43% of people in Puerto Rico live in poverty.

More than 5,000 crypto traders, real estate developers and other wealthy Americans have moved to the island since 2012.

These rich transplants pay 3% taxes, while locals pay up to 36%.

We spoke with local residents, investigative journalists and activists as well as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to answer one question:

What happens when a government surrenders itself entirely to the 1%?

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4ulSk0EqXU

  • unfreeradical@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute, Yaron Brook, boasts of having relocated to Puerto Rico, as part of his shtick demanding taxes are theft.

    I suppose someone with such a mentality finds some kind of joy in being estranged both to the populations from which he has originated and to the one that has become involuntarily his host.

    There can be no doubt that the population that repairs his cars and cleans his clothes shares with him no common interests, him being such a clueless, privileged white dude who rants nonsensical pitches no one wants to hear.

  • StrayCatFrump@slrpnk.net
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    8 months ago

    It’s good to document the resulting problems, but the analysis of the root cause is absolute shit and is clearly done by liberals (confirmed by them interviewing AOC and uncritically broadcasting what she says without calling her on her own support of colonialism, genocide, and capitalist exploitation). They blame this on a “lack of rules.” Bullshit. If there were no rules (laws), the local population would simply kick the rich people out and expropriate their shit. I think you’ll find there are plenty of rules and plenty of enforcement. The problem is just that all of that law and order is directed squarely against the working class and indigenous populations.

    “More rules” isn’t a recipe for fixing anything. People rising up is. Fortunately there was a little anarchist graffiti on that school’s wall. So these liberal journalists are not the only people advocating for solutions.