Hacker News Reader

Comment by graenxa | Hacker News Reader

This is such a strange sentiment. Do you ever hear people talk about states this way. Is New York, West Virginia, or Washington ever "not responsible enough" to have control over their roads, electricity, or water supply? Is any country every said to be "not responsible enough."

But this sentiment comes up quite frequently in regards to Puerto Rico.

I live in Illinois. The budget/financial situation is a mess. People may have opinions about what went wrong. They might say "Illinois really needs to do X." But to my knowledge no one is seriously calling for a national intervention or strong-arming Illinois into privatization.

Can you elaborate on why you think the people of Puerto Rico are not to to be trusted taking care of their home?

View on HN

> Can you elaborate on why you think the people of Puerto Rico are not to to be trusted taking care of their home?

Not him, but I am puertorican. There's nothing unusual in someone being unable to take care of their home, it happens with some frequency. By the same token, it should not be surprising that several nations fit this bill. I would probably toss most of the southern hemisphere in that bin, Puerto Rico included.

> But that was colonialism!

I tried this thought experiment once: imagine the people of the wealthy global north just disappeared today. Does this mean the problems of the global south are fixed? The answer to this is self-evidently 'no', at least to me. It's useless to ruminate on the past, it is not the global north that create and maintain our current situation. It's ok to admit that it's us that haven't put in a good performance.

>This is such a strange sentiment.

No it isn't. Quite common.

>Do you ever hear people talk about states this way. Is New York, West Virginia, or Washington ever "not responsible enough" to have control over their roads, electricity, or water supply?

Yes! All the time. For example, people complain all the time about the way California is run, or the way LA or SF is run.

>Can you elaborate on why you think the people of Puerto Rico are not to to be trusted taking care of their home?

He didn't say anything about the people of Puerto Rico - he was talking about the government and the power authority. No matter what happens, the people of Puerto Rico will continue to run their own affairs.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com