Topic: Puerto Rico 51st State?

[MyTwoSense]

Then give me the real facts, if those are somehow invented.

I don't have the answer, which is why I asked you for a link.  However, I do know that company is paid to write various information, based on what the client wants.

[Clevelander17]

Then get rid of Alaska.    At least PR has industry, like tourism, which keeps USD in the US.

Alaska is a gold mine, literally and figuratively, and has a ton of potential moving forward in terms of energy production.  But we can't just "get rid" of any state.  We can get rid of a territory if its residents do not want to become a state.

[Clevelander17]

Then give me the real facts, if those are somehow invented.

Are we talking about cities proper or metropolitan areas?  I think when you throw in NoVa and the Maryland suburbs, obviously D.C. looks very wealthy.  But if it's just the city itself, I suspect it drops down on the list significantly, even though there is still a lot of wealth within city limits.  But a lot of the big-money Federal workers live outside of the city.

[MyTwoSense]

Then get rid of Alaska.    At least PR has industry, like tourism, which keeps USD in the US.

Alaska is a gold mine, literally and figuratively, and has a ton of potential moving forward in terms of energy production.  But we can't just "get rid" of any state.  We can get rid of a territory if its residents do not want to become a state.

I should have put a sarcasm symbol in.  Of course we can't get of Alaska, but people are paid to live there (dividend fund & native corporation), they pay no sales or income tax.

[mrnyc]

pr might rank around the lower 30s in gsp compared to the rest of the states.

i say might rank because its gsp on this wiki ranking was taken from a different source:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_GDP#section_1

tourism is thee economic driver, because the rest of it is in sorry state for the most part.

btw - ohio was ranked 8th (2010)

[helmespc]

A couple things in the current environment might have to get moved around to make it happen. Perhaps UVI and PR are combined into a Caribbean state (we already push together a lot of a very different cultures into one state right now). I'd imagine D.C. would throw a fit if they weren't let in at the same time. No way the GOP let's two likely solid Dem states bring four senators in w/out finding a balance of some sort. Options include returning D.C. to Maryland, dividing one of the big states (Texas or California most likely but not at all likely). I could see a similar Pacific island state with Guam and American Samoa. You'd also see serious pressure to increase the size of the House of Representatives. 

There's something very fitting about the "tea party" being on the side of taxation-without-representation....

[jmecklenborg]

>he US has previously owned Cuba.  We don't want it back.


No, I don't think we did:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba–United_States_relations

Interesting is if you watch reruns of I Love Lucy, you will see how Cuban music and culture was once mainstream in the United States.  I don't think anybody back then anyone could have dreamed at Castro would still be alive and in control after 1970, let alone 2012!

[Clevelander17]

Then get rid of Alaska.    At least PR has industry, like tourism, which keeps USD in the US.

Alaska is a gold mine, literally and figuratively, and has a ton of potential moving forward in terms of energy production.  But we can't just "get rid" of any state.  We can get rid of a territory if its residents do not want to become a state.

I should have put a sarcasm symbol in.  Of course we can't get of Alaska, but people are paid to live there (dividend fund & native corporation), they pay no sales or income tax.

This is true, but again I think resource extraction more than pays for those subsidies.  It's a net gain for the country to hold on to Alaska.  Not sure if that's true of PR.

[ClevelandOhio]

Personally I don't like the idea of the United States holding on to these overseas territories or "possessions" like Puerto Rico, Guam, USVI, etc.  I would vastly prefer to see all of these states given the option of either becoming states or becoming independent.  I don't think it's fair to U.S. taxpayers or to residents of these places to keep them in what I see as "limbo."

I dont believe we would ever give any of them up. Look at every one, they all have military bases on them. The United States uses them strategically, just like we do with Hawaii and Alaska.

[Eighth and State]

>the US has previously owned Cuba.  We don't want it back.

No, I don't think we did:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba–United_States_relations

Huh? From the Wikipedia article:

"After the Spanish-American War, Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris (1898), by which Spain ceded Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam to the United States for the sum of $20 million."

[Clevelander17]

Personally I don't like the idea of the United States holding on to these overseas territories or "possessions" like Puerto Rico, Guam, USVI, etc.  I would vastly prefer to see all of these states given the option of either becoming states or becoming independent.  I don't think it's fair to U.S. taxpayers or to residents of these places to keep them in what I see as "limbo."

I dont believe we would ever give any of them up. Look at every one, they all have military bases on them. The United States uses them strategically, just like we do with Hawaii and Alaska.

Yeah but we have military bases everywhere (why this is necessary is beyond, but that's not the point).  I suppose if we did ever grant them independence being able to keep a military base around might be an important stipulation.

[MyTwoSense]

>the US has previously owned Cuba.  We don't want it back.

No, I don't think we did:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba–United_States_relations

Huh? From the Wikipedia article:

"After the Spanish-American War, Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris (1898), by which Spain ceded Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam to the United States for the sum of $20 million."

>he US has previously owned Cuba.  We don't want it back.


No, I don't think we did:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba–United_States_relations

Interesting is if you watch reruns of I Love Lucy, you will see how Cuban music and culture was once mainstream in the United States.  I don't think anybody back then anyone could have dreamed at Castro would still be alive and in control after 1970, let alone 2012!

Yes the US owned Cuba.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1891359,00.html

But the U.S. and Cuba's ties go back well before Castro. In 1898, at the end of the Spanish-American war, a defeated Spain signed the rights to its territories — including Cuba, Puerto Rico and Guam — over to the U.S., which subsequently granted Cuba its independence with the stipulation that the U.S. could intervene in the country's affairs if necessary (later relinquished) and that it be granted a perpetual lease on its naval base at Guantánamo Bay (not).

[E Rocc]

Then get rid of Alaska.    At least PR has industry, like tourism, which keeps USD in the US.

Alaska is a gold mine, literally and figuratively, and has a ton of potential moving forward in terms of energy production.  But we can't just "get rid" of any state.  We can get rid of a territory if its residents do not want to become a state.

Yeah, let's get rid of our biggest oil reserves. 

[MyTwoSense]

Then get rid of Alaska.    At least PR has industry, like tourism, which keeps USD in the US.

Alaska is a gold mine, literally and figuratively, and has a ton of potential moving forward in terms of energy production.  But we can't just "get rid" of any state.  We can get rid of a territory if its residents do not want to become a state.

Yeah, let's get rid of our biggest oil reserves. 

Dude...that was sarcasm!


Can we get back to PR?

[Clevelander17]

Then get rid of Alaska.    At least PR has industry, like tourism, which keeps USD in the US.

Alaska is a gold mine, literally and figuratively, and has a ton of potential moving forward in terms of energy production.  But we can't just "get rid" of any state.  We can get rid of a territory if its residents do not want to become a state.

Yeah, let's get rid of our biggest oil reserves. 

Dude...that was sarcasm!


Can we get back to PR?

Even if nothing comes of it, I do find this discussion very interesting.  MTS, how do Puerto Ricans feel about their current situation?  Do they feel like they're being "occupied," or are most accepting of the status of their island?

[MyTwoSense]

Then get rid of Alaska.    At least PR has industry, like tourism, which keeps USD in the US.

Alaska is a gold mine, literally and figuratively, and has a ton of potential moving forward in terms of energy production.  But we can't just "get rid" of any state.  We can get rid of a territory if its residents do not want to become a state.

Yeah, let's get rid of our biggest oil reserves. 

Dude...that was sarcasm!


Can we get back to PR?

Even if nothing comes of it, I do find this discussion very interesting.  MTS, how do Puerto Ricans feel about their current situation?  Do they feel like they're being "occupied," or are most accepting of the status of their island?

I cannot speak for all PRs, only myself and I can talk about conversations I've had with relatives.  I don't think anyone feels that PR is "occupied".  I know a lot feel they don't have the full right to vote.  I know my mother felt that way until she move to the states.