I lived in New York City for 50 years. It has always considered its people to be spoiled rich kids in the candy store, with Wall Street as everyone's rich Dad. It maintained budgets that would dwarf those of some entire countries, with the hubris of assuming that the financial center of the world would always be in its backyard. But in today's online age, much of that work can relocate to where it's cheaper to operate, and some already has.
Decades ago, the first generation of social welfare enthusiasts were certainly pie-in-the-sky idealists, but the ensuing generations have evolved into agenda driven opportunists. New York City will likely have to completely crash again before it comes back to its senses, much like cities like San Francisco are taking their first baby steps toward doing.
Few people know who Bill E. Simon was in any context. Suffice it to say, he became the U.S. Secretary of Treasury under Nixon and Ford. He wrote a brilliant book, A Time For Truth, which was a clarion call for our country and put us on notice that we were headed for bankruptcy (as we surely are today). In making his case he give one of the best analysis of NYC’s financial crisis (see Chapter V—New York: Disaster in Microcosm).
“In 1975 New York City collapsed financially. The catastrophe was not a result of the recession. Nor was it a result the energy crisis. However severe the economic difficulties of the period, no other great American city collapsed. It was a problem unique to New York—but unique in only one sense. The philosophy that has ruled our nation for forty years had emerged in large measure from that very city which was America's intellectual headquarters, and inevitably, it was carried to its fullest expression in that city. In the collapse of New York those who chose to understand it could see a terrifying dress rehearsal of the fate that lies ahead for this country if it continues to be guided by the same philosophy of government.”
What philosophy of government is that: the aristocracy of pull and unions—The bureaucratic state and public unions
“Stop asking the government for "free" goods and services, however desirable and necessary they may seem to be. They are not free. They are simply extracted from the hide of your neighbors—and can be extracted only by force. If you would not confront your neighbor and demand his money at the point of a gun to solve every new problem that may appear in your life, you should not allow the government to do it for you. Be prepared to identify any politician who simultaneously demands your "sacrifices" and offers you "free services" for exactly what he is: an egalitarian demagogue. This one insight understood, this one discipline acted upon and taught by millions of Americans to others could do more to further freedom in American life than any other.”
Great line: "If you would not confront your neighbor and demand his money at the point of a gun to solve every new problem that may appear in your life, you should not allow the government to do it for you."
Unfortunately it's even worse up in Canada. Everything must be free or you hate (fill in the blank here).
NYC is truly a microcosm of uniparty consensus on uninterrupted US fiscal incontinence. Perhaps the TDS of NY includes the delusion of Trump being fiscally responsible and thus more despised by the Jacobins and Bolsheviks of the leftist in-crowd. This could also explain the imminent and likely election of their version of Justin Trudeau as Mayor. 'Choosing the form of your destroyer' is more than a line from the film Ghostbusters, it's the mantra for end-stage democracy all over the western world.
I lived in New York City for 50 years. It has always considered its people to be spoiled rich kids in the candy store, with Wall Street as everyone's rich Dad. It maintained budgets that would dwarf those of some entire countries, with the hubris of assuming that the financial center of the world would always be in its backyard. But in today's online age, much of that work can relocate to where it's cheaper to operate, and some already has.
Decades ago, the first generation of social welfare enthusiasts were certainly pie-in-the-sky idealists, but the ensuing generations have evolved into agenda driven opportunists. New York City will likely have to completely crash again before it comes back to its senses, much like cities like San Francisco are taking their first baby steps toward doing.
ZL
It seems the only way through "The Great Forgetting" is for some places to relearn the old lessons the hard way.
I don't live in NYC so am happy for it to show the world what socialism can do to a great city.
NYC is the Canary in the Coal Mine
Few people know who Bill E. Simon was in any context. Suffice it to say, he became the U.S. Secretary of Treasury under Nixon and Ford. He wrote a brilliant book, A Time For Truth, which was a clarion call for our country and put us on notice that we were headed for bankruptcy (as we surely are today). In making his case he give one of the best analysis of NYC’s financial crisis (see Chapter V—New York: Disaster in Microcosm).
“In 1975 New York City collapsed financially. The catastrophe was not a result of the recession. Nor was it a result the energy crisis. However severe the economic difficulties of the period, no other great American city collapsed. It was a problem unique to New York—but unique in only one sense. The philosophy that has ruled our nation for forty years had emerged in large measure from that very city which was America's intellectual headquarters, and inevitably, it was carried to its fullest expression in that city. In the collapse of New York those who chose to understand it could see a terrifying dress rehearsal of the fate that lies ahead for this country if it continues to be guided by the same philosophy of government.”
What philosophy of government is that: the aristocracy of pull and unions—The bureaucratic state and public unions
“Stop asking the government for "free" goods and services, however desirable and necessary they may seem to be. They are not free. They are simply extracted from the hide of your neighbors—and can be extracted only by force. If you would not confront your neighbor and demand his money at the point of a gun to solve every new problem that may appear in your life, you should not allow the government to do it for you. Be prepared to identify any politician who simultaneously demands your "sacrifices" and offers you "free services" for exactly what he is: an egalitarian demagogue. This one insight understood, this one discipline acted upon and taught by millions of Americans to others could do more to further freedom in American life than any other.”
Great line: "If you would not confront your neighbor and demand his money at the point of a gun to solve every new problem that may appear in your life, you should not allow the government to do it for you."
Unfortunately it's even worse up in Canada. Everything must be free or you hate (fill in the blank here).
NYC is truly a microcosm of uniparty consensus on uninterrupted US fiscal incontinence. Perhaps the TDS of NY includes the delusion of Trump being fiscally responsible and thus more despised by the Jacobins and Bolsheviks of the leftist in-crowd. This could also explain the imminent and likely election of their version of Justin Trudeau as Mayor. 'Choosing the form of your destroyer' is more than a line from the film Ghostbusters, it's the mantra for end-stage democracy all over the western world.
That's a little pessimistic even for me John.
I think democracy has many many more years in it. Which isn't to say we don't live in troubling times.
Thanks for reading!