You can try to break it down, but the fact is in NYC the quantity of labor is a union-negotiated (and demanded) problem. The NYTimes did a detailed article on

You can try to break it down, but the fact is in NYC the quantity of labor is a union-negotiated (and demanded) problem. The NYTimes did a detailed article on this a couple years ago, with a focus on the NY subway expansion: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-construction-costs.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-.... There's no escaping that the overstaffing was a political boon to a union. _Why_ NY construction unions are so much worse than Scandinavian unions is a whole different question. But it's not really deniable that the public-union interaction in big cities here is incredibly extractive and antagonistic, and that drives up costs.