This site strives to help and encourage Puerto Ricans to “do it better” as the slogan “Puerto Rico does it better” advertises. “Puerto Rico does it better” should be more than just a slogan. We will try to do what is necessary to improve the quality of life for all Puerto Ricans and visitors alike. Please add your comments to the discussion. We welcome your feedback. If you would like us to research something or discuss a subject which interests you, please let us know. With your help, we ARE making a difference. Sometimes one must bring awareness to something to inspire positive change and growth. As for the slogan, there are 2 key components unanswered.
1 What is “it” that Puerto Rico does better?
2 Better than what other city or entity?
What steps can be taken to improve Puerto Rico?
1 Encourage all businesses, homes, apartments, and condominiums to use and publish their street addresses, to utilize a 1st world addressing system instead of the backwards, inefficient, time-wasting, 3rd world addressing system. Encourage homes and businesses to prominently post their numerical addresses on their buildings. “At the old Baxter building” and “Infanteria 65, Km 1.8” are poor excuses for an address. Landmarks are of little use when you do not know how to get to the landmark. Traffic on the roads would be reduced 5% or more, since people wouldn’t be getting lost as often due to insufficiently marked addresses. This would also conserve gas and save money as well as reducing traffic congestion, traffic accidents, and traffic pollution. Encourage businesses to post the GPS coordinates next to their address. This would help consumers find them easier, save time, gas, frustration, as well as improve commerce.
2 Utilize best practices that have already been proven to be better. See again #1. Why use an addressing system that is backwards, inefficient, wasteful, and time-wasting? Many people that have lived in both Puerto Rico and the United States have observed how it is much more difficult to deal with businesses in Puerto Rico in that the Puerto Rican businesses are much slower to respond if they respond at all. That factor is extremely damaging to Puerto Rico because it causes less businesses to want to locate in PR, which results in fewer job opportunities that those companies would have provided.
3 Require people on welfare to perform community service, whether it be picking up trash, landscaping along the roads, or some other type of contribution. A cycle of dependency is unsustainable, because eventually the people pulling the wagon decide it’s better to ride in the wagon for free, instead of the hard work of pulling the wagon. In the long run, the wagon becomes too heavy to pull, as too many people want a free ride. Too many native Puerto Ricans have been conditioned by government policies which are counter-productive in the long run by killing ambition and rewarding people for not working. See
http://prnewslinks.blogspot.com/2014/01/frank-worley-lopez-puerto-ricos.html
“Money for Nothing
It’s said that nothing in life is free, but in Puerto Rico’s case the residents pay no federal income tax on earnings in Puerto Rico. The “help” that came from the federal government made it easier for many to live off of government assistance than to work.
While a student in seventh grade in a small school in Naguabo, located on the island’s eastern tip, I spoke with classmates about my plans for the future: college, career, and service to the country.
One of my classmates angrily responded, “Why would you go through all of that? The government pays for everything.” Some of my other classmates looked at me with disdain while shaking their collective heads.
“So you plan to just live on welfare when you grow up?” I asked incredulously.
“Of course! It’s so much easier than all of those things you talked about.”
The conversation, which occurred around 1980, never left my memory. Checking back as a young man in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I found that in fact many of the people I had gone to school with had followed their aspiration and were living on government assistance programs.”
4 Encourage and promote food security. With a year-round growing season, Puerto Rico should be growing more of its own food instead of importing it.
5 Reduce the size of the government. Puerto Rico has one of the highest percentage rates of people working in the government sector. This is also inefficient, wasteful, and not sustainable. Unnecessary, excessive government employees are wasting tax dollars. The same tax money could be better spent elsewhere. The excess employees could instead be more productive working in the private sector. Reducing the size of government will also reduce government corruption.
6 Eliminate the minimum wage. This should not just be eliminated in Puerto Rico, but all around the world. The real minimum wage is zero, as rational employers use more automation or hire less employees than to hire someone for more than the employee is worth. A minimum wage disproportionately harms the young, unskilled, and less educated. With a $0 minimum wage, which is no required minimum wage, employers will be far more willing to take a risk on untested, unskilled, and uneducated employees. Those employers will train the employees who will become more valuable over time. As the employees gain more experience and skills, they will be more productive, worth more, and employers can afford to pay them more.
7 Reduce and eliminate anti-business regulations so that more businesses will prosper.
8 Educate the citizens on the importance of proper communications in the schools and through advertising campaigns. Trying to accomplish tasks are far more difficult in Puerto Rico compared to the states. There is no good reason why it should be so difficult and unnecessarily time consuming to conduct business and daily affairs in Puerto Rico. This is a SERIOUS problem that has not been sufficiently publicized. Whether for buying a home, buying a car, or dealing with other businesses, Puerto Ricans respond to emails less than 10% of the time, even when they are using the same language. Such failures to respond are highly inefficient, time-wasting and damaging to Puerto Rico. Lower productivity wastes time for both buyer and seller. Lower productivity leads to lower wages. Higher productivity leads to higher wages. The more efficient and productive the citizens are, the more they are worth, and thus the more they can be paid. Not responding to emails is rude, unprofessional, and bad for business. One shouldn’t have to drive to a business to get a response to simple questions. This in turn unnecessarily wastes gas, wastes time, and clogs the roads. When Puerto Ricans do not use email properly by failing to be responsive to inquiries sent by email, it harms both the organization and the consumer. If you are an employee, ask if your employer has an email response policy. Is there a policy in effect to respond to all emails within 1 business day? If not, you should show some leadership to request and institute professional customer service standards policy with controls to ensure that responses are emailed in a timely manner.
9 Encourage commonly used government forms to be offered in English, the international language of business.
10 Educate the citizens, starting in the schools, on destructive short-term vs long-term thinking and planning. Some results of short-term thinking are:
The higher percentage of unwed mothers compared to the states;
The higher divorce rates in Puerto Rico relative to the states;
Lower credit scores compared to the states, as people are overspending, because they want to buy something now, putting it on a credit card, instead of first saving money before buying the item;
Spending more than revenues – whether at the government or individual level. Living beyond your means is an unwise financial strategy. Puerto Ricans have far worse credit scores which reflect overspending. The government is approximately $72 billion in debt and unable to pay its obligations.
11 Educate the citizens, starting in the schools on recycling and properly disposing of trash. If you care about Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans, you do not throw trash on the ground, whether on the streets, or at the beach. Uneducated, lower-class people throw trash on the ground. If you throw trash on the ground, you are defining yourself negatively as a trashy person. I have seen many Puerto Ricans improperly dispose of trash. Asking them why, they responded that it was because there was no trash can nearby. When I have trash, I wait until I find a trash can. Moreover, more trash that can be recycled keeps more of it out of landfills. I have seen many lazy people, who are provided recycling containers, not use them, instead putting all their recyclables in with their regular trash. Encourage other people to recycle what can be recycled and to place trash in a proper trash receptable.
12 Require the government to stop bribing its citizens for votes by promising and giving away free stuff excessively. If this continues, Puerto Rico will become like Venezuela, another failed Socialistic state. Stop voting for politicians who are financially irresponsible, who increase the debt. Vote instead for politicians who build surpluses.
13 Institute policies that reward and encourage good behavior and discourage bad behavior, whether by consumers, businesses, or government. Shop and give your money to honest businesses. Do not do business with the dishonest car dealers mentioned on this site. Give your money to businesses who are responsive and give good customer service. Share your experiences, both good and bad, with others, to spread the word both about good and bad businesses. Help drive the bad businesses and bad business practices out of business.
14 Encourage and develop betterment campaigns for everyone to make improvements in Puerto Rico. One key observation about Puerto Rico is that too many citizens have been conditioned to be complacent about the situation in Puerto Rico, making no effort to improve the island. Even worse, some misguided Puerto Ricans attack those who make an effort to improve PR. The correct course of action is admitting what doesn’t work right, instead of ignoring it. By discussing what doesn’t work correctly, that can draw attention to the problems, allowing for a better chance for improvement. Before problems are fixed, they must be identified.
From economist Thomas Sowell’s “The Vision of the Anointed” (1995):
Among the many other questions raised by the nebulous concept of “greed” is why it is a term applied almost exclusively to those who want to earn more money or to keep what they have already earned—never to those wanting to take other people’s money in taxes or to those wishing to live on the largess dispensed from such taxation. No amount of taxation is ever described by the anointed as “greed” on the part of government or the clientele of government. . . .
Families who wish to be independent financially and to make their own decisions about their lives are of little interest or use to those who are seeking to impose their superior wisdom and virtue on other people. Earning their own money makes these families unlikely candidates for third-party direction and wishing to retain what they have earned threatens to deprive the anointed of the money needed to distribute as largess to others who would thus become subject to their direction. In these circumstances, it is understandable why the desire to increase and retain one’s own earnings should be characterized negatively as “greed,” while wishing to live at the expense of others is not.
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Are you angry at corruption by Puerto Rican politicians? Now you can donate online to an organization formed to combat corruption, dishonesty, incompetence, and mismanagement by government officials in Puerto Rico
A new organization was formed to fight dishonesty in Puerto Rico’s government, by filing lawsuits. I don’t know why it took so many years for someone to come up with this great idea, as the average Puerto Rican has been mostly powerless to hold government officials accountable until now. It’s about time people started fighting back against dishonest politicians instead of just banging pots and pans or marching in the streets to Fortaleza.
In the summer of 2019, we saw how previous Governor Richard Rossello-PNP mocked citizens after his administration’s private chats were leaked, talking badly about Puerto Rican citizens, making fun of gays, fat people, women, and those who died as a result of Hurricane Maria. After witnessing relief supplies being hidden in a warehouse in Ponce after the January 2020 earthquake, finding over 10 million bottles of water rotting on the airport runway in Roosevelt Roads in Ceiba after Hurricane Maria on 9-20-17, some people being without power restoration for a entire year, and Puerto Rico politicians bankrupting our country through corruption, incompetence, and mismanagement of public funds FOR DECADES, it’s time for a revolution.
Are you tired of Puerto Rican politicians not caring about its citizens, not keeping promises to citizens? Are you tired of higher taxes, with less services, as the monies are stolen, given to friends/family/political supporters through overpriced no bid contracts or jobs through political favoritism? Are you tired of the financial mismanagement leading to Puerto Rico’s $72 BILLION in debt, leading to bankruptcy? Are you tired of the lack of high paying jobs and opportunities in Puerto Rico? Are you tired of funds being mismanaged by the Puerto Rican government? Are you tired of wasting an entire day waiting in line at the DMV/DTOP? Are you tired of potholes and bad roads? Are you tired of being mistreated and lied to by politicians who don’t care about the long term success of Puerto Rico? Are you tired of the bad reputation of Puerto Rico, being known for its culture of corruption? Are you tired of Puerto Rican government not keeping its promises? Have you had enough????
The “Coalition of Puerto Rican Residents to Promote and Demand an Honest Government in Puerto Rico” translated from Spanish of “Coalición De Residentes Por Un Gobierno Integro,” started an online fundraising campaign to file lawsuits against Puerto Rico for not honoring their commitments to Puerto Rican residents. You can choose to make your name and donation amount public or private, as it will show “anonymous” if you prefer your name not be posted. There is no amount too large or small. The most common donation amount was $1000. The smallest and largest publicly listed donation amounts were $500 while several people donated $5000 each. You can donate any amount you want by selecting the recommended amounts between $1000 and $5000, or by filling in a smaller amount, clicking OTHER to list the amount you want to donate. These generous donation amounts show that Puerto Rican residents definitely care about having an honest Puerto Rican government. Donate today to the Coalition of Puerto Rican Residents to Promote and Demand an Honest Government in Puerto Rico. If you care about Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican citizens, this is a wonderful cause to promote an honest government that is desperately needed after suffering under the decades long bad reputation of public corruption by Puerto Rican government officials. You do not have to live in Puerto Rico to donate. You only have to care about Puerto Rico’s future and care about Puerto Ricans.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE DONATION PAGE. The donation page and foundation are not affiliated with Puerto Rico Newcomer.
https://fundrazr.com/b1esic?ref=ab_8t4bc0lPcIj8t4bc0lPcIj
HOW THE MONEY WILL BE USED
Your credit card will only be charged if the fundraising goal is reached. The money will be used as follows:
- $95,000 – AMG Legal Fees up to Appellate Court
- $5,000 – Two Years of Organization Tax & Compliance Fees
- $9,000 – 501(c)(3) Designation AND 1101.01 Certification
- $3,371 – 3% Credit Card Processing Fees
All donations are tax deductible as we will be 501(c)(3).
From Fundrazr: “…if the goal isn’t reached there will not be any credit card processing fees charged to the donors as there will not have been a transaction that has been processed. These kinds of transactions are simply pledges, nothing is put through a transnational process until the donors are manually charged when the goal is met.”
Our Pledge: If for any reason we should decide not to proceed with the lawsuit (very unlikely), all unused funds (less credit card processing fees, if any) will be refunded.
LEGAL FEES FOR APPEAL
This fundraiser does not cover the legal fees for an appeal. If an appeal is necessary, then a separate fundraiser will be required to raise $40,000 for additional legal fees. The $40,000 figure will likewise be fixed and pre-agreed upon AMG’s initial engagement.
E-MAIL LIST
Enter your email here to be updated directly from the Board: http://eepurl.com/g4tM0T
ABOUT AMG
Since its founding in 1994 the San Juan law firm of Adsuar Muñiz Goyco Seda & Perez-Ochoa, P.S.C. has provided comprehensive business-related legal services to companies throughout Puerto Rico, and to business interests based in the continental United States or abroad that have financial interests in Puerto Rico. AMG’s team of lawyers brings years of experience and a wide range of professional credentials to every matter we handle.
AMG has prominent tax attorneys, including a former Assistant Secretary of the Puerto Rico Treasury Department. Members of the firm are frequent lecturers and speakers about tax and complex litigation matters. AMG’s tax attorneys regularly negotiate with the Puerto Rico Treasury Department and have a successful track record of tax litigation. Likewise, AMG has substantial expertise in class action litigation, and is uniquely positioned to assist in the prosecution of this effort.
LEGAL TEAM ASSIGNED TO OUR CASE
- Eric Perez Ochoa, Shareholder – Co-Chair of the Litigation and Trial Practice Department
- Luis Oliver-Fraticelli, Shareholder – Co-Chair of the Litigation and Trial Practice Department
- Ricardo Muñiz, Shareholder – Chair of the Tax Law Department
- Fabian Rodriguez Torres, Junior Partner
- Miguel Carbonell, Associate
- Glorimar Irene Abel, Associate
ABOUT COALICIÓN DE RESIDENTES POR UN GOBIERNO INTEGRO
We are citizens of Puerto Rico holding the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico accountable for for violating its promises and breaching its contracts. More information about the board members can be found at residentespr.org
If you have any useful ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments below.
Puerto Rico Newcomer, dedicated to improving PR, helps you live, vacation in Puerto Rico better 
Just by you saying the word 3rd world and welfare makes it known about your real intention to disparage the island. Can you please make it more professional comments rather than your rants.
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The intention is to get Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans to improve, not to disparage Puerto Rico. Instead of being upset at me for speaking the truth, why not be upset at the inefficient systemic factors holding back Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans? Your anger is misplaced and needs to be redirected to where it belongs.
Furthermore, it’s ironic that you offer no useful suggestions, instead only attacking those who are making an effort to improve Puerto Rico!
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Hey, I hear you. As some have said, Puerto Rico would be nice…if it weren’t for the Puerto Ricans. They cling to their 3rd world mentality instead of adopting best practices from the states, which makes life difficult in Puerto Rico
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We need a good transportation system that will travel island wide. The train is only good in the metropolitan area. I would definately do internal vacationing and weekend trips to visit beaches, museums, restaurants and festivals. Something like the Greyhound buses.
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I looked through your ideas and understand your frustration and commend you on your efforts to bring about a change even if it’s in awareness. That being said allow me to comment on some of the gaps in your article. The minimum wage was established to protect both the employees and employers from taken advantage of the other. When it is too high cost of living and expenses to a corporation would cause it to close or shrink, not to mention the ripple effect of increase cost that will be past to the consumer. If not in place many corporations will underpay their employees, knowing the people will stay to avoid change, aka fear of loss or laziness.
Laziness is a disease that is affecting your people, this is not a result of them as much as complacency of the welfare state another ploy of the liberal left to control the mass and beating down the human spirit. The welfare state exists only to gain votes and maintain control of the people at wages far less than minimum wage, or a version of hidden slavery.
PR is a beautiful island brimming with potential, I have visited there and did some work a few years back. The island would do well to expand its public transportation, if done properly it will alleviate traffic, pollution, and cost of gas insurance etc, and improve the health of the average citizen by increasing the cardio from walking. This will also improve exposure to attractions and assist tourism to travel or explore the island improving economic growth island wide.
An island faces an incurred problem of attaining things due to having to either fly or ship everything in which makes things more expensive, but in today’s day and age that’s far less problematic than in the past but still an issue to consider.
Education and patronage, I have seen more PRcans in the state so proud of their origins, yet they live here and do not return or provide anything positive to contribute here or there. Others have EFA seeking something better and strive for it, nature of the beast. Education is important but those politicians don’t want that improvement for their slaves I mean constituents, that keep them fat and wealthy. If not they would have improved recycling and garbage programs.
As a US territory the primary language taught in schools should be English. It is disgraceful that such a high percentage of the population does not even speak the language of the country that they are connected too. An education system based on merit along with trade schools and training would greatly benefit PR. Education is a base for any country to prosper but the idea of everyone being a doctor is idiotic and irresponsible to the community.
Lastly I would agree on an improved system of addresses and a connection back to growing food for consumption and export with everyone going green and organic. But you will probably find policies and regulations to stiffen that productivity most likely brought to you by liberal democrats aka socialist.
If they removed the welfare programs in less than a year you will see either a revamp of the country guided by a desire prosper or udder destruction by the laziness of people who turn to stealing and violence and destruction. That will eventually be beaten down by other forces and factors.
In the end it’s all about the hearts of your people or the greed of the leadership.
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Thanks for your comments. It’s helpful to have a civil dialogue, to exchange viewpoints to gain a better understanding.
Please click on the links to see how minimum wages are harmful. If you are willing to learn, you will be enlightened.
https://puertoriconewcomer.wordpress.com/category/minimum-wage-laws-are-harmful-to-society
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Newcomer, though I can appreciate your comments and approach, they are all over the place, disorganized and off topic. So let’s take this slow.
1. At no point in time did I say that the minimum wage should be 15/hr or increased.
A- we agree that increasing minimum wage could only lead to inflation, loss of jobs etc.
Below I have provided a link to a testimony done befor congress, which I advice you to read.
http://www.heritage.org/testimony/what-minimum-wage-its-history-and-effects-the-economy
As per that testimony and other articles related to our discussion, presented that the raising of minimum wage on hurts the disadvantage workers, which make about 5 percent of the minimum wage work force,
Of that workforce less than 5% of the work force is a minimum wage employee. These employees or the majority of them are teenagers and young adults working and going to school living in middle class homes.
minimum wages is the base pay for a no skilled person doing a very basic job or learning and gaining experience, the idea of 0 wages for learning a job is garbage. Even if the people are just learning they are still giving of the time to provide the company with a service.
Internships are among some of the biggest scams, which provide supposed experience for little or no pay, these maybe skilled individuals yet they receive no money. Oh but they get exeperence, is bologna, even if the person is running back and forth bring a person coffee they should be paid, instead of paying college credit to to work for a most likely useless experience.
The origin of minimum wage was .25 cents equivalent with about 4 dollars and change today. It is a base nothing else for and entry level job requiring no experience or skills.
So to be clear I have no problem with a reasonable minimum wage which is around 5- 7 dollars an hour. But employees are not meant to be at the wage for a long period of time.
2 As for your comment on 100 dollar haircut though I know it is just an example. The government will not place a price on services, they will regulate it to death, which is by far more harmful. The same as they place tariffs on products coming into the country so as to make our products more competitive. They provide control of prices in other ways instead of legislating a price.
The bottom line is that you want as little government interference as possible but some is necessary( and when I say some I mean like a microscopic bit).
Well I hope you find some enlightenment in the testimony.
As far as PR inefficiency, incompetence, and greed of your local government and its officials has put PR on the Downward spiral. The People of PR have hopped on for the ride aggravating the situation. Change can happen, but it will take effort by like minded people that unit with a common goal and a plan toencourage the populace to do things in small steps to turn things around. And a whole lot of prayer!
I wish I would be discussing this with you over a plate of Arroz con Gandulez and tostones.
Food for thought from the Bureau of Labor
VOLUNTEERING IN THE UNITED STATES — 2015
The volunteer rate declined by 0.4 percentage point to 24.9 percent for the year
ending in September 2015, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
About 62.6 million people volunteered through or for an organization at least
once between September 2014 and September 2015.
Back to me now, so the volunteers outnumber the minimum wage force 5 to 1.
I repeat our local political leaders are worthless. In the states and abroad. All we do is provide them the avenue for their greed.
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“we agree that increasing minimum wage could only lead to inflation, loss of jobs etc.”
Then you say, “So to be clear I have no problem with a reasonable minimum wage which is around 5- 7 dollars an hour. ”
I am confused as to if you are for free markets or not, minimum wage laws or not. If I want to mow the lawn of an elderly or disabled person or clean their gutters for them, for free, as I have done in the past, should the government make it illegal for me to freely and willingly do so? If I want to voluntarily work as an intern, for free, to learn valuable skills from someone who knows more than I do, should you or the government make it illegal for me to freely and willingly do so?
In your post, you are against minimum wages, but for a “reasonable” minimum wage. Who is to decide what is reasonable? Thus, you are inviting government interference.
Workers and society, overall, are greatly harmed by minimum wage laws. PERIOD!
Please go here, and post your comments about minimum wages in the minimum wage section.
https://puertoriconewcomer.wordpress.com/category/minimum-wage-laws-are-harmful-to-society
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Some good points on this list. I think the first half of the list is better than the second, since it sort of degrades into a rant instead of constructive, policy/action-oriented changes.
It’s easy to say PRcans should be learning from the best practices on the US mainland, but even America doesn’t learn from the best practices of other successful states. US healthcare, deficits, social policies, defense spending, tax form bloat, gun laws, immigration policies… these are all in dire need of reform and improvement, and there is an immense portion of the American population that loves the status quo or want to take it backward even further.
Regardless, we have been here for 3 months now and I have my own list of What We Should Do to Help PR, and your blog here is an inspiration for us all to put our thoughts down and share with other progressive-oriented newcomers. Thank you!
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