3 ms·

While this is definitely a clusterfuck, I also think it's worthwhile to ask why commuting to Manhattan doubles one's salary. Does the same work really have 3X t

by api 9y ago

While this is definitely a clusterfuck, I also think it's worthwhile to ask why commuting to Manhattan doubles one's salary. Does the same work really have 3X the value when performed across a river? The super-concentration of wealth and opportunity in a tiny number of very small locales is the real problem. I have a sense that it's gotten a lot worse over the last 1-2 decades, though I'd be curious to see real numbers. Even if we do build a new tunnel here it still remains a very small single point of failure. If Manhattan is US Economy HQ then a hurricane, engineering failure, or terrorist attack could destroy the economy of the entire country. Wouldn't it be better and more "antifragile" to geographically diversify? Why can't we do this? Why is this so hard?

skybrian 9y ago
Moving a business to New Jersey would mean a lot of people would have longer commutes from the other side of the city, through the same tunnels. There's no perfect location; it's all tradeoffs.
- toomuchtodo 9y ago
  If you don't have to do your work in person, at a specific location with your hands and feet, you can work remotely. If you're a business, and demand your worker be there in person, pay up.
  - JumpCrisscross 9y ago
    > If you're a business, and demand your worker be there in person, pay up Hence why wages are 3x higher on one side of the river versus the other.
    - toomuchtodo 9y ago
      > Hence why wages are 3x higher on one side of the river versus the other. Not the workers. Taxes for infrastructure. Although, I suppose you can extract that out of wages through transport fees.
formergs 9y ago
That graph was a little surprising as well, but I'm assuming that it's taking the average of all-NJ wages instead of the NJ-NY metropolitan area. Furthermore, it's comparing to Manhattan and not NYC. So a bit of apples to oranges when comparing an entire state (including gems like Camden) to the richest borough of the richest city in the country.
JumpCrisscross 9y ago
> why commuting to Manhattan doubles one's salary "Mr Glaeser, a Harvard economist who grew up in Manhattan...calls cities 'our species' greatest invention': proximity makes people more inventive, as bright minds feed off one another; more productive, as scale gives rise to finer degrees of specialisation; and kinder to the planet, as city-dwellers are more likely to go by foot, bus or train than the car-slaves of suburbia and the sticks." TL; DR People become more productive in cities. That translates to higher wages. https://www.economist.com/node/18111592 https://www.economist.com/node/18111592
- api 9y ago
  There are dozens of large cities all across America and hundreds of smaller ones.

by api 9y ago

skybrian 9y ago

Moving a business to New Jersey would mean a lot of people would have longer commutes from the other side of the city, through the same tunnels. There's no perfect location; it's all tradeoffs.

toomuchtodo 9y ago
If you don't have to do your work in person, at a specific location with your hands and feet, you can work remotely. If you're a business, and demand your worker be there in person, pay up.
- JumpCrisscross 9y ago
  > If you're a business, and demand your worker be there in person, pay up Hence why wages are 3x higher on one side of the river versus the other.
  - toomuchtodo 9y ago
    > Hence why wages are 3x higher on one side of the river versus the other. Not the workers. Taxes for infrastructure. Although, I suppose you can extract that out of wages through transport fees.

formergs 9y ago

That graph was a little surprising as well, but I'm assuming that it's taking the average of all-NJ wages instead of the NJ-NY metropolitan area. Furthermore, it's comparing to Manhattan and not NYC. So a bit of apples to oranges when comparing an entire state (including gems like Camden) to the richest borough of the richest city in the country.

JumpCrisscross 9y ago

> why commuting to Manhattan doubles one's salary "Mr Glaeser, a Harvard economist who grew up in Manhattan...calls cities 'our species' greatest invention': proximity makes people more inventive, as bright minds feed off one another; more productive, as scale gives rise to finer degrees of specialisation; and kinder to the planet, as city-dwellers are more likely to go by foot, bus or train than the car-slaves of suburbia and the sticks." TL; DR People become more productive in cities. That translates to higher wages. https://www.economist.com/node/18111592 https://www.economist.com/node/18111592

api 9y ago
There are dozens of large cities all across America and hundreds of smaller ones.