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>There was once a sense of collegiality among business and labour leaders fighting to rescue the city, he laments. “None of that exists now.” How is this anyth

>There was once a sense of collegiality among business and labour leaders fighting to rescue the city, he laments. “None of that exists now.” How is this anything other than the fault of the rich no longer “fighting to rescue the city”? They appear to just be victim blaming and complaining because there is pushback on wealth flowing upwards for decades. Moving to low tax hellholes won’t make their lives better, it’ll just keep driving the wedge of wealth inequality down further and make the rich have to install water filters and generators. It would be great news to New Yorkers since decreased demand from the rich would start making the city livable. If the rich aren’t giving to the local economy, they are only taking.

toolz 6y ago
Tax revenue has outpaced median wages by a long shot. I'm not sure I can relate to the argument that increased taxes is what is needed to close the wage gap as the tax collector's have done nothing to prove they will do any better than the rich at distributing wealth.
- danaris 6y ago
  The problem is not the amounts of the taxes: it is their distribution. Median real wages haven't grown much since the '70s. In that time, the income and wealth of the upper class has skyrocketed. If we need more tax revenue...but the middle class doesn't have more...maybe we should be getting that money from the people who do.
  - pc86 6y ago
    You're not responding to the GP's argument. They're saying that tax revenue has increased faster than median income, and this hasn't addressed income inequality at all. Why would taking more even faster do anything different? "If we need more tax revenue" isn't a foregone conclusion. It might be the answer but there's at least some evidence to the contrary.
thrownychuman 6y ago
"Low tax hellholes"? As opposed to high tax ones? Have you even been to Miami?
bluGill 6y ago
Low tax places are not "hellholes" despite your insults. They might have slightly less services, but in return you pay a lot less for them. The trade off is easy to make, particularly if most of the missing services are ones you don't personally use much.
- wishysgb 6y ago
  good bye.
- willis936 6y ago
  Just this week FL saw what happens in a regulation free hellscape. Companies don’t pay their share to society and the peasants eat it. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/state-of-emergency-over-florida-toxic-water-leak/ar-BB1fhA4c https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/state-of-emergency-over... Good thing places like TX keep taxes down and regulations away, they wouldn’t want electricity to be treated as a utility, would they?
wishysgb 6y ago
exactly good riddance.
csomar 6y ago
The rich are already contributing a significant percentage of the city's revenue. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26710993 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26710993 In my opinion, you can't ask them for more. If they are able to move to Florida and still run their business, then the value of their business is not derived from NY but rather from external sources. In this case, these are people bringing wealth from outside to the city. The problem, probably, is mismanagement of the raised revenue. If it is too much money, there will be lots of predators. Sometimes you have to burn everything to realize what you had and start from the ground. People (rich or poor) clearly like NYC more than Miami but it seems with the current governance, the city has to reset itself every once in a while.
Chris2048 6y ago
> It would be great news to New Yorkers since decreased demand from the rich would start making the city livable What kind of demands from the rich do the think affect "livability"? To give two examples - homelessness and the poor state of the MTA - how will fewer rich people help there?

toolz 6y ago

Tax revenue has outpaced median wages by a long shot. I'm not sure I can relate to the argument that increased taxes is what is needed to close the wage gap as the tax collector's have done nothing to prove they will do any better than the rich at distributing wealth.

danaris 6y ago
The problem is not the amounts of the taxes: it is their distribution. Median real wages haven't grown much since the '70s. In that time, the income and wealth of the upper class has skyrocketed. If we need more tax revenue...but the middle class doesn't have more...maybe we should be getting that money from the people who do.
- pc86 6y ago
  You're not responding to the GP's argument. They're saying that tax revenue has increased faster than median income, and this hasn't addressed income inequality at all. Why would taking more even faster do anything different? "If we need more tax revenue" isn't a foregone conclusion. It might be the answer but there's at least some evidence to the contrary.

thrownychuman 6y ago

"Low tax hellholes"? As opposed to high tax ones? Have you even been to Miami?

bluGill 6y ago

Low tax places are not "hellholes" despite your insults. They might have slightly less services, but in return you pay a lot less for them. The trade off is easy to make, particularly if most of the missing services are ones you don't personally use much.

wishysgb 6y ago
good bye.
willis936 6y ago
Just this week FL saw what happens in a regulation free hellscape. Companies don’t pay their share to society and the peasants eat it. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/state-of-emergency-over-florida-toxic-water-leak/ar-BB1fhA4c https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/state-of-emergency-over... Good thing places like TX keep taxes down and regulations away, they wouldn’t want electricity to be treated as a utility, would they?

wishysgb 6y ago

exactly good riddance.

csomar 6y ago

The rich are already contributing a significant percentage of the city's revenue. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26710993 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26710993 In my opinion, you can't ask them for more. If they are able to move to Florida and still run their business, then the value of their business is not derived from NY but rather from external sources. In this case, these are people bringing wealth from outside to the city. The problem, probably, is mismanagement of the raised revenue. If it is too much money, there will be lots of predators. Sometimes you have to burn everything to realize what you had and start from the ground. People (rich or poor) clearly like NYC more than Miami but it seems with the current governance, the city has to reset itself every once in a while.

Chris2048 6y ago

> It would be great news to New Yorkers since decreased demand from the rich would start making the city livable What kind of demands from the rich do the think affect "livability"? To give two examples - homelessness and the poor state of the MTA - how will fewer rich people help there?