We learn from every natural disaster.
April 9, 2018 4:39 PM Subscribe
Puerto Ricans and ultrarich "Puertopians" are locked in a pitched struggle over how to remake the island.
Naomi Klein.
Oh good, now when I visit my grandfather’s widow I’ll have a handy list of people to throw bricks at.
posted by corb at 5:17 PM on April 9, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by corb at 5:17 PM on April 9, 2018 [4 favorites]
Among the speakers was Yaron Brook, chair of the Ayn Rand Institute, who presented on “How Deregulation and Blockchain Can Make Puerto Rico the Hong Kong of the Caribbean.”
Really? Learning what, how to get away a bit longer next time around? Should PR become a full fledged state?
posted by sammyo at 6:38 AM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
Really? Learning what, how to get away a bit longer next time around? Should PR become a full fledged state?
posted by sammyo at 6:38 AM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
It seems that we are rapidly approaching a crisis point where it's going to be necessary to have massive transfers of wealth from the global ultra elites.
Historically that has been the sort of event that happens only in conjunction with civil wars and popular revolutions. Despite having, literally, more money than they can ever spend the very wealthy seem to suffer from a mental disorder that is closely related to hoarding and will fight tooth and nail to avoid having even the smallest portion of their vast horde redistributed.
The governments of the world have always been captured by the wealthy, that's why historically it took a civil war or revolution to expropriate their unearned hoard and get it back into the economy where it can actually do good.
What's different this time is that thanks to unprecedented mobility the elites can skip from nation to nation and keep their wealth mostly intact regardless of local conditions. There's always been a bit of that, but in the past wealth was more tightly tied to commodities, land, and so on. These days there's less of a physical connection so relocation is easier.
Puerto Rico doubtless won't work out quite perfectly for the billionaire class, as the opposition has learned the new tech allows for even relatively unfunded local movements to do some good. But I'm not all that optimistic. The billionaires have the US behind them, the Puerto Rican government behind them, and I'm sure that sooner or later we'll see laws passed in Puerto Rico outlawing private solar panels (or at least taxing them punitively so they vanish), and maybe even banning local farming.
The self-proclaimed "libertarian" stuff about small government is mere self serving lies, the billionaires are not mere OK with incredibly intrusive government, but positively enamored of it... as long as that intrusive government is being used to keep the peasants in line and isn't applied to them. The techbros and crypto-colonists and so on will be more than willing to use the captive Puerto Rican government to stamp out all opposition to their own control of everything.
I have no idea what happens next, but if I can support the anti-techbro faction on Puerto Rico in any way I'd like to.
posted by sotonohito at 6:50 AM on April 10, 2018 [9 favorites]
Historically that has been the sort of event that happens only in conjunction with civil wars and popular revolutions. Despite having, literally, more money than they can ever spend the very wealthy seem to suffer from a mental disorder that is closely related to hoarding and will fight tooth and nail to avoid having even the smallest portion of their vast horde redistributed.
The governments of the world have always been captured by the wealthy, that's why historically it took a civil war or revolution to expropriate their unearned hoard and get it back into the economy where it can actually do good.
What's different this time is that thanks to unprecedented mobility the elites can skip from nation to nation and keep their wealth mostly intact regardless of local conditions. There's always been a bit of that, but in the past wealth was more tightly tied to commodities, land, and so on. These days there's less of a physical connection so relocation is easier.
Puerto Rico doubtless won't work out quite perfectly for the billionaire class, as the opposition has learned the new tech allows for even relatively unfunded local movements to do some good. But I'm not all that optimistic. The billionaires have the US behind them, the Puerto Rican government behind them, and I'm sure that sooner or later we'll see laws passed in Puerto Rico outlawing private solar panels (or at least taxing them punitively so they vanish), and maybe even banning local farming.
The self-proclaimed "libertarian" stuff about small government is mere self serving lies, the billionaires are not mere OK with incredibly intrusive government, but positively enamored of it... as long as that intrusive government is being used to keep the peasants in line and isn't applied to them. The techbros and crypto-colonists and so on will be more than willing to use the captive Puerto Rican government to stamp out all opposition to their own control of everything.
I have no idea what happens next, but if I can support the anti-techbro faction on Puerto Rico in any way I'd like to.
posted by sotonohito at 6:50 AM on April 10, 2018 [9 favorites]
NPR. Time's Running Out For Many Frail, Older People In Puerto Rico.
posted by adamvasco at 8:56 AM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by adamvasco at 8:56 AM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
Why don't they help us? They're killing us': Puerto Rico after the storm. - Guardian May 1.
posted by adamvasco at 5:14 PM on May 1, 2018
posted by adamvasco at 5:14 PM on May 1, 2018
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*for American versions of "you"
posted by tivalasvegas at 4:46 PM on April 9, 2018 [2 favorites]