this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2024
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I'm not sure that more than 50% of Puerto Rico wants to be a state.
They vote on it rather frequently. They do at the moment but it does waffle a bit.
The last vote had a very huge abstention ‘vote’, which was the only reason the ‘for’ vote out performed the ‘against’.
If "no vote" was a candidate I don't think we would have had a president since Jefferson.
Now that's an idea.
What are the downsides to becoming a state?
Puerto Rico doesn't pay federal taxes
PR is so poor that very few there would pay income tax. The majority of people would actually receive money due to the EITC.
Poor people voting against their own interests because a rich asshole told them to is an American tradition, I guess they’re definitely ready!
I’m sure there’s good reasons involving Cultural identity and policy disagreement that they wouldn’t want to become a state, but it really seems like it would be a huge win financially.
It would be Missouri yet again holding the bag. They’d no longer be able to plead poverty for more federal funding.