Friday, January 18, 2013

New York City Leads the Nation in Income Inequality


In bluer-than-blue New York City redistributionist policies have aggravated the division between the rich and the rest.

Michael Bloomberg’s New York City currently leads the nation in “income distribution inequality.”

The result: the high cost of living has caused more and more New Yorkers to cut back on food.

No one, to our knowledge, is starving, but many New Yorkers have chosen to buy cheaper, less nourishing foods because they cannot afford the healthier alternatives.

Ironically, Mayor Bloomberg’s much vaunted campaigns against trans-fats and Big Gulps has missed the more salient point: for many New Yorkers eating well is too expensive.

The Daily News tells the story:

For instance, between 2011 and 2012, the percentage of households with annual income below $25,000 that had trouble affording food increased a whopping 30%, though the total number of city residents who reported difficulty affording food in the same time period actually decreased by 9%.

No less serious is that, according to the Food Bank, “low income families are making the difficult decision to reduce the nutritional quality of their meals by purchasing less expensive and unhealthy foods in order to afford the mandatory expenses that would keep a roof over their heads.”

The Daily News suggests that the city should provide: “decent-paying jobs and opportunities to its most vulnerable citizens….”

If it is saying that the city government should lower taxes and reduce regulations so that more businesses will want to locate in New York, we would all concur.

Of course, it isn’t going to happen. Blue state policies prefer income redistribution to job opportunity. In principle, these policies punish the rich.

The latest data suggest that the poor are the ones who are really being punished.

Since New York has a large number of low and lower-middle income people one assumes that they have voted in large numbers for the politicians who are making their lives miserable. Call it social justice, if you like. 

But, what if there was a way to provide more nutritious food at lower prices? What if providing nutritious food at lower prices would also entail giving jobs to thousands of New Yorkers?

Surely, the possibility would be worth looking into.

Unfortunately, the one organization that can actually provide what New Yorkers need, in terms of nutrition and in terms of employment is: WalMart.

But New York’s city government will never let WalMart come in to hire and to feed New Yorkers. The unions that own it would never let that happen.

9 comments:

DeNihilist said...

Are you saying that if I visited NY, I would not find a Walmart? If so, scrub that city from my Bucketlist!

Stuart Schneiderman said...

That is the harsh truth. We console ourselves with Costco.

Kristi said...

Yes, Stuart, you are right about Walmart. They have great prices on all their food, including fruit and vegetables. In my area, St. Petersburg, Fl., two Walmarts opened in depressed areas. Between the new jobs and the new redevelopment (other businesses wanted to open near Walmart to capitalize on the increased traffic), Walmart accomplished more urban renewal in 5 years than all of St. Petersburg did in 20 with millions of taxpayer money. And, yet, Walmart is still the evil empire to some.

Stuart Schneiderman said...

Thanks, Kristi, for providing a concrete example of what Walmart can do for a community. I was shocked to see that the recent report about hunger in New York did not make mention of Walmart as a solution.

Sam L. said...

Costco is good, but the quantities can be too much for the lower economic classes, not to mention the membership fee.

Shocked, Stuart? That Walmart is unacceptable to Mayor Bloomie and all those high-toned highly-and-expensively-educated folks at the NYT? Come on--it's just too, too low-class for them. They are for the poor, but only at a great distance.

Anonymous said...

The anointed do not mingle with the proletariat whose interests they claim to speak for. Any business ending with "-mart" is surely beneath them.

Sam L. said...

Only the great unwashed go to Walmart. Can't have "that kind" in NYC, now can they?

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Dennis said...

What I cannot understand, and find interesting, is that we are told that we cannot know what it is to be black, hispanic, a woman, you fill in the blank and then the very same people adhere to the idea that only they know what is good for everybody.
Ah, the perfect example of the "blue model" in action. It NEVER really does care for those in poverty. What better way to demonstrate the need for more taxes than by starving people and then, at the first opportunity, using them as political pawns.
New York, and most "blue mode" cities did the same thing with housing, children, et al.
One wonders if a dumbed down citizenry finally figures it out before they become the permanent underclass. When you hear them talk about two Americas what you are really hearing is their plan of TWO Americas.
NOTE: My wife and I go to Walmart regularly even though we can well afford to shop elsewhere. Why spend more money on the very same things when you don't have to do it. Besides the fact that one gets to meet al kinds of different people, who in most cases, are just trying to live their lives the best they can and are decent people.
Think one is better, smarter, more educated than others is the first step toward becoming evil.