Donald Trump knows two things about Puerto Rico: It's far away in THE OCEAN, so you can't drive a truck there. And ... It has a lot of debt. So Monday night, President Trump took a break from scream-tweeting at the NFL to remind hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico that it needs to get its shit together so it can make its vig.
Let us not be coy. Support for the Jones act also comes from the unions that build and crew ships. The Jones act is just one of many ways Puerto Rico gets screwed by the rest of the US. The legislation that made it easy to borrow money with triple exempt bonds was offset by rules that made it impossible for Puerto Rico to compete economically because of imposed wage and labor law. So they are stuck in the middle of the ocean with rules that would make it impossible to locate any sort of industry there. Those rules were erected by both the Republicans and the Democrats.
He got both things wrong, outstanding! Puerto Rico's problem isn't that corporations went there and raped Puerto Rico and then left. They never went there in the first place unless massively subsidized. Almost no one went there to provide jobs because there was no way to do that and make money. Only companies that received subsidies would consider doing that. So what is the full story? The full story is that no one will invest in a place where you have enormous cost disadvantages courtesy of things like the Jones ACT, remote geographical location and a high risk environment for things like hurricanes.
Now about those massive loans in the form of bonds which Lee correctly said was the largest default in American history. Who told Puerto Rico they couldn't use those bonds to pay for and maintain infrastructure? No one did. They could actually have done that but at a cost. The cost being all the social welfare programs and wages and pensions that are owed to government employees in education and health care and such. They did not have sufficient tax revenue so they borrowed just like Greece. What happened here is that the Republicans made sure Puerto Rico could borrow huge amounts of money while the Democrats made sure no one in their right mind would invest there.
Which, by the way, is the Bernie Sanders patented plan for fucking every third world nation on the planet, insisting they meet American environmental and labor and wage standards. The point being not to secure those for these foreigners but to eliminate their only comparative advantage and destroy them. I'm pretty sure all those nations can see what the US has done to Puerto Rico. Even if lots of Americans don't want to admit it.
Disaster capitalism is a thing. Vulture funds are a thing. I am certainly not going to claim extensive knowledge of how to rape a small island culture, but I bet you don't have to go there or be there to do it. We were there in 1898 when they became a possession or colony or whatever you want to call it and we used them to create profits for people. The pharmaceutical and chemical industry used them to create profits as recently as our life time. My wife's father was a chemical engineer who lived there and worked for such a company.The citizens of PR are Americans and we are not getting the needed help to them. It can be argued that supplies are there but not delivered...too bad there is no organized group of people in the US to help to do that...people who can unload ships and deliver goods by, say, helicopter to citizens on a rather small island nation...a group of people who are under the direction of the government and who should have been standing on the ground in PR when the wind stopped blowing.
There are not free agent ships full of cargo just floating around in the sea. Waiving the Jones Act allows domestic shippers to ship by flag of convenience ships that are exempt from minimum wage, workplace safety and race/gender anti-discrimination laws. There is no lack of American flagged ships ready to move cargo to PR. The question is what labor and anti-discrimination standards these companies will have to follow. Eliminating the Jones Act makes sense if you think these laws should not be applied to domestic ship crews.
Why just exempt maritime workers from American workplace safety, minimum wage and race/gender anti-discrimination laws? If the Jones Act is so bad, then shouldn't every worker in Puerto Rico be exempt from anti-discrimination, safety and wage laws?
Then the faux-liberals would want truck drivers exempt from minimum wage, workplace safety and anti-discrimination laws, just like waiver of the Jones Act does for maritime workers.
The costs for a shipper following American laws on minimum wage, hours of work, workplace safety and race/gender anti-discrimination standards are higher than a shipper under a flag of convenience that has its crew in near slavery standards.
And emancipation probably raised the price of cotton, too.
Exactly. American ships are bringing in more cargo than can be distributed. The solution is not that we need to allow shippers pay maritime workers less under a waiver of the Jones Act but that distribution of goods already off loaded at the port need to be distributed.
Waiving the Jones Act does nothing to bolster relief. It allows shippers to cut the wages and benefits of maritime workers and exempts them from American workplace safety standards and race/gender anti-discrimination laws
Waiving the Jones Act does nothing to help relief. It allows shippers to cut the wages and benefits of maritime workers and exempts them from American workplace safety standards and race/gender anti-discrimination laws
Let us not be coy. Support for the Jones act also comes from the unions that build and crew ships. The Jones act is just one of many ways Puerto Rico gets screwed by the rest of the US. The legislation that made it easy to borrow money with triple exempt bonds was offset by rules that made it impossible for Puerto Rico to compete economically because of imposed wage and labor law. So they are stuck in the middle of the ocean with rules that would make it impossible to locate any sort of industry there. Those rules were erected by both the Republicans and the Democrats.
Colonies, how does that work?
Lee Camp nailed it here:https://www.youtube.com/wat...Forward this to everyone you know...support Wonkette...we don't have to take this shit.
He got both things wrong, outstanding! Puerto Rico's problem isn't that corporations went there and raped Puerto Rico and then left. They never went there in the first place unless massively subsidized. Almost no one went there to provide jobs because there was no way to do that and make money. Only companies that received subsidies would consider doing that. So what is the full story? The full story is that no one will invest in a place where you have enormous cost disadvantages courtesy of things like the Jones ACT, remote geographical location and a high risk environment for things like hurricanes.
Now about those massive loans in the form of bonds which Lee correctly said was the largest default in American history. Who told Puerto Rico they couldn't use those bonds to pay for and maintain infrastructure? No one did. They could actually have done that but at a cost. The cost being all the social welfare programs and wages and pensions that are owed to government employees in education and health care and such. They did not have sufficient tax revenue so they borrowed just like Greece. What happened here is that the Republicans made sure Puerto Rico could borrow huge amounts of money while the Democrats made sure no one in their right mind would invest there.
Which, by the way, is the Bernie Sanders patented plan for fucking every third world nation on the planet, insisting they meet American environmental and labor and wage standards. The point being not to secure those for these foreigners but to eliminate their only comparative advantage and destroy them. I'm pretty sure all those nations can see what the US has done to Puerto Rico. Even if lots of Americans don't want to admit it.
OK, that's funny right there; I don't care who you are.
Disaster capitalism is a thing. Vulture funds are a thing. I am certainly not going to claim extensive knowledge of how to rape a small island culture, but I bet you don't have to go there or be there to do it. We were there in 1898 when they became a possession or colony or whatever you want to call it and we used them to create profits for people. The pharmaceutical and chemical industry used them to create profits as recently as our life time. My wife's father was a chemical engineer who lived there and worked for such a company.The citizens of PR are Americans and we are not getting the needed help to them. It can be argued that supplies are there but not delivered...too bad there is no organized group of people in the US to help to do that...people who can unload ships and deliver goods by, say, helicopter to citizens on a rather small island nation...a group of people who are under the direction of the government and who should have been standing on the ground in PR when the wind stopped blowing.
There are not free agent ships full of cargo just floating around in the sea. Waiving the Jones Act allows domestic shippers to ship by flag of convenience ships that are exempt from minimum wage, workplace safety and race/gender anti-discrimination laws. There is no lack of American flagged ships ready to move cargo to PR. The question is what labor and anti-discrimination standards these companies will have to follow. Eliminating the Jones Act makes sense if you think these laws should not be applied to domestic ship crews.
Why just exempt maritime workers from American workplace safety, minimum wage and race/gender anti-discrimination laws? If the Jones Act is so bad, then shouldn't every worker in Puerto Rico be exempt from anti-discrimination, safety and wage laws?
Because those pesky laws against slave wages, unsafety workplaces and banning discrimination by race and gender is what is holding PR back?
Then the faux-liberals would want truck drivers exempt from minimum wage, workplace safety and anti-discrimination laws, just like waiver of the Jones Act does for maritime workers.
The costs for a shipper following American laws on minimum wage, hours of work, workplace safety and race/gender anti-discrimination standards are higher than a shipper under a flag of convenience that has its crew in near slavery standards.
And emancipation probably raised the price of cotton, too.
Exactly. American ships are bringing in more cargo than can be distributed. The solution is not that we need to allow shippers pay maritime workers less under a waiver of the Jones Act but that distribution of goods already off loaded at the port need to be distributed.
McCain would love to repeal the Jones Act and have all maritime workers under Panamanian labor standards (if they have any standards).
Waiving the Jones Act does nothing to bolster relief. It allows shippers to cut the wages and benefits of maritime workers and exempts them from American workplace safety standards and race/gender anti-discrimination laws
Waiving the Jones Act does nothing to help relief. It allows shippers to cut the wages and benefits of maritime workers and exempts them from American workplace safety standards and race/gender anti-discrimination laws
Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying, except the opposite.