6 ms·
More Americans Support Aid When Told Puerto Ricans Are U.S. Citizens
- xrange 9y agoAnother fun twist would be to see what effect there would be if you mentioned that no one from Puerto Rico voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
- 2close4comfort 9y agoWhen can we start investing again in education...
- convolvatron 9y agoapparently after a few thousand years of experimentation we've concluded that there is no mutual benefit in cooperation, only a perpetual tragedy of the commons.
- lostlogin 9y agoYes but only for them, I got mine and it’s all good here. And because it’s previously caused strife when left off - /s.
- xrange 9y agoAnyone have a good estimate the total amount of money spent in the name of education in the U.S. in the last 50 years? I'd be interested to see the total pre-k through university graduate school, including both public (local, state, federal) and private.
- gamad 9y ago"Education" today means paying fat salaries and pensions for teachers.
- asdfsdfknl 9y agoNot a direct answer, but as someone working in this space, I'd like to also mention that while more money in education is probably good, I doubt it does anything. There are structural and cultural problems in the education system in the United States that cannot be solved with money.
- troupe 9y agoI'd suggest looking at the cost per student. Otherwise, your results are going to be pretty influenced by population trends. I don't have the numbers you are looking for, but here is the closest I know off the top of my head for my town. Back in the mid 70s, my town was spending right at $1,000 per student. That is a bit over $4,000 in today's dollars. Today they are spending a bit more than $12,000 per student. The $12,000 seems pretty typical for many of the school systems I've seen. If wages grew as fast as our spending on education, the average wage in the US would be over $110,000 instead of the roughly $40,000 I think it is today. (That $40k may be high. I can't remember if it is household or individual income.)
- umanwizard 9y agoWe spend more on education than almost any other country. I believe per K-12 student we spend second in the world per student after Switzerland. Not sure if that is exactly accurate but you can look it up for details.
- jldugger 9y agoOne wonders how that number would change if informed that Puerto Ricans don't pay federal personal income tax?
- eridius 9y agoThey do pay other taxes though. And they're missing many benefits that they'd get if they were a proper state.
- johnnyg 9y agoAnd they have had opportunities to begin the process to fully opt in and haven't done so. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rican_status_referendum,_2017#Previous_referendums https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rican_status_referendum... We should help because they are people hurting but lets not mischaracterize the dynamics of PR/USA relations.
- spraak 9y agoWhat? Your link shows they voted for statehood, so I don't understand your point.
- eridius 9y agoAccording to your link, in the 2012 referendum, the majority (61.11%) of votes were for statehood, but congress decided to ignore the referendum because of the large number of blank ballots (500k).
- positr0n 9y agoBoth referendums were widely boycotted for various reasons by no voters. The only people who voted were the small minority who wanted to become a state. edit: Thanks for the corrections. The boycott was only a factor for the June 2017 referendum https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/11/us/puerto-ricans-vote-on-the-question-of-statehood.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/11/us/puerto-ricans-vote-on-...
- holydude 9y agoI wonder if a european country can become a US state one day. You know joining the US as an alternative to the european union.
- craftyguy 9y agoI can't think of any European country that would wish that fate on their citizens.
- davidw 9y agoShort lived effort, but some in Sicily wanted to, after WWII: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/51st_state#Sicily_.28Italy.29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/51st_state#Sicily_.28Italy.29
- holydude 9y agoIt is uthinkable by many and it is a very hypothetical question. I am not even sure if the US would want to have a soil so far away from the “mainland” :-)
- kaybe 9y agoFrench Guiana is part of the EU as a part of France, and closer to the US than to Europe. So if we're talking things like that, it becomes more thinkable.
- saryant 9y agoWell, there's already Guam. Not to mention Palau, though I don't fully understand the arrangement between that nation and the US.
- thatcat 9y agoGuam is way further away than Europe and Hawaii is almost as far away.
- dragonwriter 9y agoThe nearest bits of Europe aren't that much further from the US mainland than Hawai’i is. (Ireland to Maine is a hair farther than Hawai’i to California.) And the US certainly has non-state territories even further away.
- thedevil 9y agoThis shouldn't surprise anyone. It's basic psychology that should be taught in school. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-group_favoritism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-group_favoritism Edit: And it's something to keep in mind with politics. The other side is not nearly as evil or stupid as you think they are, nor is your side as righteous or clever. Edit 2: It also fuels racism and xenophobia. Edit 3: Which reminds me, PG's essay on identity: http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html
- vim_wannabe 9y agoOr maybe it's as simple as dividing responsibilities. If they believe Puerto Rico is not part of the US then obviously other priorities take over. Kind of like on the airplane where you are supposed to put your own oxygen mask on first.
- jldugger 9y ago> This shouldn't surprise anyone. It's basic psychology that should be taught in school. Sure, but maybe they should also teach that Puerto Rico is part of the US in school?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- quotha 9y agoU.S. Citizens with their own baseball team? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico_national_baseball_team https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico_national_baseball_...
- gramstrong 9y agoPlenty of U.S. citizens have their own baseball team. Mine is the Seattle Mariners (and they STINK).
- davidw 9y agoWith US passports.
- protomyth 9y agoYet the US gives generously to multiple disasters around the world. We send aid, money, and often the US military to help out. This little study is done by Morning Consult, where the 80% study was done by Pew - so I'm a little confused by a direct comparison. I wonder what the exact wording of the questions was (personal vs government money perhaps)?