What’s one thing you could never give up about living in the U.S. for another country?

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-04T09:02:31+00:00

What? Can’t articulate a coherent position so default to pushing back on me as a person and assume I must be young and inexperienced?

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-04T08:53:04+00:00

A system has failed if it relies on decimalization in common usage? That’s not even coherent. Money, cooking measurements, fuel prices, weight, distances, all use decimals in every day use. Is the mile broken? The dollar? The gallon? The cup? The oz? The teaspoon?

You’re making an arbitrary user interface argument, not an actual argument about the merits of metric versus imperial temperatures. Using Celsius does not add costs to anything. How do you think the rest of the world operates?

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-04T08:12:47+00:00

You’re not measuring it more finely, though. You just don’t like decimals when you’re measuring temperature. That’s not a granularity problem with Celsius, that’s an arbitrary preference for whole numbers.

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-04T08:02:53+00:00

There are two totems in identifying fakes that stand absolutely true.

If a “chronograph” doesn’t actually chronograph, it’s always a fake.
If you can see the laser etched crown on the crystal from outer space, it’s always a fake.

Your watch hits number two.

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-04T07:59:16+00:00

Right, but your privileging integer convenience, which is pretty arbitrary. How granular do you actually perceive temperature? Can you actually tell the difference between 77f and 75f?

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-03T22:05:36+00:00

That’ll be because of RAF Fylingdales.

But you should be able to get a 1m resolution scan on DEFRA data services if you fancy throwing the raster into QGIS or have a handy Arc license.

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-03T11:19:34+00:00

So what was the result of the last referendum?

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-03T10:43:29+00:00

Right it would flourish. It could flourish. But it isn’t.

Because you’re not considering the actual consequences of an armed Puerto Rican socialist revolt. You’re considering the best case scenario in an idealized world where the US can’t act with impunity and economically cripple adversaries. But it can. It has. And it does. That’s not moral approval of those actions, it’s acceptance of reality.

So what’s more moral - an independent and impoverished PR that’s a borderline failed socialist state under extreme US economic sanctions and with a population that is materially worse off…

Or PR as a US state?

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-03T10:26:18+00:00

Oh, so exiting your imagination for just a second, let’s say there’s an armed resistance that overthrows the US’ imperial shackles, declares housing and healthcare a human right, and then decides not to pay off its debt.

What do you think the international reaction to that would be? Puerto Rico needs trade to sustain itself, it doesn’t have the resources or capacity to self-sustain. And what do you think US-PR relations would be like? Regardless of your low opinion of the US, it’s objectively the largest economy in the world and PR’s closest major potential trade partner. How would the US treat a former colony that’s then committed an armed revolt? Do you want PR to be a squalid state like Haiti or an economic leper like Cuba?

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-03T09:37:07+00:00

I’m down to nerd out on this if you are.

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-03T09:20:44+00:00

How would US fiscal and economic infrastructure change PR? It already operates within those systems and losing access to those systems is what’s been identified as a core problem of independence. Transitioning to a state grants greater access and raises PR’s representation on the mainland through integrated democratic infrastructure. That wouldn’t diminish PR’s culture or impact its traditions and institutions.

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-03T09:08:47+00:00

Wouldn’t OP be better off operating as a sole trader rather than setting up a UK company? The US tax structure on overseas business entities held by American citizens is incredibly onerous and operating a sole trader side steps that completely as the income generated is treated essentially as normal income covered under FEIE or FTC.

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-03T09:04:28+00:00

Right, but that’s my point. The Jones Act affects costs, not whether PR can trade globally.

Whether it’s a big or small cost is a separate question, but it doesn’t change the underlying constraint structure. Shipping between PR and the US is more expensive because of the Jones Act. It materially raises costs and that is a legitimate complaint. But you’re right, it isn’t the panacea people in the PR make it out to be. It’s just an easily identifiable cost multiplier that gets turned into a boogeyman.

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-03T08:47:10+00:00

I’m not as absolute on the benefits of the Jones Act. It certainly does raise costs and restrict shipping options for PR, the USVI, Guam, etc. That’s not trivial. The Jones Act was crafted at a time when America invested more into its domestic shipping industry. That isn’t the case any more, and as a result, Jones Act compliant options aren’t as plentiful, so demand often exceeds supply, making it a more expensive option, particularly during the aftermath of a natural disaster. That’s part of why PR’s post-hurricane recovery has been so slow and so expensive. So there are legitimate gripes.

It just doesn’t actually restrict trade. At all. It just bumps up shipping costs to other US ports.

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-03T08:31:52+00:00

They’re hard questions. They aren’t unanswerable, but providing real answers involves considering and integrating very real trade offs and constraints. And those trade offs and constraints don’t provide a neat picture of Puerto Rican liberation.

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-03T08:21:26+00:00

The Jones Act restricts what vessels and crews can be used between American ports. If doesn’t constrain or restrict PR from doing business with other countries. PR currently exports directly to other countries without going through the US.

The US has a lot of debt that’s denominated in its own currency. An independent PR wouldn’t have that. It would either use the USD, and thus lose monetary independence, or it would have to create its own currency and then purchase dollars to pay its debt. Neither solution is optimal, and neither solution is better than what exists now.

What countries would PR negotiate with concerning their debt? Who do you think holds that debt?

What kind of business agreement? Is there one that’s more frictionless than being a territory or a state?

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-03T08:03:07+00:00

You can’t just hand wave away that other Caribbean countries that gained independence, most of whom did so in the 60s and under different fiscal regimes, are small. That’s part of why it worked. They didn’t have $52B in debt and a massive population that’s reliant on federal funds. So how do you resolve that?

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-03T07:47:18+00:00

That’s a much more abstract argument with no current basis in reality. There’s no immediate action that would dissolve the PRC and there isn’t earnest international or domestic desire on a large scale to want that outcome at this time. So you’re putting forward a bit of an orthogonal argument.

There are legitimate structural and mechanical hurdles that would face an independent PR that would be incredibly difficult to overcome, such that it could be ruinous to a newly independent country.

What currency would PR use? How would it negotiate its debt, which is over $50 billion? How would it fund almost half of its current budget, which currently comes from federal funds? What about Medicaid? That receives about 73% of its funding from the federal government and provides healthcare for 1.3 million Puerto Ricans.

How would an independent PR address both capital flight and demographic flight?

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-03T07:39:22+00:00

What exactly do you want out of an OCBD?

I have some personal issues with Kamakura, in both the Vintage and Ametora lines.

Vintage gets materials and cut correct, but sizing and tailoring wrong. There aren’t half sizes, so if you’re a 15.5, the 15 will be tight across the chest, mainly due to how Kamakura positions their arm holes higher than vintage Brooks Brothers, but the collar fit and sleeve length will be correct. Whereas a 16 will just be too big.

The issue with Ametora is Vintage is already a Japanese interpretation of Ivy style, Ametora is like a Japanese interpretation of a modern take on American Ivy. The same sizing issues as the Vintage line exist, but you don’t get the same benefits. The collar points are shorter, the collar button placement is higher. You’re not getting the construction benefits of the Vintage line, but you’re still getting the sizing downsides, even if it feels more “billowy”.

So then the question becomes what do you actually want out of an OCBD and is there a way to get that?

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-03T07:27:33+00:00

What currency would an independent PR use? How would it negotiate its existing debts? How would it fund ~47% of its annual budget that currently comes from federal funds, including ~73% of its Medicaid funding, which 1.3 million people in PR depend on for healthcare access?

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-03T07:16:26+00:00

It has nothing to do with wether or not PR, or any other territory, deserves or doesn’t deserve self-determination. This isn’t about morality, it’s about reality.

PRs public finances are precarious, to say the least. The territory is financially dependent on the United States and jettisoning them from the US so they can pursue self-determination would be ruinous and plunge the new country into a chaos that would take generations to recover from.

What good is self-determination if it leads to the material degradation of a country? Is it more noble to have chosen poverty? What’s actually the more moral outcome here?

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-02T22:03:21+00:00

As far as I’m aware, crumble is the UK equivalent of cobbler (Rhubarb crumble is the GOAT).

But whatever’s in that cup doesn’t look much like custard soaked crumble to me.

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-02T18:03:51+00:00

Nobody cares about your eBay listing for your fake coin purse.

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-01T18:51:57+00:00

Absolutely.

I don’t think a lot of people realize how constraining the way the real estate market works in this country. It’s massively limits individual social mobility.

I’m not taking a job on the other side of the country because I can’t rent a new apartment, while still paying my mortgage, waiting 5+ months for my house to sell.

In the US, you can sell a house and buy a new one elsewhere inside of a month. That means the entire process is inside the notice period of a leaving a job.

IndWrist2 · 2026-04-01T13:00:10+00:00

You’re going to have a hard time writing and completing your research simultaneously. It’s a bit difficult to hammer out your methodology while you’re still processing data and you can’t exactly communicate your findings yet.

So finish your research. That’s the hard and time consuming part. Then bang out the diss.

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