June 12, 2017 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
18:27
3713 The Ugly Truth About Puerto Rico Wanting U.S. Statehood
On June 11th, 2017, Puerto Rico held a non-binding referendum on whether to become an actual state or stay an American territory. While 97% of those who participated in the referendum vote favored statehood, only 23% of the territory's population participated in the process. It was the lowest level of participation in any election in Puerto Rico since 1967.U.S. Congress makes the sole determination regarding any changes to Puerto Rico's political status. Puerto Rico is currently seeking the bankruptcy protections that statehood would likely provide – with $74 billion in debt and $49 billion in unfunded pension liabilities.The Fall of Puerto Rico. Prepare Yourself Accordingly.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4iuD7xQDxEYour support is essential to Freedomain Radio, which is 100% funded by viewers like you. Please support the show by making a one time donation or signing up for a monthly recurring donation at: http://www.freedomainradio.com/donate
Alright, time to take a rather grim and hard-faced look at the giant economic sinkhole known as Puerto Rico, as you have probably heard.
On June 11th, 2017, Puerto Rico held a non-binding referendum on whether to become an actual state or stay an American territory.
Sovereignty, apparently, completely off the table, because, you see, sovereignty would then mean having to assume your own debts rather than being able to ship debts, I guess, along with drugs and crime, to the mainland.
While 97% of those who participated in the referendum vote favored statehood, only 23% of the territory's population participated in the process.
It was the lowest level of participation in any election in Puerto Rico since 1967.
Wow, 23% of the population participating in the vote.
Boy, that's less than half of the population that participates in the welfare state.
U.S. Congress makes the sole determination regarding any changes to Puerto Rico's political status.
And if you still think that should be a go after this presentation, you need to throw a bucket of ice water on your head and start watching it again.
Governor Ricardo Rossella said, Okay, dude.
You don't live in a democracy.
You live in a republic.
It's not supposed to be unfettered will of the majority.
That's mob rule.
Ah, well, it's always great when you have to school governors on their own system.
He goes on to say, It would be highly contradictory for Washington to demand democracy in other parts of the world and then not respond to the legitimate right to self-determination that was exercised today in the American territory of Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico is currently seeking the bankruptcy protections that statehood would likely provide.
Ah, there's democracy for you.
Running from creditors that you can't possibly pay.
With $74 billion in debt and $49 billion in unfunded pension liabilities.
Well, that's a lot of billions.
Now, already the island receives over $20 billion a year in federal funds.
Well, of course, paying no federal taxes.
A lot of that, the largest portion of that goes to nutritional assistance, social security, housing, and so on.
So it gets more than $20 billion a year from the federal government, has a gross domestic product of about $100 billion a year.
Ah, Puerto Rico.
Enjoy your sunshine, my friends.
Half the population is on public assistance, 14% unemployment rate, and I guess about 1,000 murders every year because of a virulent and growing drug.
Trade problem, cartel, usual disaster head that goes on with that kind of stuff.
So let's look at some of these numbers.
Debt and unfunded liabilities.
This is in billions.
So again, we've got $74 billion in debt, $49 billion in pension liabilities for a grand total of $123 billion in total debt with a population, I guess, rapidly declining of $3.4 million.
So public corporation debt, $29.5 billion.
General Public Works obligation bonds, $13.3 billion.
Billion dollars.
You know, it's really, really great when financial companies make a huge amount of money selling downstream liabilities to American taxpayers.
That's what we call the free market, my friends.
It's not, by the way.
Prepper bonds for power utilities.
So, a lot of government control of utilities in Puerto Rico.
We'll link to a presentation I did before on that below.
That's $9 billion.
Prasa bonds for water utilities, $4.6 billion.
Sales tax-backed Kofina bonds, $17.6 billion.
And unfunded pension liabilities of $49 billion.
So you know how this works, right?
A politician comes up and says, hey man, vote for me!
And I guess I'm about...
55, so I'll be retiring in about 10 years or so, but vote for me and trust me, in 20 or 30 years, there'll be so much money for your retirement, it's going to be mind-blowing.
I'm going to sign all this stuff that magically changes mathematics and magically changes the number of people working and magically changes tax receipts.
And then, you know, everyone votes for that guy and he gets out of office and then some poor schmuck down the road is left staring into this kind of Nietzschean monster moor abyss where the economy kind of rises towards you like a sand dune in the sand monster in the dune series.
So, back of envelope calculation, we have a little over $36,000 per capita for debt in Puerto Rico.
$36,000.
Now, remember, of course, half the population on welfare and a significant portion of the remainder of the population working paper-pushing nonsense, soul-sucking government jobs.
Number of entrepreneurs in Puerto Rico adding to the economy.
That's not back-of-the-envelope calculation.
I think that's fingers-and-thumbs-on-hands calculation.
Net tax-supported debt, right?
Some of the debt is tax-supported and some of it is not.
So let's look at the five worst states per capita.
So the median for U.S. states of tax-supported debt, $1,006.
Wow, that's Not good, but not huge, right?
So a big chunk of the $74 billion is not guaranteed by taxpayers.
It is debt from government-owned public enterprise corporations like PREPA, PRASA, and HTA. So only 42% of Puerto Rican debt is tax-supported debt.
So median for U.S. states, 1,006.
Puerto Rico, 15,637.
That's right, my friends, almost 16 times.
But at least they have a largely indolent, unproductive and ill-educated population to make up for all of that.
Connecticut, 6,505.
Massachusetts, just under 6,000.
Hawaii, 5,000 and change.
New Jersey, 4,388.
But about 82% of that is Governor Christie's buffet.
New York, 3,000 and change.
So...
This is who you're inviting in, friends.
You ever go on a date?
I did once.
I went on a date with a woman who told me in great detail all the debt she was in.
And I was like, well, I'm not going to add to your debt by charging you for the coffee that we're going to have each, but Jack, I'm out of here.
You know, it's one thing to let the crazy person into the car.
That's bad enough.
It's quite another thing to let them drive.
Ah.
As a percent of personal income.
So this is tax supported debt as a percent of personal income for the population.
Median for US states, 2.5%.
Puerto Rico, 87.5%. 87.5%. Hawaii, 9.9%. Connecticut, 9.8%. Massachusetts, 9.5%. New Jersey, 7.3%. Washington, 9.5%. New Jersey, 7.3%. Washington, 5.7%.
Come on, people.
This isn't even that complicated.
You don't have to be as bad as most Puerto Ricans are at math, which we'll get to in a second, to know that this is a very, very bad deal.
Democracy rules!
Majority will rule!
If the majority is sent a bill for the entrance of Puerto Rico into statehood for some of this stuff, which they will, will they vote for it?
Well, we'll probably never find out because I think everyone knows the answer to that.
Debt to GDP percentage.
Five worst states.
This is from fiscal year 2015.
So the U.S. average debt to GDP per state is 16.5%.
Puerto Rico, 69.2%.
And that's the least fun 69 number you're ever going to see in your life.
New York.
I laugh because otherwise I'd burst into tears.
New York.
24%.
South Carolina, 21.3%.
Rhode Island, 20.8%.
Kentucky, 19.5%.
Kansas, 19.2%.
Yeah, debt to GDP percentage.
Just a reminder, 69.2%.
So let's have a look at Detroit.
Detroit used to be called the Paris of America.
It used to be a shining, beautiful, wonderful city with some of the most amazing libraries in the post-war period.
Before, a certain not insignificant demographic shift occurred.
And now, well, from having some of the greatest libraries in North America...
Detroit, now the libraries are regularly pillaged for copper pipes and everything else that's not nailed down are stolen by feral packs of people.
And the only thing they don't steal these days are the books, which is all you kind of need to know about that.
So let's look at Detroit.
This is 2013, Puerto Rico 2017.
So debt per capita in Detroit, $27,400.
Ooh, that's bad.
And Puerto Rico, $36,059.
Pretty bad.
Now, if you look at the income per capita, Detroit, $14,900.
I guess that includes a whole lot of welfare as well.
And the income per capita in Puerto Rico, $11,400.
So, massive, catastrophic, soul-crushing, swallow-up-the-Roman-Empire-style debt.
But on the other hand, a very low personal income per capita.
So, yeah.
Much higher debt and 23% less income per capita than 2013 Detroit.
And labor participation rate.
Well, in Puerto Rico, the labor participation rate and people working who are able and available to work, well, it's 40%.
Again, it's really nice outside and sometimes it can be tough to sit inside when there are lizards to catch outside.
But yeah, so 62.7% for the United States.
That's the labor participation rate as a whole.
Bad enough.
But Puerto Rico, it's 40% of the adult available population who could work is actually working.
I wonder if that will go down if they achieve U.S. statehood.
I'm gonna guess, yes.
All right, time to uncork the old rant bot.
So $3 billion in illegal drugs are sold each year.
On the island, that, of course, drives an enormous organized crime movement and its inevitable tentacles of corruption that reach into the police, the political system, just about everything that you can think of.
Here's an anecdote, somewhat telling.
Vecos Island off to Puerto Rico's east coast, a guy reported, he said, oh, a car rental company said, don't lock the vehicle.
Do not lock the vehicle when you rent the car because the thieves are going to break in anyway.
They're going to get in anyway.
And we're just tired of replacing windows.
Hey, that's the kind of culture you've got out there.
Across all of the United States, states and territories and protectorates and so on, who's number one in public corruption cases?
That's right.
Puerto Rico is number one.
It leads the entire U.S. for public corruption cases.
Puerto Rico spends quite a lot on education, more than a significant number of U.S. states.
So in 2013, Puerto Rican 8th graders were tested in mathematics, and 95% of them scored below basic, which means they don't really understand what 95% means.
5% scored basic.
0% scored proficient and 0% scored advanced.
Now, come on, people!
We've got automation coming!
40% of jobs for lower IQ individuals, for less able individuals, for less educated individuals, those jobs are drying up.
They are drying up.
They are vanishing.
You know, go pour a bottle of water on tarmac in Vegas in August and their jobs are evaporating.
The last thing the West needs is less educated, lower IQ people flooding in because, oh, we need them for the labor.
Really?
Really?
You know, there are machines that can pick strawberries, robots that can pick grapes delicately and perfectly now.
This is not complicated, people.
This is not complicated.
And there's no need to get mad.
It's not the Puerto Rican's fault.
There's nothing wrong with them.
It's just they have an average IQ of about 87.
And I don't imagine that's going up.
Can you imagine living in that kind of environment?
If you've got brains at all, you're going to hightail it to the mainland as soon as you possibly can.
So who's left?
Well, people who like spending a lot of time on welfare and staring at a screensaver in a pseudo-government job.
And this is just the reality.
I wish ethnic human biodiversity wasn't true, but, you know, I wish I could grow a mohawk.
You know, if wishes of horses, beggars would ride.
We need to face facts.
You know, the West invented science.
It's kind of time to start using it to start making public policy decisions.
Decisions.
It's not a lack of spending.
It's just that this is the way it is.
IQ varies by population and IQ is significantly genetic.
And nobody knows how to solve it.
This is just a basic reality that's been known for well over 100 years.
There's no doubt about it.
I've had all the experts on the show talking about this.
This is the reality.
You know, it's a funny thing too.
This shows you sort of race politics in action, right?
Because the left...
Very, very keen on getting Puerto Rico into the Union, right?
Into America.
Because it's going to vote.
I mean, come on.
They're going to vote for big government programs.
They're going to vote for welfare programs.
They're going to vote for Democrats.
Of course.
I mean, this is not even a doubt, right?
This is gerrymandering.
They're up against the wall.
They've run out of money.
And so they want to attach themselves to a new host.
And that is the American taxpayers.
More explicitly than they've been doing in the past.
So of course the left wants them to come in.
They can vote and vote for the left and make it even more impossible for non-leftists to gain any kind of political power.
And that's just the reality.
It's got nothing to do with anything else.
You and I, if we go into debt, well, sucks to be us.
You know, if you're a student who was lied to about the value of your arts degree when you were 18 years old, when you were 18 years old and in many places not even allowed to have a drink, kind of a glass of wine at dinner, but you can sign up for $100,000 to get lefty indoctrination, job-killing, culture-alienating brain stamp of Marxist indoctrination on your head.
Oh, you can sign up for $100,000.
Oh, and by the way, By the time you graduate and find that you've been corrupted and turned inside out and turned into hating the free market, hating having a job, hating money, to the point where you're virtually unemployable because your attitude is going to be so crappy because you've been infected with freedom-hating leftist mind garbage,
when you go out and get a job and you realize that you can't make any money, you can't have a future, you can't get married, you can't settle down, you can't have a family, by the time you get that, Under your belt, that injury system, by the time that bleak nothingness becomes your future, you can't even get rid of your student debt through bankruptcy.
That stuff's going to follow you around like herpes.
But, don't worry, Puerto Rico, we'll bail you out!
Don't worry, big banks, we'll bail you out!
Lying to 18-year-olds about the value of their crappy non-education, never letting them exchange their debt for freedom.
Never, ever letting them out, becoming debt serfs, debt slaves.
That's fine.
But if people vote for free stuff from the government, or if banks malinvest in certain securities and certain real estate markets, well, we'll just bail them the heck out.
Sorry, students!
You're stuck under the grinding mill wheel of debt for the rest of your natural life, and you probably can't even discharge it by becoming a different gender.
But...
If you're a bank, if you're a government, bailout, bailout, bailout.
And this is race politics in action.
Why would Puerto Rico want to join what the left calls horribly racist white privilege America?
Stay away!
It's just racists in America.
They hate everyone.
Ah, well.
Everyone claims to hate white, but everybody loves green.
Ain't that the truth?
Everybody loves the money.
And just look at the history of America, last 50 years or so, right?
Since 1965 Immigration Act shifted immigration from Europe to the Third World, what's happened?
National debt, national deficits have all completely exploded.
The country has swung relentlessly towards the left.
Educational standards have collapsed.
Crime has become an increasingly significant problem.
And now the number one, number one cause of death for Americans under 50 is drug overdose.
The future of the meal is in the recipe, and the ingredients determine the taste.
The facts are very clear about what decisions need to be made, what is the right decision.
As I said before, the West invented science.
The West invented IQ testing.
The West has refined and developed the study of genetics.
The West invented science.
It's time to stop ignoring it.
To the detriment and decay and possible death of the West.
