In September of 2017, Puerto Rico suffered its most significant natural disaster in the
last 100 years.
The impact of hurricane Maria, a huge category 4 cyclone--a category 5 at its strongest--
with wind gusts of over 155 mph and torrential rains, wreaked havoc on the island.
The destruction was enormous.
Thousands of houses were destroyed and the entire Puerto Rican electricity network collapsed.
The island was, quite literally, engulfed in darkness.
As you can imagine, the economic damage was enormous.
To give you an idea, today the reconstruction costs have risen to around 100 billion dollars.
And that’s not all.
Seven months later, thousands of businesses remain closed and blackouts are still quite
frequent.
However, dear viewer, wait just a moment, because Hurricane Maria isn’t the whole
story.
The truth is that the island’s problems began a long time ago.
Puerto Rico has been suffering a severe economic crisis and a population exodus for more than
10 years, an exodus so great that it threatens the island’s very survival.
See, after declaring bankruptcy, in May of 2017, the situation is so critical that the
island's government is considering moving thousands of prisoners to private prisons
in the United States.
Why?
The island's government is even having problems with financing its penitentiary system, and
“renting” spots in places such as Texas or Florida is cheaper.
Just a moment.
Prisoners to the United States?
Yes, you heard that right.
Don’t forget that Puerto Rico is part of the United States, not as a state, but as
a kind of "free associated state".
And of course, by being part of the United States, having a tropical climate, a rich
history and beautiful white sand beaches on which, by the way, Captain Jack Sparrow had
some of his most famous exploits, we might think that Puerto Rico has everything required
to be one of the most prosperous places in the world, right?
Well… not so much; the truth is actually quite different.
My friends, here’s a question… where do you think most Puerto Ricans live?
Sounds like a silly question, right?
Well, it isn’t... because the answer isn’t Puerto Rico.
THE ESCAPE
Yes, at first Puerto Rico may look like a paradise: good weather, beautiful beaches,
wonderful music...
However...
the island has a huge problem: every year, thousands and thousands of Puerto Ricans leave
the island.
See, Puerto Ricans have been US citizens since 1917, they are Americans...
so they can move around the country freely.
Well, according to data from the Pew Research Center, during the last decade more than 500,000
Puerto Ricans have left Puerto Rico to move to the continent, to places like Texas, Florida,
New York and Pennsylvania.
500,000 people!
That is a huge number for an island that has just over 3 million inhabitants.
Seen in another way, only in the last 10 years 1 of every 7 inhabitants has left Puerto Rico.
Remember the question I just asked?
Where did you think the most Puerto Ricans lived?
Well, the answer is that since 2006, there are more Puerto Ricans living in the continental
United States than on the island.
Specifically more than 5 million compared to just over 3.
"We are watching a real live demographic and population collapse on a monumental scale".
Lyman Stone, an independent migration researcher and economist at the Agriculture Department.)
And things could get much, much worse.
The island's own government expects, just in 2018, for another 200,000 - 200,000!!
- Puerto Ricans to leave.
This means that Puerto Rico will lose about 6% of its population, in a single year!
My friends… if you thought this process, this exodus, was already vertiginous, the
consequences of Hurricane Maria have only accelerated it.
Different estimates, both from the government and from private consultants, expect another
half million Puerto Ricans to pack their bags and move to the continent in the next 5 years.
“I am very attached to my island, and my preference is to stay here, but I have to
think what’s best for my son”.
Victor Dominguez, a 39-year-old mortgage banker to Washington Post)
As you may imagine, such a flight will have very serious consequences for the island,
especially because most of those who are leaving are young.
In fact, it is estimated that half of all emigrants, of all people who leave the island,
are under 24 years of age.
The result?
Well... in the next decade, Puerto Rico’s population will decrease to 2.5 million people.
That is to say, in the next decade Puerto Rico will lose 800,000 inhabitants, 25% of
its population.
Just listen to Lyman Stone’s forecast.
And, if another natural disaster, another hurricane for example, occurs or if the island
fails to recover from the severe crisis it’s going through... the reality could be even
worse...
Can you imagine what this will mean for the island’s economy?
Who’s going to pay its huge debt?
Who will pay for the pensions?
But...
my friends...
at this point...
I think we need to ask a question, why do so many Puerto Ricans leave?
The statistics are typical of a country at war... but... there’s no war in Puerto Rico.
So what's going on?
Listen up.
(A VERY LONG CRISIS)
Why are so many people leaving Puerto Rico?
Folks… if we take a look at the data... the explanation seems very clear.
Almost half of the Puerto Ricans living on the island are considered poor – under US
standards, of course.
The average family income is just $ 20,000, which is slightly less than half the average
income of Mississippi, the poorest state in the continental United States.
But that’s not all, the island’s government is bankrupt and has a huge public debt: 70
billion dollars and another 50 billion in payment commitments like, for example, pensions.
Remember that we’re talking about an island of just over 3 million inhabitants!
That’s crazy.
This means that an average family would have to devote 6 years of their salary to pay the
public debt...
Now you can understand why Puerto Rico is known as the Greece of the Caribbean.
And if you think this is the worst of it, Well... you're wrong.
The worst part is that there’s hardly any work in Puerto Rico... in fact, the island
has the lowest activity rate in the United States.
Only 4 out of 10 adults work or are looking for work.
And if we don’t count the people who don’t have a job and public workers – whose salaries
come out of the taxes of the people who work in the private sector – the result is alarming;
less than a quarter of the island’s inhabitants work in the private sector.
By the way, one of Puerto Rico’s great problems is precisely this: public employees, officials.
See, almost 1 out of every 4 jobs on the island corresponds to the government and that’s
not the worst part...
Did you know that many of these public employees had the right to retire at 50, 15 years earlier
than in the rest of the United States?
And if you like scary movies, you can also keep in mind that given the high percentage
of young people leaving… the island’s population is ageing very, very quickly.
In other words...
if things don’t change...
Puerto Rico will enter a very, very difficult situation...
But okay, at this point, I'm sure you're wondering, how on earth can the island get out of this
mess?
Is there really a way out?
Let's see.
(HOW TO GET OUT OF THIS?)
It’s often said that those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
This may happen in Puerto Rico.
When we talk about how local politicians see the future...
we find some good things, and some not so good things.
Puerto Rico has gone bankrupt, that is a fact... and if they continue like this the government
could push the island into the abyss, so, for one, public spending has to be cut, to
stop the drainage that has caused such a huge amount of public debt.
And in principle, the new governor, Ricardo Rosselló, is working on this, in fact he
has committed to decreasing the government’s size, by a lot… the problem is that how
he wants to do it isn’t quite clear, that is, it’s not clear if there’s a real political
will to correct the island’s massive problems.
For another, Puerto Rico has to turn its economic policy around and set some serious plans into
motion to attract investments.
Because Puerto Rico needs decisive measures, real reforms, not cosmetic changes.
A few things have been done in recent years… for example, they are trying to turn Puerto
Rico into a kind of financial centre that guarantees anonymity to international investors.
This could work, but there’s a long way to go...
Now, before we say goodbye, we still need to ask a very important question.
How on earth did Puerto Rico get to this point?
Well, one reason was that local governments spent huge amounts of money to hire, as we
saw, many public workers, and to fund expensive projects, pharaonic tasks that didn’t give
the island anything other than more debt.
The other reason has a lot to do with the US’s influence, but we’ll tell you all
about that in an upcoming video.
Now it’s your turn.
And this time I'm really going to ask you to jump into it:
Do you think that Puerto Rico should continue to belong to the United States or should they
seek to become an independent country?
Leave your answer in the comments as well as in the survey.
I really hope you enjoyed this video, please hit like if you did and don’t forget to
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Also, don’t forget to check out our friends at the Reconsider Media Podcast - they provided
the vocals in this episode that were not mine!
And as always, thanks for watching!