November 14, 2025
Here is how the Socialist/Communist has it all wrong.
Let’s take a complicated set of issues and simplify them into examples that should make it easier to understand. Understand why the ZM approach is wrong.
Let’s try a few things.
Let’s assume you buy a house and it turns out you can’t afford the mortgage. Should you then go to your relatives and neighbors and ask them to subsidize the mortgage so you can stay?
That is what he proposes in regard to the rent. Freeze it, get other people to subsidize the expense. Of course, that will dry up a lot of money for new construction…if you limit the return to the investor, they’re not smiling.
And worse, what if you take a job that will never allow you to afford the house? $50,000 salary, $70,000 cost of living = A bad situation.
But that is precisely what can happen in NYC. Working class jobs, thinking service workers mostly, can’t make ends meet. The jobs just don’t pay enough.
I wonder if ZM thinks about the fact that if he subsidizes the life of these workers, if he isn’t actually subsidizing the lifestyle of the wealthy? The very people he hates.
I want my restaurants and when I eat out, I don’t want to pay too much for the experience. And I don’t because that labor is supplied at (pick your number) $30,000/year. But that worker can’t live on that, so ZM wants to grab the money from the wealthy to create a kind of artificial $50,000 paycheck, if you follow that…$30,000 + $20,000 in various subsidies…the rent, the bus, childcare…
Well, now the line cook can afford to live and work in NYC. And I can have my subsidized meals; the price being kept down by subsidies to the workers.
And what will be the upshot? The line cook will tell his brother that things are pretty good and maybe he should move from wherever to NYC and participate in those subsidies. Thus, the demand for more and more subsidies increases, the cost goes up.
It is in part why Socialism/Communism fails. Because the laws of supply and demand will not be denied. Full stop.
What is needed is this:
We need to pay people a living wage that allows them to work and build a life. But we are clearly at the point where the cost of living in places like NYC has outstripped the economics of the compensation at the low end. They can’t afford to live there, plain and simple.
The glory of Economics 101: If people can’t afford to hold the job, they abandon the job for something else, or they move to a place that is more affordable and doesn’t break that paycheck. If they are free.
Thus, the supply of labor is reduced. And when you reduce supply, and assuming demand is constant, the cost of labor will rise. So instead of making these people economic dependents, beholden to the politician, we turn them into active economic agents. You want me to wash dishes, you need to pay me $50,000 because otherwise, I can’t stay.
And then, the cost of the meal goes up. I’m fine with that. And depending on the math, some restaurants will close, and others will open but no one will need to fiddle with it…the free market will find the proper equilibrium.
I picked Nashville as a city to compare to New York City. I picked it because it is a real city (not a small village somewhere), with major league sports and a population of 1.4 million. Vibrant entertainment industry, like NYC and so forth.
So, we start with this:
Nashville’s cost of living is approximately 40-44% lower than New York City. Salary.com
Rent for a one-bedroom apartment averages $1,800 in Nashville versus $3,200+ in NYC.
Dining and groceries are approximately 30-40% cheaper in Nashville.
Employers in Nashville typically pay 18-24% less than employers in New York for the same type of job. Salary.com
Nashville’s median salary ranges from $56,550 to $67,024. Gusto
New York City’s median salary is approximately. $73,950.
Bottom line:
The average after-tax salary covers living expenses for 1.8 months in Nashville compared to only 1.3 months in New York City. Livingcost.org
So ZM and his type are basically trying to pay for that 0.5-month differential by vilifying people with money, attempting to take it from them.
I don’t know about you, but I would be moving to Nashville where I can afford to live. But politicians would never, ever tell people to do that! First, it is their voter who is their job security (make them dependent on you and they will re-elect you). Second, you can just hear the thunder: We will NEVER give up on our City! THEY have no ideas and no vision!!!
New York City is now unaffordable for many of those workers who make it go…the butlers, doormen, dish washers, cleaners, clerks and on and on. The solution is not to continue the status quo and try to paper it over with OPM, because as Margaret said, you eventually run out of OPM.
The Governor of New York has already shown a reluctance to raise taxes on the state which is where the major tax increase has to come from…should people in Rochester subsidize my meal in Manhattan?
The real answer is to stop lying to people and to begin to tell them the truth…the place is too expensive for too many people. Ironically, ZM was elected by saying that. But then you have to further tell them that trying to grab the money from other people is a dead end. That’s where it disconnects. The idea of the mega center city, wherein workers flood in from less costly areas to work, and then depart at night, is broken. Herding them into low-cost public housing projects hardly creates a real life to live. We all know this.
That’s in part why I believe the entire model is broken and needs to be replaced. Just wait until AI balloons joblessness.
No, I don’t have the solutions. I’m not a city planner; I’m not expert in transportation systems and all of that. Cutting taxes won’t help because those at the lower quintiles don’t pay any meaningful income taxes. Certainly, red tape, faceless government bureaucrats waiving forms to be completed, handouts to unions, all of that contributes.
But you know, beggaring unions is no solution. They provide valuable services and are the bedrock of the blue-collar middle class. People should be free to join unions, but they should also be free not to join. Perhaps that needs to be examined.
It is ironic to me: Everyone talks about the exodus of the rich from New York to my state of Florida. But I think the real story might be what has been happening without really gathering any media mention. Here you go:
“Working class people have been leaving New York at significantly higher rates than wealthy residents over the past three to five years. In typical non-COVID years, the average New Yorker has been about four times more likely to leave the state than the top 1% of earners.” Fiscal Policy Institute
And where does that come from?
“Working-class New Yorkers are leaving at significantly higher rates than wealthy residents. Research shows that 90% of New York state’s population loss comes from New York City, with Black and Hispanic residents, households with young children, and low- to middle-income families most likely to leave.”
The tragedy can be averted, but it won’t be easy. The Governor will have to duke it out with the mayor, for starters.
Soul of the Democratic Party is now a moving target.
Just ask Chuck Schumer today.
Thoughts, questions, or reflections? I’d love to hear them. You can reach me anytime at anthony@workingprofit.com
