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To: 4Freedom
The tourism dollars they gain and the absence of income tax more than make up for the lost highway funding.
4 posted on 12/26/2002 9:25:07 AM PST by wideawake
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To: wideawake
I believe I read that tourism is only 5% to 8% of their GDP. There were 5 million tourists to the island in 1999.

I'm sure they drink while they're on the island, but it's local consumption that drives the alcohol industry in Puerto Rico. It seems that every second storefront is a bar in some areas I've been through.

Puerto Rico has a labor force of 1.4 million. A third of them work for the government. The electric and water companies are still nationalized. The phone company was only recently sold off.

Puerto Rico lists their labor force - by occupation like this:

Agriculture 3%, Industry 20%, Services 77%

Unemployment 12.5%

There's no specific mention of Puerto Rico's government or the U.S. federal government as employers in their 'facts and figures', but I've read it elsewhere.

I believe the U.S. federal government is the next biggest employer. Between the U.S. Post Office, the IRS offices, FEMA, all the military bases, Federal Courts, Border Patrol, DEA, EPA, the new TSA, National Parks, etc., every federal agency has enough offices in Puerto Rico to employ another third I'd bet.

There's no federal income tax paid by most residents of Puerto Rico, but they do pay local income tax.

There are no sales or property taxes to speak of. Thanks to the generosity of the U.S Taxpayers, the ingrates in Puerto Rico don't have worry about taxes like that.

There's also a definite lack of diversity on the island. According to the Census 2000, Puerto Rico is:

8% Black

11.5% Other

80.5% White (mostly Spanish in origin)

There's also no penalty for Puerto Rican terrorists fire bombing Navy convoys on Vieques.

The government of Puerto Rico just let these 4 terrorists go, because they said there was no probable cause to sentence them.

4 Protesters held for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at Navy on Vieques.

5 posted on 12/26/2002 12:17:35 PM PST by 4Freedom
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