It adds cost to goods sold here, and does basically nothing else for the island (it controls the flow of goods, all goods from the US must go through a florida port before going to PR). Many Puerto Ricans claim the Jones act means that food grown on the island must also go to Florida before being sold on the island. Not true. They also claim that it cuts off all direct foreign trade to the island, also not true. It is also blamed for the destruction of agriculture on the island, also not true.
The destruction of agriculture was an intended consequence of Governor Munoz's dedication to modernizing the island and bringing up a new middle class (operation Bootstrap). Which he succeeded in doing. Farming on the island was mostly sugarcane, highly controlled, highly competitive in the limited market and kept people in poverty. So an enormous sum of money was spent to modernize more of puerto rico. Paving roads, power lines, making more modern communities (like Levittown and its clones). Now we have power lines crossing once gorgeous mountains, road on top of ridgelines and mountains, and so forth leading to public services having to go to places that would be an insane proposition anywhere else in the world. This was all done with no plan whatsoever of how long term financial sustainability regarding maintenance, and further modernization would work. The result is an island filled with potholes, rotting concrete structures, and rats nests on top of aging power and telephone poles. Oh and the great migration off thie island? Largely started by Munoz' policies and programs as they knew then the shiny new stuff couldnt be handed out to everyone.
Finally, the tax incentives are incredibly misunderstood on the island. They are so misunderstood there are now "gringo go home" riots where they associate these acts with colonialism (how can people who ONLY pay local taxes, be colonialists?).
Act 20 (and now act 60) are benefits where the benefactor must bring new money to the island in order to comply. An act 20 benefactor does not take any income from puerto ricans or the puerto rican economy and they spend it here in the forms of goods and services and LOCAL taxes (sales, property, and an incessant barrage of fees). Same with act22, but with capital gains instead of income. The people benefitting from this are preventing their money from helping to fund the exact same colonizing body (the US federal government) that they lament controls the island. And due to the smaller tax payment on the island, this money ALSO, mostly doesnt go into the well known corrupt government machine of the island. Instead, there are mandatory donations to charities (which acts as a lower floor for donations), and Puerto ricans themselves are able to benefit from the same Act20/60 benefits anyone else does. As for the act22, and the 60 counter part, why would there be anger towards those benefitting from them, rather than toward the local government that prevents Puerto ricans themselves from benefitting from them also without having to leave the island for 10 years? All puerto ricans should be eligable for the same incentives anyone who comes here are. The blame for this "oversight" lies squarely on small minded legislators.
I find that a lot of the anger and frustration is misplaced. I came down here because I want to fund NO warplanes or bombs. I also came down here excited when I saw Puerto Ricans in the streets getting rid of a narcissistic, chauvanistic governor. I was excited to be here, when BOTH governments utterly failed the locals, and they had to do it for themselves in the wake of Maria, I wanted to help where I could. These are the people I wanted to use my engineering degree for. These are the people I wanted to spend money to help.
Sadly, while the distrust is totally understandable, I get a LOT of what you did here. Painted with the same brush as the psychos in washington and at Capitolio.
Puerto Rico could be a place where we just do it for ourselves, hand in hand. Not waiting on corrupt politicians, not waiting for permission from the byzantine approval process, not paying mahgically appearing fees to redundant offices and there ARE lots of mainlanders here who want to bring back farming, bring back the beauty, solve the trash problem, and make life as beautiful as it clearly once was.
So how do we start with a 2-way conversation? One without overbearing, self serviing politicians? How do we self organize without bias, disdain, jealouusy with open arms to each other. And how do we implement fundamental change so we don't have to care what psychos in two capitals think?
