In our history books we always learned that “no taxation without representation” was a battle cry of the American (U.S.) Revolution. What is the current status of U.S. holdings such as Puerto Rico? They do not have representation (to my knowledge) in any branch of the U.S. government, but surely they pay taxes.
Actually, residents of Puerto Rico don’t pay most Federal taxes. They don’t pay income tax.
It’s the District of Columbia that is using the “Taxation Without Representation” beef. It’s on license plates in the district now. District residents don’t get a vote in Congress, just a non-voting delegate, but they do get to choose three electors for president.
…And Puerto Rico also has one non-voting delegate in the House.
Im a Puerto Rican nationalist, and I would dearly love for puerto Rico to gain its independence, from the evil, imperialist USA!
Failing that, I ask that the USA acknowledge its (illegal) annexation of Puerto Rico, and return the island to His Majesty, King Juan Carlos of Spain!
Who, of course, illegally annexed it from the native Taino population.
Very nitpicky, but Puerto Rico doesn’t have a delegate. It has a “resident commissioner”.
I have no idea what the difference is except that the person has to be addressed differently on the floor of the House.
Recent referenda on the subject have generally shown the Puerto Rican population to be about equally divided between favoring statehood and favoring continued commonwealth status; only about 5% seem to favor independence. Of course, I don’t think “return the island to His Majesty, King Juan Carlos of Spain” was on any of the ballots, but I’d be willing to bet it wouldn’t get a whole lot of support.
I’m curious as to what sort of Industrial Infrastructure is in place in Peurto Rico… once the US gov’t stopped subsidizing it’s existance (in the case of Independance) what would take place?
I know that the economy of the Phillipines went into the toilet after the US military pulled out (mostly), so I’m curious as to what would happen to PR…
Whoa there… the Philippine economy was a basketcase well before the departure of the bases, and it was primarily due to patterns set during the US colonial period. If anything, the departure of the bases improved things.
Without hijacking the thread [we can start a new one about Philippine economics], the colonial relationship between the RP (or PR for that matter) and US set up a dependent relationship that’s hard to break out of, using closed markets, transport tariffs and such to prevent the creation of homegrown industries without mainland control, and ensuring wealth remains with the traders as opposed to other mercantile classes.