Amen! I was born and raised in NYC in the late 50’s. Unfortunately, NY’ers have been conditioned by handouts and politician handouts mostly by Democrats. Now they are electing AOC on steroids. Socialism and communism never works. They think it failed in the past because they didn’t implement their way.
As Maggie Thatcher famously said: Socialism is great until you run out of other peoples money". That sums up the collective West. Meanwhile AOC is living the high life by scamming people with socialism. She will probably leave Congress as a multi-millionaire and I bet she will not give that money to poor deserving New Yorkers.
I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away
I went down to the sacred store
Where I’d heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn’t play
And in the streets, the children screamed
The lovers cried and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken
And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died
-Don
When the “American Dream” system stops working for most people, what do you expect? If people can’t earn a decent life, they will vote to take it. I’m not saying it’s right, just inevitable. But it also isn’t right to consign most young people to a low grade life unless they inherit a million or hit the jackpot as a Youtube influencer or Bincoin hustler.
Problem is, it will be our money that gets stolen. Not the billions of the rich people and bankers who created the problems.
This will be interesting times. As you suggest NYC has built is troubles… wealth sitting and buildings gaining value (one could say undeservedly) way faster than any CPI metric… thus people are poor with 150k yearly income to pay rent. One question is why not move businesses? So far many have, yet they have some sort of longing to NYC still.
Another view is how each nation, empire, town has its cycles. NYC is in that past peak…
One joker card is unholy alliance of islamism and leftism. Leftism alone is what america can handle and has… Detroit is one example, red to blue and back again swings are part of same hundred year + cycles.
However I dont think islamism, especially as it could be used for extremism trojan horse (manchurian candidate Mamdani), is something america has ever seen. At some point high priestess/imams somewhere in world figured sword wasnt working and devised new plans to take over world.
I saw some street interviews from NYC. Those who have nice stable life and are liberal leaning, perhaps late 40s or late 50s, dont realize danger of Mamdani and liberal/heavily socialist policies.
You’ll notice that the only borough that consistently votes conservative is Staten Island and that’s the last borough that has a significant middle class hanging on by a thread. And let’s face it, Staten Island is really New Jersey. Everywhere else you’re either very rich, very poor, or making $150k but living like you’re poor. There’s no place left for regular workers to live. So Mamdani was no surprise here.
That’s what happens when politicians create endless handouts and promises to get votes because someone has to pay to keep it going. We have entered the snake eating its own tail territory. The ones who are overburdened are the ones who these handouts and promises were made for.
There isn’t an economic system that is perfect. Even back in the days of Moses and Abraham, the Bible acknowledges there were people who were well off and those, not so fortunate.
I grew up at a time where a factory worker could support three children and mom stayed home to take care of the kids and still have enough to buy a used car. That was my experience growing up in NYC.
The problem is now everyone wants brand new cars every year, boats and 4 wheelers, the latest electronics, multiple vacations to disney world, subscriptions to everything, $200k in student loans for degrees in underwater basket weaving, etc. people have gotten themselves into the situation where both people must work to get by. Our society has encouraged rampant consumerism. This is the result. People think the NEED all this stuff to be happy. Over leveraged people working like slaves to pay off debt but then the next new thing comes along that they just have to have…
That is the economic system politicians have created. Then you have advertisements on TV brainwashing people as to why they need this year’s latest gadget when a similar gadget they purchased several years ago, still works fine.
Transportation cars today look pretty much the same regardless of price, that even applies to some very expensive cars. They have what I refer to as the sneaker predicament where they look fashionable and in a couple of years people trade them in because of the newer look.
Companies design and make stuff that intentionally breaks on purpose so as to keep the economic system going. You can’t fix stuff anymore cause they don’t make parts available and it cost more to fix it than to buy another one. Yeah, Let’s Save the Planet!
My first apartment in Brooklyn was as a one bedroom fourth floor walk-up. The rent was $180/month including heat and hot water. I took that much home in a week. At that time I had to choose either living in a borough or stepping over junkies in the hallway on Rivington Street. I’m an only child - I don’t live with roommates.
