Should Puerto Rico be allowed to Vote?

Originally posted by Ocelot
I don't think he'd mind as I've put plenty of money in his pocket by buying his work.

You do realize that he has sued people for using his images for things he has not given his permssion to. Not that you are the only one here doing that.

Just wanted to give you a friendly heads up.

Originally posted by intrepid
2 points. First(for Ocelot)- Is PR capable of self sufficiency? Therefore not needing a federal tax.

Second(for everyone else)- If policy coming out of Washington dictates PR policy, why shouldn't they have a say in it?

I think we could be self sufficient if the government and tax revenue was handled better and not wasted so much as it is now. The government here needs to create tax breaks and incentives to attract corporations to settle on the island and create more jobs. Puerto Ricans are highly educated people as the majority of the population has a college education. So the qualified workforce is there.

Originally posted by COOL HAND
You do realize that he has sued people for using his images for things he has not given his permssion to. Not that you are the only one here doing that.

Just wanted to give you a friendly heads up.

well if I get an email from his lawyer asking me to remove it then I will. I dont think he'd mind a fan using a pic as an avatar.

Puerto Ricans are highly educated people as the majority of the population has a college education. So the qualified workforce is there.

You are speaking about Puerto Rico aren't you? Hmmm the majority??? Don't THINK so. But hey make up facts as you go along.

Originally posted by Mynaeris
You are speaking about Puerto Rico aren't you? Hmmm the majority??? Don't THINK so. But hey make up facts as you go along.

HAHAHAH!!! Im making up stuff now? Universities here are very cheap and of very high quality. So good in fact that hundreds of american companies come to puerto rican universities every year to recruit people to work for them. Oh and BTW... Puerto Rico has one of the best engineering schools on the planet. I got two close friends who where recruited right out of college by Lockheed Martin and they now work in 'skunkworks'. NASA comes here to recruit our engineers. Companies like IBM, Intel, Hewllet Packard, Lenxmark, and many others come to recruit our engineering students.

Puerto Rico has more than 50 institutions of higher education. Puerto Rico has achieved one of the highest college education rates in the world (6th) with 56% of its college-age students attending institutions of higher learning, according to World Bank data.

Registered Students by Education Levels: (1998-99 academic year) Elementary ........ 350,714
Secondary ........ 144,157
High School ........ 114,684
University ........ 168,000 (estimate)

Registered Students by School Groups: (1999-2000 academic year)
Public Schools ....... 612,793 Private Schools ....... 149,000

Schools: 1,532 public schools, 569 private schools and 44 universities. (1999)

Literacy Rate:
Age 15 and over can read and write total population: 93.8% male: 93.7% female: 94% (2001)

56%..... oh yeah Im soooooooo making # up am I.

[edit on 27-10-2004 by Ocelot]

Hello im new to the group I felt I should put my two cents on this being a Puerto rican myself, Its my opinion that puerto ricans residing on the island of puerto rico should have no say in our election, yes they do recieve all the benifits that americans do, but they do not have to deal with the otherside of being american ie. paying taxes, laws

Originally posted by ali3n8
Hello im new to the group I felt I should put my two cents on this being a Puerto rican myself, Its my opinion that puerto ricans residing on the island of puerto rico should have no say in our election, yes they do recieve all the benifits that americans do, but they do not have to deal with the otherside of being american ie. paying taxes, laws

Good to see a fellow puerto rican on the board. Thanx for contributing your opinion as there aren't many of us here on ATS.

Originally posted by intrepid
Second(for everyone else)- If policy coming out of Washington dictates PR policy, why shouldn't they have a say in it?

Because they have voted against being given the vote. PR has had the opp to fully join the union as a member state. It has consistently rejected it. You have to be a member state in order for your citizens to be granted the vote. Merely being affected by the government shouldn't mean that you get a say in it.

thank you for welcoming me, i think this kind of relates to the topic, but im going to post anyway. I also think if PR would like to countinue to recieve these benifits they should become a state,


In case you didn't know, Puerto Rico is currently an independent Commonwealth associated with the 50 United States of America. PR's chief of staff is George Bush, their people are American citizens, the pay social security and recieve its and welfare's benifits. US Citizens living in Puerto Rico pay no federal income tax and cannot vote for their president. They have a governor, a senate, and something similar to a state House of Representatives or Assembly. The also send non-voting representatives to Congress in Washington, DC. (no taxation without representation [albeit non-voting representation])

If Puerto Rico became a state they would be the 51st to join and would have the standard 2 Senators and would have 6 Representatives.

I, personally am "for" it. One other tidbit of info is that PR is currently a minor economic drain. I would like for it to become a state because it would be a benefit of up to $2 billion a year and its economy would grow 2.3 to 3.5% faster. In addition, it would mean one more quarter design.

In addition to United States and Puerto Rican opinions (if we have any on the board?) foreign input is greatly welcome. If anyone would like to make corrections to my info, I'd appreciate it. Living much closer to Canada (and speaking with a near-Canadian accent myself) than Puerto Rico I may not have all my information correct.

OH! One last thing: there are also statehood movements for the District of Colombia, the city of New York and the territory of Guam. DC's situation is similar to Puerto Rico. Even though DC has more people than Alaska or Wyoming the people of the District have no representation in Congress. A statehood movement in the early 90's did not pass Congress because they do not want to give up their control of the District. The mayor has proposed reducing the district to include only the Mall and the rest of the District of Colombia become a state. Also, residents of DC can get lisense plates that read "Taxation Without Representation."

this information is from another site not my own words but i agree with this persons opinion


[edit on 27-10-2004 by ali3n8]

[edit on 27-10-2004 by ali3n8]