Why Puerto Rico and Flint Are Similar
Puerto Rico is currently on track to become of the greatest humanitarian disasters since the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. An island with already crumbling infrastructure, Hurricane Maria hit the entire territory at full category five force last weekend, leaving residents stranded in ninety degree heat without electricity, clean water, food, and fuel.
The 3.4 million residents of Puerto Rico are American citizens, a fact most Americans don’t realize. They have no voting representation in Congress, though they have fought and died in every American war since WWI. Because they aren’t a state, they don’t pay federal taxes, which sounds like a great deal until you realize that this fact is used against them in terms of guaranteeing the same FEMA help that Houston and Florida got respectively with Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Due to the Jones Act, which prevents non-American ships from docking in Puerto Rico, other island nations such as the Dominican Republic are unable to send aid unless they ship it to Florida first and have it moved to an American vessel.
Senator McCain is calling for a repeal of the Jones Act in light of the current crisis, but the Jones Act is also what gives Puerto Ricans citizenship. In typical American fashion, we sweetened a repugnant deal by offering a generous carrot to go along with a substantial stick. Unfortunately, Puerto Rico’s finances as a territory have been in dire shape for a while, no thanks to President Trump failing to make good on a resort deal there are few years ago, so they’re less desirable as a state. You can hear the Tea Party types already, spouting off about makers versus takers.
Yet, one could also call Puerto Rico the same in some significant ways as Flint, MI. The City of Flint is going on over three years without clean water. Part of the problem in Flint was poor infrastructure, which was exacerbated by lack of government funds to correct the problem. Flint has become a political hot potato with Republicans blaming the Democrats, who were in charge of the city at the time, and the Democrats turning around and blaming the Republicans, who were charge of the state at the time. The zero sum game of Republican governance means lower taxes, but lower taxes also lead to less revenue for big infrastructure projects.
Now granted, people in Flint, MI can leave. They can go to the store to buy water or they can move to another location, in theory. They’re not out on an island in the middle of the Caribbean. However, they share similarities with Puerto Ricans in that black and brown people that the government easily ignores populate both areas. They’re also low-income areas that don’t provide a strong revenue stream for the government. The economic and environmental oppression faced by both Flint and Puerto Rico is real. One thinks about if Nantucket or Hilton Head faced what Flint and Puerto Rico are facing how different the response from the government would be.
Essentially, both Flint and Puerto Rico show citizens how little the government will do to help them if they are poor or a minority. The ROI on the lives of those, who aren’t wealthy and white, isn’t worth the effort, and if you live in a decrepit city with a shrinking tax base or a Caribbean island with lots of debt, don’t expect the government to save you.