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Thingish Things

Two Sides of the Coin

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - May• 24•11

*City Journal

It’s not often that a Manhattan Institute scholar quotes a Drum Major Institute (DMI) report.  But there was Fred Siegel, a longtime contributor to conservative Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, citing material just issued by the ultra-liberal DMI in today’s New York Post.

The DMI report warns that the only significant job growth in New York City — 80% of it — is occurring in the lowest paying industries — retail, hospitality, and the food services.  Siegel warns that middle-income jobs, and the people who hold them, are fleeing all areas of New York State because of high taxes, the scarcity of jobs, and the high cost of living here.

Taken together, that spells bad news for New York’s future, with an “hourglass” economy emerging – one featuring jobs only for the richest and poorest — Siegel and the DMI agree.

This is not news to most New Yorkers.  It is why the state has led the nation in outmigration for two decades.  Tens of thousands of New York families leave the state every year for easier lifestyles offered elsewhere.  They are being replaced by poor immigrants who consume more public services, adding to the burden of middle-class taxpayers remaining here. That’s not a good dynamic.

It’s no surprise then that, according to a Marist Poll cited in Siegel’s piece, 36% of New Yorkers under the age of 30 plan to leave the state within the next five years.  They do not have the opportunities here their parents did. In parts of upstate and western New York, there is virtually no opportunity left at all.

It’s too bad that the Left and the Right have such radically divergent prescriptions to save New York State. Because both sides see exactly what is happening. We all do.

 

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3 Comments

  1. Your Friend says:

    I wasn’t aware that either side had a prescription. A bunch of half-baked, politically motivated plans hardly constitute a prescription.

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