We live in such an age of “unreason”. But I’ll ask the questions anyway.
Since most Puerto Ricans do not pay personal federal income taxes, what gives them the right to demand at least as much — if not more — from the federal government as Texas, Louisiana, or any actual state?
For that matter, what gives any state or U.S. territory the right to demand that the federal government do the job of (1) local governments, (2) private, voluntary charities and/or (3) private sources, including private insurance companies? The Constitution did not provide flood or property insurance as a right, the last time I checked. That’s a question for another post, and one that extends beyond Puerto Rico.
In a way, we already know the answer. Puerto Rico is less economically developed than the fifty states from whom it demands the funds to rebuild its fragile infrastructure. Somehow, it’s the fault of taxpaying citizens in Florida, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, California and Idaho that Puerto Rico was either unable or unwilling to get its act together to become as able to survive a natural disaster as one of these actual states.
The mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, got into trouble when she blasted the United States and our President, Donald Trump, for not doing “enough” quickly enough to suit her tastes. Someone on a Facebook thread asked, “Where’s the gratitude? The United States is already doing a ton for Puerto Rico after its hurricane, even though it’s not an actual state.”
The answer is simple, and sad. Gratitude does not exist in a context of entitlement. Puerto Rico has joined the rank and file of those who feel entitled to the wealth and benefits of anyone else who has more — precisely (and only) because they have more. In a way, you can’t blame them. America’s last president spent 8 long years blasting the United States just as this mayor of San Juan now does, claiming that everyone in the United States should not only apologize for being Americans, but that anyone who has more wealth and property automatically owes it to someone who has less — precisely because they have less. When it comes to Puerto Rico, that means virtually all of us. Hand it over now!
We have to understand that under the unwritten rules of today’s moral “standards”, the aftermath of hurricanes or other natural disasters have nothing whatsoever to do with compassion or short-range assistance in an emergency. They have everything to do with class envy, racial warfare and redistribution of wealth. The mayor of San Juan knew exactly what she was doing when she lashed out at President Trump for not providing as much relief as she feels entitled to have. Why do you think she called it genocide? The implication is that, “If we die, it’s on you.”
No responsibility exists, it seems, for failing to build your country into something more than a third world quagmire as the United States has managed to do all these years.
It’s not about compassion — it’s about entitlement. None of us should fall for the unearned guilt this nasty, third world political hack tries to impose on the United States, a country that already gives away its citizens’ money beyond any obligation — or wisdom.
Where’s the gratitude, you ask? There is no gratitude for help when one feels entitled to it. We don’t live in the age of gratitude. We live in the age of unlimited, self-righteous entitlement.
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