New York in many ways is living off of past glories. There are two New Yorks... NYC and the rest of the state. The rest of New York is more like West Virginia.

New York in many ways is living off of past glories. There are two New Yorks... NYC and the rest of the state. The rest of New York is more like West Virginia. Read about places like Utica, Amsterdam, Jamestown and Binghamton. Buffalo is like Detriot -- 75% decline from its peak population. Even much-vaunted New York City is not as strong as it might appear at first glance. NYC in 2011 is a single-industry town... finance IS NYC. Even the feature that defined NY for centuries -- New York Harbor -- contributes almost nothing to the state, as the freight terminals fled overegulation to New Jersey (of all places) in the 1970's. 30-40 years ago, the city had a diversified mix of finance, manufacturing and service industries. There were over 10,000 manufacturing firms in the city in 1970. Now both the NY state and city are living off of a sole benefactor -- Wall St.