"Statistics show that it ( PR ) has some of the most favorable economic conditions; the gross national product (GNP) is growing much more rapidly than the population, and the GNI per capita (formerly GNP per capita) is one of the highest in the Caribbean, but in comparison with the United States, Puerto Rico is still below that of the poorest state in the mainland, Mississippi. In 1989, Puerto Rico received 72 times more food stamps than Mississippi, half the island's population currently receives food stamps.
If half the population is on food stamps, don't blame the bad news on me.
Its hard not take the stamps when its the only option.
Minimum wage went from 5.15 to 7.25 this past two years. Try living with that(part time).
Our government is completely corrupted on every level, its amazing the shit these guys pull and get away with, they use the police to stop any kind of protest, on the 15th there will be a huge march because 20,000 government employees were fired, already the government said they will use the patriot act against us and called anyone arrested will be charged as a terrorist.
Big companies are like leaches on our economy because they evade taxes and lobby politicans shamelessly. puerto rico is kind of a tax haven, thats why USA won't make us a state but they can't let us go either, so we're a commonwealth/territory. or a bitch, if you like.
The feds call all the shots, so we can't make our own laws if they contradict any federal law even though we're not a state. For example, we will never be able to legalize MJ in puerto rico or decriminalize it like some states have done until the federal government does it, we don't even have MJ activists. The head of police in here was 2nd in command on the FBI in PR, a guy who claims that police using night sticks and shoving people around and hitting them is not violence. Hell one of our most popular liberal citizens was gunned down by the FBI a few years ago at his house and let to bleed and die(a doctor was present at the scene but was not allowed to treat the victim). And our police is a joke, I don't imagine a state with police so dumb and corrupt than we got here.
Our employment is a disaster, government employs most of the people and big companies most of the rest, small businesses are fucked because big companies lobby against rules that help small ones(which are owned mostly by foreigners). What this means is, if government screws up big and steal more than they should have a lot of people go unemployed(like just happened) and if USA's economy goes down big companies pull the plug and we get more unemployment(like just happened this past few years). Also bog companies employee us mostly as part time only.
We have enough fertile land to grow all of our needs, but corruption and poverty keeps us from developing it. Thus most of our consumption is imported. Plus most of what we produce we have to send it(for some reason) to the states so that it can come back and we can buy it, like pills, we are the biggest pill producer(USA has a lot of pharmacy factories in here cause we have some of the purest water in the world, saves them a few bucks in clean water), but we can't buy those pills until they have been shipped to USA and back, what?
And lets not talk about the drugs and its role in corruption, we have just one commercial port on the island, and only 5% is checked and registered appropiately, the rest of the cargo goes unchecked. Drugs get here in bulk and get redistributed accordingly into the states. two or three weeks ago a group was caught after 14 years of smuggling coke and weed on airplanes, they were the guys who loaded the bags into the planes, so they added a few extra bags per trip. how? security is a joke.
Our school system is less than mediocre at best, up till the 12th grade students can get through on copy/paste works alone, then they are thrown into the sharks to look for a job in a fast food to help with the bills, IF they finish school. teen pregnancy is a plague. our killing statistics are through the roof, because there are a lot of drugs and everyone wants a piece of the cake.
Oh yeah, USA doesn't wants us a state, but we have to go fight in their wars, that seems fair.
So yeah, food stamps is the least big daddy USA can do, they take from us much more than a few food stamps.
we're more of a close family culture, thats how we get through it, unity. UNITY and ALCOHOL. There would be civil war if there were no cheap drugs and alcohol to keep us sedated. Last week high school students stoned our governor, thats how we roll...
not to mention that plenty of growers in norcal employ illegals to watch and tend their crops, thus leading the feds to state that the ops are "mexican cartel" ops when really the big op is RUN by americans, using mexis as their laborers, just like the mexicans are laborers in ever other agricultural endeavor from fruits and veggies to any other crop that is labor intensive.
