What benefit is there for Guam, Puerto Rico, etc to being a US Territory rather than a state or an independent country?
In: Economics
Wow! Thanks everyone! That really helps clarify it for me!
They are owned and managed by the US. Which means they can potentially benefit from all of the resources US has to offer. While this is not guaranteed, it is a far sight better than being on your own and receiving no benefit.
Important to note is that those “resources” include the United States Military to protect it from foreign powers.
Since the US operates on the principle of Federalism, if there is a local government, they have a pretty broad latitude when it comes to self-governance.
If they are independent, they get unfettered self-governance, but are on their own in terms of all those resources and military protection.
You get all the military protection of the host country while retaining a mostly independent government. The downside is you don’t get much political representation in the host country.
You get a US passport, US military protection, the right to travel and work in the US, the use of the US dollar as an official currency and you get to send non voting members to congress.
It’s not really a choice, you get invaded by the USA and since you are tiny you don’t have any choice except to become part of the USA or die. The benefit is you don’t die in an unwinnable war.
You also can have financial debt crisis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rican_government-debt_crisis#:~:text=In%20August%202018%2C%20a%20debt,liabilities%20as%20of%20May%202017.
In August 2018, a debt investigation report of the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico reported the Commonwealth had $74 billion in bond debt and $49 billion in unfunded pension liabilities as of May 2017
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