Puerto Rico the 51st State Essay Example

Rival Puerto Rico Bills Democratic Hopes of a 51st State by Jim Wyss in Bloomberg News addresses the two sides of the democrats wanting to end the current status of Puerto Rico. The two sides are about making Puerto Rico into the 51st U.S. state and having representation in government or the other side just wants to make Puerto Rico more of an autonomy. The article discusses the pros of having Puerto Rico as a state to solidify control of Congress in the future. Then there is also the debate about the benefits of statehood versus autonomy. Wyss also writes about the disastrous events that have occurred with the hurricane, earthquakes, etc. Now that there is also the pandemic it adds to the ever-growing debt of the country. The main idea of this was the introduction of the Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act by the Puerto Rican governor, Pedro Pierluisi. This was introduced because Puerto Ricans are tired of being taken advantage of and the financial troubles the island has suffered from. 

The article was very informative about how the people of Puerto Rico feel regarding the status of the island and lack of representation. It gives more details about the struggles with natural disasters that have affected them immensely. In class, we discussed how Puerto Rico was tragically affected in 1899 and 1928 when the greatest natural disaster happened, the hurricane of St Phillips. Furthermore, in recent years hurricane Maria (2017) destroyed the communities and destroyed homes that they still have yet to recover from. I still find it very appalling how the U.S. and the president at the time Trump did not support Puerto Rico a US territory to this day in hurricane relief. I remember reading at the time about Trump saying Puerto Rico received 90+ billion dollars for hurricane Maria. It was completely false when in reality Puerto Rico received around 3.3 billion from FEMA. Apart from this in the article, Wyss brings up if Puerto Rico were to become a state it would threaten the “tax haven for the wealthy mainlanders”. I found that part to be interesting because, in chapter 14 of the Harvest of Empire, it was mentioned how the U.S.did bring many “undeniable benefits, it has also deformed the island's economy” (385). It struck me as strange that the idea of wealthy people being impacted comes up when Puerto Ricans have been exploited and unfairly taxed in the first place. Their economy was affected by the high percentage the U.S. took of the resources and made them borrow money to make them go into debt then importing commodities with higher tax rates.

The debate about Puerto Rico possibly becoming the 51st state needs to be decided upon sooner later than later. This topic has been brought up multiple times in the past decades but ends with no result. Puerto Rico is neither fully autonomous nor a state, it lacks a stable structure due to its designation as a ‘commonwealth’ when the territory is essentially a colony. It’s been too long; the island has been mistreated for more than a century, and even as citizens they don’t have voting rights or financing, which is unjust. Overall, the article was informative on why Puerto Rico needs to be decolonized.