Puerto Rico to become U.S. State?

[TitoFan]

Yo, @TitoFan , what's up with this dude.

Puerto Rico votes to change relationship with US - World news - Americas | NBC News

Hey @Mars_ax

Yeah, status has always been a major issue here. And I think the movement has been slowly shifting toward becoming a state. Honestly I don't know if and when it will ever happen, but the possibilities have increased. Of course, it's a two-part process. First, the P.R. people must want statehood in a clear majority. Then, the U.S. Congress must decide whether to grant statehood to P.R. Personally, I'm anxious to resolve the status issue once and for all, if only to force our local political candidates to focus solely on other issues, such as unemployment, health care, education, and crime.

Tito,
According to the article/link I posted, the majority of Puerto Ricans (if I read it right) wanted Statehood, but a strong minority did not. I wouldn't think getting the U.S. Congress to grant PR Statehood would be much of a problem, more of a formality since PR is already a "commonwealth".

The question is, would it really benefit PR to become a U.S. state, or are you better off keeping things like they already are, or going totally independent? The bottom line is what's best for your country.

Independence is an ideal a lot of people have, but IMO not very realistic (or good for the country). We're neighbors with the Dominican Republic, which of course is independent and lately doing better than before. But there's still a lot of poverty there, resulting in a steady influx of illegal immigration to Puerto Rico (yes, we have those problems over here too).

The current status (commonwealth) was instrumental in getting Puerto Rico out of poverty back in the 1940's, and industrializing the island. But most of us feel the status has worn out its usefulness, and a more permanent status solution is needed. My main beef with the current status is that it still provides the possibility of movement in one direction or the other. And while status remains an issue, politicians use it as a carrot to sway voters one way or another. I'd rather the politicians here get elected on their own merits on other issues.

The reason why the Internet article cites that people here voted for statehood "with an asterisk", is that the candidate that won the governorship now is from the pro-Commonwealth party. The pro-statehood incumbent lost. But I see this more as a discontent with the incumbent himself, rather than a vote against statehood. This was borne out by the fact that the statehood option won handily in the referendum.