31% of the population of Puerto Rico is employed in the public sector. That DOES NOT include police officers or civilian employees on military bases, that would bring that figure to close to 50%.
32.8% of personal income in Puerto Rico is attributable to TRANSFER PAYMENTS from Washington (ie welfare), as of 2003.
In 1989, Puerto Rico received 72 times more food stamps than Mississippi, half the island's population currently receives food stamps as of 2002.
Make Puerto Rico a state and we have two more leftist Senators and several more leftist House members. Plus additional electoral votes for the Democrats in the presidential election. It'll be like adding a larger District of Columbia.
Wow, then PR makes Washington, DC look like a paradise of free enterprise and initiative, as if that were possible!