[Barely a Blog] The American media and manipulative Puerto-Rican politicians are using President Trump as a piñata. Poke and pound him and the American taxpayer enough until, stateside, everyone is soon apologizing for merely existing, and coughing up into the coffers of corrupt representatives.
By all means, help the largely tax-exempt Puerto Rico territory. But realize, admit and quit the cover-up of the fact that Puerto Rico is a socialized, fiscally bankrupt, systemically corrupt "welfare state with a labor force participation rate one-third less than in the United States." Wondering why there’s no power and water? "The major Puerto Rican state-owned or controlled enterprises are all losing money, including the power authority which is insolvent":
... Puerto Rico has a bloated government with far too many employees, unstainable pension obligations, and an intolerable level of corruption. The proper solution to the Puerto Rican debt problem is for the U.S. government to establish a "control board," which Congress has the authority to do. This past Friday, Rep. Jeff Duncan, South Carolina Republican, of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sent a letter to his fellow lawmakers advocating a control board for Puerto Rico, much like the one they created for the District of Columbia a couple of decades back, when D.C. was in danger of default because of mismanagement.
Puerto Rico needs fundamental restructuring of its pension and civil service systems. It needs to sell all of its interests in the fully or partially state-owned enterprises. That is, privatize them. (How many more hundreds of years will we need before the political class learns that socialism ‐ i.e. state-owned enterprises ‐ always fails)? In Hong Kong, even most of the transportation infrastructure is in private hands ‐ and it is clean, efficient, attractive, and works without government subsidies.
Puerto Rico needs to radically reduce government spending, taxes and regulation so it begins to attract foreign capital again rather than driving it away. Puerto Rico is now a welfare state with a labor force participation rate one-third less than in the United States. Many of the most productive Puerto Ricans have moved to the mainland ‐ but could be attracted back with their high-level job skills if the economic environment was made attractive again. Puerto Rico needs to embrace the Hong Kong economic freedom model, rather than the Greek model of too much government. ...
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