Trump and Puerto Rico

Back when I was still an up-and-coming entrepreneurial genius, (just before I was down and out), I recall a conversation with a neighbour during which we discussed my impending bankruptcy.

That neighbour was an elderly Italian gentleman who, as the cliche goes, had “no visible means of support,” yet managed to alternate between new Cadillac and Mercedes cars every other year, live on a relatively posh street in town, and winter in Arizona.

“Sometimes,” he said, “you just gotta tip it and move on.”

Donald Trump knows that. How many times has Donny J tipped it and moved on? Left the creditors holding the (empty) bag, in other words… I’m sure that if someone did an exhaustive inventory of Trump companies and Trump fronts and Trump affiliates and Trump subsidiaries they’d find that Donny J is one of the all-time masters of “tip it and move on.”

Here’s my point; maybe what’s good for Mr. Trump and my elderly neighbour would be good for Puerto Rico too. (and Greece, and Zimbabwe and Portugal and…)

Puerto Rico remains a colony of the USA. Like all colonies, it is ruled from afar by the colonial masters, but is ruled locally by the comprador elites – the locals who have feathered their nests by snuggling up to the colonial masters. It’s that local elite who incurred the tens of billions of debt now strangling Puerto Rico.

It is manifestly unjust to punish the people of Puerto Rico for their inability to pay those debts.

What’s good for the President of the United States would be good for the people of that island colony.

Tip that odious debt burden and move on.