Editing Operation Bootstrap (section)

==History==
The island's traditional economy was based around [[Sugarcane|sugarcane plantations]]; of the 516,730 jobs on the island in 1940, almost half of them were agriculture-based, with 124,076 of these based on sugar-cane farms.<ref name="Census. 1940">U.S. Bureau of the Census. ''Sixteenth census of the United States taken in the year 1940.'' Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1941-1943.</ref> However, Esteban Bird described in detail the misgivings of the sugarcane industry and the monoculture economy in general.<ref>Bird, Esteban A; Picó, Rafael; Cordero, Rafael de J; Puerto Rico; Legislature; Senate (1937). ''Report on the sugar industry in relation to the social and economic system of Puerto Rico''. San Juan: Bureau of Supplies, Printing, and Transportation. [[OCLC (identifier)|OCLC]] 465408932.</ref> By the middle of the twentieth century it remained one of the poorest in the Caribbean. After possession of the island was transferred to the United States in 1898 after the Spanish-American War, it remained mostly neglected. Conditions in Puerto Rico worsened during the world wars, after years of neglect. Pressure grew in the U.S. to address the worsening situation, influenced by journalists like John Gunther who described the island in 1941 as such:

"I saw, in short, misery, disease, squalor, filth. It would be lamentable enough to see this anywhere...to see it on American territory...is a paralyzing jolt to anyone who believes in American standards of progress and civilization."<ref>John Gunther, Inside Latin America (New York: Harper & Bros. Press, 1941), 423.</ref>

In May 1947, the [[Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico|Puerto Rican legislature]] passed the Industrial Incentives Act eliminating all corporate taxes, to encourage U.S. investment in industry. The initiative granted private and foreign investment a ten year period of exemption from taxes on many of the expenses for businesses involved in the industrial economy.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Operation Bootstrap|url=https://lcw.lehman.edu/lehman/depts/latinampuertorican/latinoweb/PuertoRico/Bootstrap.htm|access-date=2021-05-02|website=lcw.lehman.edu}}</ref> These exemptions included:

* "license fees, excises, or other municipal taxes levied by any ordinance of any municipality,"
* "property devoted to industrial development,
* "income tax on income from industrial development," and more.<ref>{{Cite web|title=§ 10001. Exemptions, P.R. Laws tit. 13, § 10001 {{!}} Casetext Search + Citator|url=https://casetext.com/statute/laws-of-puerto-rico/title-thirteen-taxation-and-finance/subtitle-15-puerto-rico-industrial-incentives-generally/part-i-industrial-incentives/chapter-901-puerto-rico-industrial-incentive-act-of-1954/10001-exemptions|access-date=2021-05-02|website=casetext.com}}</ref>

This was proposed by Senator [[Luis Muñoz Marín]] of the [[Popular Democratic Party (Puerto Rico)|Popular Democratic Party]], and became known as Operation Bootstrap.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://lcw.lehman.edu/lehman/depts/latinampuertorican/latinoweb/PuertoRico/Bootstrap.htm|title=Operation Bootstrap|access-date=May 3, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://library.brown.edu/create/modernlatinamerica/chapters/chapter-12-strategies-for-economic-developmen/puerto-ricos-operation-bootstrap/|title=Puerto Rico's Operation Bootstrap|access-date=February 3, 2020}}</ref>  Based on 1930s [[New Deal]] economic relief reforms and infrastructure provided by the programs such as the [[Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration]], Operation Bootstrap intended to move Puerto Rico away from its [[agrarian system]] and into an industrial economy. The government's Administration of Economic Development&nbsp;— today known as the [[Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company]] (PRIDCO)&nbsp;— encouraged the establishment of factories.  Following the Elective Governor Act of 1947 (also known as the Crawford-Butler Act),<ref>{{Cite web|title=Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, United Nations Affairs, Volume III - Office of the Historian|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1952-54v03/d902|access-date=2021-05-02|website=history.state.gov}}</ref> Muñoz was elected the first governor of Puerto Rico while under U.S. control, paving the way for the full establishment of Operation Bootstrap across the island.  According to Virginia Sanchez Korrol from the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Operation Bootstrap was based on 3 essential elements:

“1) industrialization by invitation: the inducement of American corporations to relocate in Puerto Rico in exchange for lucrative tax benefits;

(2)  a cheap labor pool, educated in the English language and under a U.S. imposed curriculum;

(3) proposed emigration of over a third of the island’s population, a security measure to insure the plan’s viability.”<ref name="centropr.hunter.cuny.edu">{{Cite web|title=History of Puerto Ricans In the US - PART FOUR {{!}} Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños|url=https://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/education/story-us-puerto-ricans-part-four#_ftn5|access-date=2021-05-02|website=centropr.hunter.cuny.edu}}</ref>

The US government in Puerto Rico enticed US companies by providing labor at costs below those on the mainland, access to US markets without import duties, and profits that could transfer to the mainland free from federal taxation. The Administration of Economic Development invited investment of external capital, importing the [[raw materials]], and exporting the finished products to the mainland. To entice participation, tax exemptions and differential rental rates were offered for industrial facilities. As a result, Puerto Rico's economy shifted labor from agriculture to manufacturing and [[tourism]]. The manufacturing sector has shifted from the original labor-intensive industries, such as the manufacturing of food, tobacco, leather, and apparel products, to more capital-intensive industries, such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, machinery, and electronics.<ref name="Parepin">{{cite web|url=http://www.ninwiki.com/Parepin|title=Bootstrapping|publisher=NiN|access-date=2010-07-15}}</ref> Through this project, a rural agricultural society was transformed into an industrial working class.<ref name = "Archive Dot Org">{{cite web
  | author = United States Department of Agriculture
  | author-link = United States Department of Agriculture
  | url = https://archive.org/details/Democrac1940
  | title = Democracy at Work in Rural Puerto Rico (ca. 1940s)
  | access-date = 2010-07-15
  | publisher = [[Prelinger Archives]]}}</ref>

Although initially touted as an economic miracle, by the 1960s, Operation Bootstrap was increasingly hampered by a growing [[unemployment]] problem.<ref name="National Endowment for the Humanities">{{cite web|url=http://www.enciclopediapr.org/esp/article.cfm?ref=06102003&page=3|title=Operación "Manos a la Obra" (1947): Industrialización y crecimiento |publisher=Fundación Puertorriqueña de las Humanidades & National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH.GOV)|access-date=2010-07-15}}</ref> As [[living standards]] and wages in Puerto Rico rose, manpower-intensive industries faced competition from outside the United States. It also faced criticism from civil rights groups and the [[Catholic Church]], who perceived the government promoting birth control, and engaging in [[compulsory sterilization|non-consensual surgical sterilization]]. American industrialists influenced by eugenicists policies were concerned with "overpopulation" and a perceived lack of self-control on the part of the working class Puerto Ricans.<ref name="Women">{{cite web|url=http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/modules/lesson16/lesson16.php?s=0|title=Women in World History|publisher=Center for History and New Media, George Mason University|access-date=2009-08-08}}</ref>

As of 2005 the continental United States remains Puerto Rico's major trading partner, received 86% of Puerto Rico's exports and providing 69% of its imports.<ref name="OB1948">{{cite web|url=http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa031698.htm|title=Operation Bootstrap|publisher=about.geography|access-date=2009-08-08|archive-date=2005-12-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051220155306/http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa031698.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>