Puerto Rico Is Dying: Here's Why

Puerto Rico is paradise. Beaches, lush mountains, rich culture.  But beneath the beauty—something is very wrong.  In 2006, nearly 4 million people lived here. By 2100? It’ll be one million.

Puerto Rico—a U.S. territory, but not a state—is the poorest, most unequal part of the United States. And it’s in free fall.

Since 2006 15% of Puerto Ricans have left the island. 
Puerto Rico’s birth rate is the 7th lowest in the world, it’s lower than Japan’s.
Nearly half the population lives below the poverty line and despite paying more for electricity than anywhere else in the USA, rolling blackouts frequently plunge Puerto Rico into darkness for weeks if not months.

A Puerto Rico without Puerto Ricans is arriving—fast.
And this… is the story of how we got here.

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[Ramonwise]

I'm already a grandchild of one of the Puerto Rican farmers who left to the US for a better life. In 5 and 1/2 years, I'm retiring well-off at age 59 1/2, back to Puerto Rico. We are going back to buy our land back and live off the organic fruit and vegetables and to enjoy our island and culture.

[Jazira]

Breaks my heart to see the history of my country be one big betrayal after another. I am a Puerto Rican living in Puerto Rico. I will stay in my country and help rebuild it. There are many like me, that stay despite the difficulties, just wanted people to know, not all of us are leaving, some of us will stay to make this beautiful a better place to live for future puertorriqueños. ❤

[alexcarter]

I grew up in Hawaii and tons of this is familiar, the sugar, the restricted economy, the very rich and the very poor, etc.

[morear]

Man, my wife and I have been to Puerto Rico 3 times and it's one of our favorite places on Earth. I am a well studied historian and didn't know many of these details. I feel so bad for the Puerto Ricans and as a main land American we need to either make them a State or let them go. They have been treated so poorly and deserve so much better.

[CraftsmanOfAwsomenes]

Things like this genuinely make it hard to picture some people as empathetic human beings and not soulless money husks.

[elemanielpagan]

I remember the Halloween after the hurricane, everything was still torn apart and broken. But we needed something to distract ourselves so we do what boricuas do best, we celebrated. The neighborhood came out and we cooked food on small propane stoves, and we sang our songs as loud as we could.
And the year after, we did the same thing, because we still had no power.
A year without power, and 7 months without clean water.
And people ask me why I hold such resentment to the so-called Land of the free.
BORICUA HASTA EN LA LUNA PUÑETA 🇵🇷
Wonderful video, thank you for sharing our story with the world ❤

[phasm]

Remember: the owner class will always do this given the opportunity.

[Kung.fu.panda_]

As a Puerto Rican born and raised, I wish this video made it's way to every single home in the U.S.A. and not only seen but felt! I lived through most of the events highlighted from recent history in Puerto Rico, but sadly me & my wife made the difficult decision to move to the mainland 7 years ago. Every time we go back to visit we see it getting worse and worse to the point that words fail to express the emotions...
Thank you for making this video!

[clownclown]

"The third world is not poor. You don't go to poor countries to make money. Most countries are rich. Only the people are poor. Ordinary people pay the costs of empire. These countries are not underdeveloped, they are over exploited" -Michael Parenti

[juliosantaellarosajr.]

This is so sad, I'm a retired US Army veteran Puertorican born in New York and can't believe what I'm seeing in this video. I kind of knew some of it, but man what a way to get over on another country. It's always been like that.

[scotandiamapping]

Me at all points in this video: This is f&cking awful, it can't possibly get any worse!

The video: ...and then it got worse

[danielsalgado]

This is great work. I'm Puerto Rican and I must say this documentary was spot on, on everything. Thank you for this video. Que viva Borinquen Bella puñeta 🇵🇷

[LaVenganzaDeAgueybana]

As a Puerto Rican, I entered this video with low expectations, thinking it was just another misinformed video by another gringo youtuber who catered to status quo interests and blamed Puerto Ricans for its debt and exploitation. But I am gladly surprised this video is the complete opposite. It’s well informed, correctly puts Puerto Rico’s history in context, doesn’t blame its people for the current problems happening here right now, correctly assesses who’s actually guilty of those problems, and highlights our genuine struggles against corruption, for justice, against occupation, and for liberation. And for all of this, I sincerely thank you. You are doing a lot by simply being honest. ✊🇵🇷

[Umbrdooks]

This is the most comprehensive mini documentary i've seen thus far. It really shows every dark and gritty detail of what's happening in my home, from the corpo-capitalism, eugenics, exploitation, gentrification. I was born here and I am not leaving.

[StephenGoodfellow]

"It is dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."
~Henry Kissinger

[WhatifiForgotMyName]

Im less than 5 minutes into the video and *I already know* this video will be a complete deep dive into the island. As a Puerto Rican living in the states, this is the most complete piece of audiovisual material in english on the subject. Very well put together!

[Schumanized]

As a puertorican living in Puerto Rico i thank you from the bottom of my ❤. You got the facts straight. Believe it or not, many "Boricuas" don't know this.

GRACIAS!!!🇵🇷

[ANTONIOHERNANDEZ-exmt]

How did you get interested in PR? As a Puerto Rican, I am impressed by the amount of useful information here. We had a long period of success and decent standard of living for a good amount of people when manufacturing took off with section 936, but things really took a bad turn when the US eliminated it. The PR governments were unable to find ways to boost the economy, privatized industries, and some were even corrupt. So, not all of our relationship with the US has been terrible, and being independent could be very risky for us, due to limited resources, international competition, and potential for corruption/tyranny. But the truth, as you point out, is that neither Republican nor Democratic US governments have genuinely cared about the Puerto Rican people, and yet, many Puerto Ricans have fought in US wars to defend its democracy. Curiously, American greed has gotten so out of hand that its democracy seems to be dying by their own doing. I feel for the American people who are being betrayed by their own leadership and hope that there will be a time when this wrong gets corrected for good. If and only if that happens, and if the US recognizes that colonization is wrong and that Puerto Ricans should be treated as equals under American law, should we consider statehood. Otherwise, we may as well take our chances and accept independence.

[NonyaBusiness-isfc]

Like the saying goes " the US wants the land, not the people"

[mealbaffler]

as an american this makes my stomach sink and my heart break for all the poor people of puerto rico, colonized and abused by colonizer after colonizer. its sad that most of this information is new to me having gone through the USA education system. thanks for the info, and sorry for everything we have done to your people.