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Comment by djKianoosh | Hacker News Reader

My wife is from PR and most of her family lives theoughout the island. It's not actually "better" in San Juan, because people are desperate for water/gas in many neighborhoods. I can only tell you that there are some pretty horrible things going on in parts of San Juan.

In the mountain towns they still dont have any comms and no water or gas.

In the north west the lines for gas/water are miles long.

Lots of people are leaving. It will be really interesting to see how the long term effects play out, even if only 25% of the population moves to NY, Chicago, DC, Orlando, Philly, etc.

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PR is no stranger to mass exodus (the previous waves to New York are evidence of this). In fact the pre-hurricane problems largely stem from the results of the past exoduses.

Solving the problem requires repealing all the laws that yoke PR to mainland companies without providing any of the actual benefits, but that would require the current Congress to want to give PR something like statehood, if not statehood itself.

If they cannot justify statehood then annex it to Florida.

No republican is going to add a few million safely Democratic votes to Florida. Unfortunately that’s the kind of world we live in.

Solution: Divide Florida into two states (North and South). Give Puerto Rico to South Florida. Puerto Rico has much more in common (culturally) with South Florida anyway.

North Florida is heavily republican, South Florida is heavily democrat.

Status Quo is maintained.

Newt Ginrich has for years said it should be the people of PR who have the referendum and decide. While he was Speaker, he pushed a bill that allowed a referendum to be called for.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/mitt-romney-new...

Simply repeal the Jones Act.

thats not so simple. I have a feeling wall st and congress dont want that to happen... but im no expert

Wall St. would love to be able to sell stuff to Puerto Rico with less overhead. It's just the US shipping companies and sailors that really like having a monopoly on trade with Puerto Rico. (There are other things about Puerto Rico's lack of statehood that Wall St likes a lot, but the Jones Act isn't one of them)

sounds like you are well versed here. would love to read more about it. please share if you have sources. it's hard to find good analysis of PR that isnt blatantly political.

Some good sources of information:

- Report on the Competitiveness of Puerto Rico's Economy [1] - An Update on the Competitiveness of Puerto Rico's Economy [2] - Characteristics of the Island's Maritime Trade and Potential Effects of Modifying the Jones Act [3] - Shipping Co.: Maritime Cabotage Complicates Logistics and Adds Costs [4]

[1] https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/regional/Puert... [2] https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/outreach-and-e... [3] http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-260 [4] http://reports.weforum.org/global-enabling-trade-2013/view/s...

Just to get cash or buy gas, can take all day for most.

Well, better is a relative term. I see things generally improving. Doesnt mean that bad things are not happening.

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