Photo courtsey Puerto Rico IndyMedia [1]
Puerto Rico is thorn in my heart because it took more than twenty years for this collapse to happen; meaning, more than half my lifetime. I left the island 20 years ago this September because I saw no future in the banana republicanism, corruption and cronyism that has been the norm in la isla del encanto.
The collapse of Puerto Rico's economy has been in the making since the Reagan presidency. When Reaganomics hit us, it was like a tsunami. The island went into a recession that lasted almost 10 years. That's because Southern-strategy Republicans and Republicrats saw fit to do away not only with federal tax incentives for business development in the island; but to kill small business and family farming programs as well. The Republicrats went with the blessing of the Great Communciator and they did everything they could to wipe out what they saw as the competition to their beloved yet economically depressed South.
Did Puerto Ricans do anything to avert the crisis? Of course not. Because the island's economy was predicated on not taxing businesses --big business that is--, once the US decided that US businesses in the island had to start paying federal taxes, the island's government did everything they could to avoid doing the same. Puerto Rican's pay one of the highest personal income taxes in the US.
So what's the crisis about? With no money to stay "open", the governor wants to slap a 7% tax on all purchases; which would amount to an after taxes tax on the people. No mention on taxation to businesses is on the table. Sure, governor AnÃbal Acevedo Vilá is forcing boricuas into accept the island cannot exist as a tax-less heaven for businesses; but instead of taxing them directly he's smacking the already financially taxed boricua with the tab.
To put things into perspective : 95,000 people are unemployed at the moment. 600,000 students are out of school [2]. The island's population? 4.2 million. That's a big chunk of people who depend on a government payroll and who now have to pay even more money for the things they can't in the first place because ... ahem ... the government has no money. That's a billion smackeroos to you.
And just so you get a taste of our banana republicanism, the president of the assembly demanded the governor give him and his Assembly their payroll [3]. All the while, more than 95,000 government workers get nothing at the end of the month.
I spoke to my mom yesterday morning. She's also an activist (the apple does not fall far from the tree) and she tells me something really interesting is happening. People are talking about independence. She's noticed that for the first time ever, without a Ruben Berrios or a Juan Mari Bras, people are taking it upon themselves to say .... maybe being an independent country wouldn't be bad after all. She feels this is not at all a political movement in the part sense of the word. The way she described it, the word we'd use here in the US would be grassroots. It's not just students and labor organizers, she said, but the common man and woman are talking about independencia on the street.
I don't know ... I have to wait until I go this summer. I think it does not help that my mom lives in Lares [4].
The good news about this mess? Puerto Rico's political status has to be resolved, not only because its economy is a mess but because the United States economy will implode with the war-happy deficit.
It's time to bail out and cut their losses before there is no reparations to negotiate with the federal government.
If there are boricuas out there who'd like to report on the situation, I'd loooove to hear from you. I'll even front page you.
Y ¡sí! Pueden reportar o publicar sus análisis u opiniones en español.
See also,
Puerto Rico : Isla del desencanto [5]
Daily Kos: Puerto Rico in crisis [6]
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