Puerto Rico Before The Hurricane

Activists protest at a Federal Reserve event in Manhattan, asking for relief for Puerto Rico's debt. Daniel Marans/The Huffington Post

The Economist: Puerto Rico: Trouble on Welfare Island

Overbearing government and the welfare state are hurting the United States' poorest citizens.

AS THE mayor of Aguadilla, on Puerto Rico's north-west coast, Carlos Méndez is proud of his town. He likes to take visitors onto the balcony of the town hall and challenge them to spot a scrap of paper in the plaza. There are none; but here, and all around the centre of town, there are no busy people either. The shops and offices are shabby, with little going on in them. The buildings along the beautiful beachfront look run-down. A few men sit in the shade, and have apparently been planted there as long as the tree has.

Puerto Rico has been a United States territory for more than a century, and its people have been citizens since 1917. They do not vote in national elections or pay federal income taxes, but those are not the biggest differences between Puerto Rican residents and their fellow American citizens. The island is distinguished by its poverty and joblessness, which are far worse than in any of the 50 states. The territory's economy, moreover, has fallen further behind the national one over the past three decades. Bad government—not just locally, but also federally—is largely to blame. Yet most Americans are oblivious to the Caribbean island's problems.

The place did earn a rare and brief mention in some mainland newspapers earlier this month. Its government had hit a borrowing limit and partly shut down for a couple of weeks, putting 95,000 civil servants out of work. Then leaders in San Juan—the commonwealth's capital—agreed on a budget deal that let the government borrow more and resume paying people. The drama ended, and life there reverted to its depressing former state.

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WNU editor: A brutal assessment on what ails Puerto Rico before Hurricane Maria came and changed the landscape. On a side note, the last paragraph caught my eye ....

.... As he walked through Aguadilla's town hall recently, Mr Méndez boasted about each employee's university or graduate-school credentials as he introduced them. The trouble, he says, is that “All they want to do is find security only. They have no ambition...Everybody wants to work for the government.” Manuel Reyes, of the Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association, also sees little hope that the government's role will shrink. “There is no light at the end of the tunnel,” he says, “because we are still in denial.” And the rest of America is still indifferent.

I live in Quebec, and we are starting to experience the same cultural mindset as in Puerto Rico. A poll was done last year on what did French Quebecers between the ages of 18 to 25 expected in life. The result .... over 70% wanted to work for the government, long vacations, and to retire at 55 with a fully indexed pension. Is this the current trend in the West? I hope not, because in the end it cannot be sustainable .... as Puerto Rico has found out.