I hear from people who know him he’s actually quite bright. Which means that he probably understand the consequences of this:
In a surprise move, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has submitted his proposal to limit local property taxes to the State Senate for a vote on Monday, a tactic that seems designed to isolate Democratic lawmakers in the Assembly who have qualms about the measure…
… The bill did not include any proposal for reducing costs or liberating municipalities and school districts from state mandates, elements that even some supporters said were critical to ensuring that a cap did not bankrupt local governments.
Needless to say, municipalities are already under great fiscal pressure. This, along with Cuomo’s stated goal to attack public sector unions, is simply another part of the attack on government which actually helps people. Starve the beast, cause a fiscal crisis, and voila, end of government programs. Note also that this will make the education problem worse, and access to good education even more uneven.
People like Cuomo aren’t the problem, though, the fact that Democrats nominate people like him and voters elect them as the lesser evil, that is the problem. Cuomo’s job is to make sure that the people who hollowed out the US economy and caused the financial crash don’t pay the price of their evil, but in fact stay in charge of society despite causing a Depression and being bankrupt (but we’ll all pretend they aren’t, so it doesn’t count.)
This, this is why America is going down. Because Americans keep electing people like Andrew Cuomo and Barack Obama. Earn your money while you can, folks, ’cause your leaders are determined to crash out the economy. And if oil prices don’t stop increasing, you won’t even have a year, you’ll have six months before the next downturn.
guest
“Earn your money while you can, folks, ’cause your leaders are determined to crash out the economy.”
You can’t eat money though. That’s the problem when things crash. You don’t know which part of the wall or ceiling will come down on you, or which part of the floor will give way under you. Will dollars become worthless, or worth much less? Will the banks fail and deposit insurance run out? (if you had money in a failed S&L in the 80s, you eventually got made whole, more or less, but it often meant many months without any access to savings you depended on. maybe they have improved the process by now. my family’s experience was with one of the first to fail in Maryland) Or is it better to own hard assets? Which income producing assets with retain worth and which investments will go belly up. If you’re rich, you can be diversified enough so it doesn’t matter. They may lose money, but they will still have as much or more of the total, percentage-wise. The rest of us will be playing a game musical chairs for the foreseeable future, where the losers lose their livelihoods, and the strongest and most comfortable chairs get removed first, leaving the smaller and more wobbly ones each round).
Back on thread, the motives you ascribe seem like Obamite motives. I don’t know enough about Cuomo, but this reeks of desperation. I mean, is this guy selling bipartisan pablum too? I thought he was more of a fighter than that. My guess is this is a last ditch effort to prevent real estate values from collapsing, something akin to the home buyers credits.
And he is preventing districts and municipalities from “liberating” themselves from mandates. That could be good or bad, (I’m hoping those mandates are good things like paying pensions and not things like no child left behind)
I don’t know that this story is *that* indicting of Cuomo. Definitely a bad sign about something. Just not sure if it’s a bad sign about him, or a looming crisis he’s trying to forestall for a few more months or a couple more years.
guest
To clarify my ramblings: I think if you raise R/E taxes, that will definitely drag down prices somewhat, possibly enough to be self defeating if the price declines gain enough momentum.
Just look at high r/e tax Texas (@3%/year) versus California (@1% or less/year). Then compare their bubbles. Texas could never take off like California because your taxes could not be deferred like interest payments on some of those more creative loans. I’m all in favor of Texas size R/E tax rates (but they need income taxes too), I just think this may not be the best time to adopt them.
I certainly don’t want to defend Cuomo without knowing enough about him one way or the other. But if he follows this up with some other way to tax the real wealth out there, or this at least forces the hand of others to do so without him coming out and saying it, he might have some saving qualities.
jcapan
“This, this is why America is going down. Because Americans keep electing people like Andrew Cuomo and Barack Obama”
As opposed to the fabulously funded authentic liberal candidates who regularly appear on their ballots and telly? You know, with the capacity and soapbox to breathe new life into long dormant liberal narratives about who took a crap on the American dream, all the while profiting wildly from the endeavor?
Sorry, Ian, but this is a bit much to take from a guy who felt that Hillary would be an acceptable choice in the primary Obama movement (i.e. the Suleiman to his Mubarak?) Americans don’t have a fucking choice in the matter. The fact that their schools are rubbish (except for elites) or that their media = oligarchy pravda doesn’t help matters.
When the left recovers from the echo of Yes, We Can and the vacuous self absorption that was the Stewart/Colbert show, perhaps they’ll build a movement designed to wage warfare on the duopoly. Until that time, they have no business calling out the “American street.” A left that tells them to work within the current system, to go ahead, try to elect new/better democrats is delusional and ultimately complicit in this downward spiral.
Ian Welsh
Well, if you have no choice, bend over and grab your ankles, eh. That’s your choice.
I have no particular mandate for Clinton, my calculus is that defeating Obama is necessary, because if he wins another term, then you get a teabagger, there’s nothing worth saving left. If Hilary can wound Hilary enough in a primary that he loses, I’m cool with that. Because moving the teabagger forward is good, not bad, unless you’re trying to win the death bet. Sure, he or she’ll be worse in the short run, but might as well get it over with.
And yeah, actually, I think this part of the left can call out American citizens. Hell, I think anyone can call them out. They’ve let this happen with decades of votes. Over and over again they voted for it. Sure, the oligarchy has kept them in the dark and fed them shit, but this has been a slow boiled frog. There reelected Reagan, for example. They wanted to “feel good” about themselves, rather than be adults.
Hell, even Dems won’t vote for liberals. Obama was, objectively, the rightmost candidate in the field (yes, even more than Hillary). Kerry/Edwards were, in 2004, the rightmost of the big 4 candidates.
As a group, Americans are getting what they asked for, what they voted for, over and over and over again. Hope they enjoy the tax cuts. Yeah, the “left” failed, but just like politicians failing you, at the end of the day, you get the left you support, and the people who support the left support single issue groups, wimps and followers (people who follow the crowd and call it leading) — that’s the left they’re willing to fund. That’s the left they got.
And with over 50% of Americans approving of torture, it’s hard for me to get too worked up about it, honestly.
jcapan
“And with over 50% of Americans approving of torture, it’s hard for me to get too worked up about it, honestly.”
Kind of hard to believe given your long history as a blogger deeply committed to the fight. Not to mention the fact that you’re not stupid. 300 million fucking Americans Ian. What about the other 50%?
Who is the left calling out, BTW? Who does the left reach, other than [their peers]? The historical left that’s been effective, all over the world, has lived and worked among the dirty rabble. Even if they were listening to this closed discourse, preaching to them, lecturing them about their ignorance and selfishness gets you where exactly? Is that how you get a guy to join a union or a movement?
Celsius 233
I’d say this right/left crap has about run us to ground! I’d say it’s time to get down and selfish; find people, anyfuckingbody, who at least shares your core values: screw abortion/gun control/glen beck/rush limbaugh/Islamaphobia/and anything else that doesn’t put food on your table; your kids in a school; medical coverage at reasonable cost; and a roof over your heads.
Time to grow up or shut up!.
Celsius 233
Addendum: What the Egyptian people are doing should shame us whiners immensely.
Mandos
Celsius233: You’re basically asking other groups to let their issues be thrown under the bus for the economic ones. So, who is going to volunteer first?
madisolation
Yes, if nothing else, the Egyptians should have shown us that it doesn’t matter what your neighbor’s views are. If we stand side by side and take to the streets against the corrupt Obama/Bush/Clinton government, who cares if the person standing next to you is a member of the Tea Party or a Communist? Warm bodies are what we need. And no t.v. to lull us to sleep.
When things go completely downhill, people will reach a breaking point. I wish it didn’t have to come down to that, but that’s the way it’s going to be.
Morocco Bama
Celsius233: You’re basically asking other groups to let their issues be thrown under the bus for the economic ones. So, who is going to volunteer first?
Everything is under the bus as we speak. It’s just that we’re in collective shock and haven’t recognized that our limbs and torso have been partially crushed by the front wheels and the back wheels are coming on hard and fast to finish the job. The problem is, the materialistic Americans never saw the bus coming….they were too busy thinking about what they just bought at the store, and what they were going to buy at the next store across the street. Then, WHACK!!! Gone in 60 seconds……but it feels like a lifetime.
Morocco Bama
I wish it didn’t have to come down to that, but that’s the way it’s going to be.
Sounds fair enough, but Americans are not Egyptians. Until the Bread & Circuses disappear, there will be no revolt, and certainly no solidarity….which is essential for a successful revolt and overthrow.
Also, I agree with guest. Make your money now is a meaningless gesture when money will soon enough have no value. Your effort will have been in vain. Not to mention, I loath all the “concerned” “progressives/liberals” who are invested to the hilt in the filthy, dirty scumbaggery that is the “Market.” That Market that the do-gooders are invested in in the very backbone of the wrath of destruction that is being visited on the planet and its inhabitants, and for “Progressives/Liberals” to feign they are concerned whilst feeding this Beast to save their ass is the height of hypocrisy. This is why I laugh at blogs like Calculated Risk. The guy was a former CEO. most likely a multi-millionaire, blogging for self-actualizing purposes and lamenting that his “investments” are at risk. Screw you, Calculated Risk. You want to impress me? Give it all away and stop Feeding The Beast.
Celsius 233
Mandos PERMALINK
February 1, 2011
Celsius233: You’re basically asking other groups to let their issues be thrown under the bus for the economic ones. So, who is going to volunteer first?
=====================================
No! I don’t know from groups! I’m talking about shedding the group (if one is in a group) for self preservation of oneself.
I guess it depends on your definition of economics; self preservation never used to be an economic issue; but then, we did invent that perversity, didn’t we?
Charles D
As a New Yorker myself, I can attest that people had a better choice in the gubernatorial race – Howie Hawkins on the Green Party line. He is a true progressive and union leader that would have shaken up the crowd in Albany, but alas he barely managed to get enough votes to establish a ballot position for the Greens. Even the hypocritically named “Working Families Party” caved in and supported Cuomo like they supported Hillary Clinton for Senate earlier.
My own Assemblyperson, Barbara Lifton, spoke at our town hall during the fall campaign and provided documentation that our economy would be better if we repealed the tax cuts on the wealthiest New Yorkers, instead of cutting spending. We have horrific deficits in NY and many other states because we cut taxes on the wealthy, not simply because of profligate spending. She is fighting to get that message heard in Albany but it’s an uphill battle
Our political system is broken, probably beyond repair. If people want to know what to do, look at the people of Egypt and Tunisia. Listening to the left/right BS on the MSM is a waste of time, as is putting your faith in politicians of the two corporate parties. If we want to stop them from trashing our economy and our children’s future, it will take more than internet petitions and emails pleading with Democrats to do what’s right.
Notorious P.A.T.
Speaking of primarying Obama, any update on that? Has anyone heard of a candidate working toward that or money being raised for it?
Morocco Bama
For all those invested in the Market….to wit:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Archer-Daniels-Midland-2Q-net-apf-419331031.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=7&asset=&ccode=
Agribusiness conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland said Tuesday its second fiscal quarter profit jumped 29 percent as a recovery in the ethanol industry and growing demand for grains boosted revenue and profit margins.
So, if you’re invested in a broad-index fund, and many are, then you are profiting off of the plight of the Egyptian people, and all the starving, and near starving, people on the planet. Get your money out of the market and invest in people. People are not Corporations, and Corporations are not people….contrary to what the vaunted “Law” says.
Formerly T-Bear
Significantly a greater problem than the political system being broken is that the political system is thoroughly corrupted and no longer responds to the freely arrived democratic will of its citizens. Nothing any configuration of citizens can do will effect a change, let alone a change in election funding laws that would insure a change in the makeup of the political elite. Not going to happen.
The alternate provides that the political (and economic) system(s) fail; that failure assures the collapse of the state and the ability to govern (direct the economic resources of the country), a function presumably a multinational corporate entity can (theoretically) supplant (a premise of the neo-whatever theo-economic fallacy currently in vogue). Koyaanisqatsi 2.0 ensues. The inherent and coherent power of the state is not as divisible as may be presumed by these fraudulent pseudo-architects of social engineering.
Copious notes should be taken and studied on the conditions leading up to and the tipping points that produced the Tunisian and Egyptian revolts against corrupt authority, (look also to further such demands in Algeria, Jordan, Syria, the various Gulf states/emirates and possibly even Saudi Arabia. The house of cards that is the edifice of US mid-eastern policy is built on a dune of sand and a desert wind is beginning to blow.
Kathryn
Just as an aside, I live in Jersey, and we have 5-6% R/E taxes and I believe a lot of NY counties in the populated areas are close to that. A lot of times people are paying in taxes what they pay on their mortgage. And there’s no sliding scale, middle to rich, taxes don’t respect income levels just property value.
So R/E taxes, that’s a really loaded issue. With foreclosures you lose a lot of money in taxes, that’s coming up this year harder than the two prior. But if rates creep upward to counter that loss of income, what do we end up paying? 7% — maybe more? That means we’ll see foreclosures here based on tax rates, most folks just can’t get that much more. [I don’t know about NY but in NJ we also pay state income taxes already and those are likely to increase.]
So in a lot of instances I’d say yeah, certainly the rich benefit from a freeze on tax rates sure… but any homeowner in this area — it might be a blessing and hold off more defaults. There’s a lot more wrong in the Northeast than just R/E taxes and I know it’s just the rot of the whole system, but I’ll have to look at Cuomo’s reasoning first.
b.
“Significantly a greater problem than the political system being broken is that the political system is thoroughly corrupted and no longer responds to the freely arrived democratic will of its citizens. Nothing any configuration of citizens can do will effect a change..”
That’s different from what MLK and his supporters faced, and his predecessors faced from the day of the founding, how? Heck, I could point to the suffragettes – that took balls, too.
Torture, illegal war, rule of men, Fed and Treasury subverting Congressional acts, an end to the notion of property titles – I don’t care what politics or policies the so-called citizen claims to subscribe to, if they don’t stand up for the constitution or even just the free market capitalism that they claim defines them, then I’d venture that the freely arrived democratic swill of its citizens is the root cause here.
If you do not get the candidates you want to vote for, then you need to find a way to add “None Of The Above” to the election. It might not be on the ballot, but I suppose addressing that issue is even more difficult in Egypt – there does not even seem to be an election there right now, let alone primaries.
Progressives, libertarians, Tea Partiers, “independents” – it’s all posturing, lifestyle democracy. Come primary/election time, nobody shows up, one half stays at home, and the rest mostly wants to have voted for the winner. We should get ourselves the opt-out democracy, where the vote is pre-assigned unless the voter shows up.
Morocco Bama
While Egypt roils in rebellion and protest, the Plutocratic Oligarchy enjoys a nice evening out with each other. Afterall, they deserve it. Look what sprouted up.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-01-30/alfalfa-club-dinner-bush-family-sandra-day-oconnor-and-more-trade-jokes/
The Alfalfa Club’s annual dinner is a dazzling collection of the very rich and very famous who get together late in January to mix and mingle over jokes and drinks and bask in each others’ glory. Last night was no exception. The high-wattage assemblage—250 members, 400 guests (many winging in on their private jets, with Barbara Walters hooking a ride with Donald Marron, head of Lightyear Capital, and David Rockefeller flying in with his longtime assistant)—dined on the usual fare: lobster in puff pastry (the lobster keeps shrinking each year), and surf and turf accompanied by red and white Mondavi Family wine.
Between courses people jammed the aisles, cruising the crowded ballroom to schmooze with a cornucopia of well-known names and faces. Spotted in the throng: Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas, Warren Buffett, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Senator John McCain……
Rounding out the Bush contingent: James Baker, Donald Rumsfeld, who was talking up his new book, Hank Paulson, Colin Powell, and a much slimmer Dick Cheney, who is finishing a memoir and was surrounded by a gaggle of well-wishers.
Along with the frivolity, the main topic was the violent protests engulfing Egypt. Henry Kissinger said he was “very, very concerned” and feared a “radical takeover.” “The best possible scenario is a secular takeover, but I think that’s in doubt,” he said. Maine Senator Susan Collins agreed: “Egypt is our ally and was the source of relative stability, if they topple Mubarak we don’t know what the consequences will be. It could be the Muslim Brotherhood. I am very worried, but I think the administration has set the right tone.”….
And Scott Brown, rookie senator from Massachusetts, told me he just had spoken with a friend in Cairo whose pizza parlors had been totally destroyed. “He was asking for help,” said Brown, who also voiced concern over the worsening situation.
anon2525
… Evil or Stupid?…
… ’cause your leaders are determined to crash out the economy.
Again, I vote ‘Stupid’. They are not</em "determined to crash out the economy" — they think that their approach 1) causes them the least political pain and 2) will give the masses a dose of responsibility — eat your spinach, you spendthrifts — that will be good for the economy. They agree with alan simpson that the gov't. is sending money to whiners that are sucking at the teat of the productive economy, and it's time to wean the whiners for their own and the country's good.
Of course, they will “crash out the economy,” because what they are doing has been shown multiple times over the past century, including the past three years, not to work.
anon2525
“no preview” and “no edit” equals “screwed-up HTML”.
anon2525
So in a lot of instances I’d say yeah, certainly the rich benefit from a freeze on tax rates sure… but any homeowner in this area — it might be a blessing and hold off more defaults. There’s a lot more wrong in the Northeast than just R/E taxes and I know it’s just the rot of the whole system, but I’ll have to look at Cuomo’s reasoning first.
You might want to consider that it’s not “just the rot of the whole system,” but that it is a deliberate plan to destroy collective public programs because those programs are not run by private companies for private profit.
Economist Dean Baker on the effort to gut public pensions: Debts Should Be Honored, Except When the Money Is Owed to Working People
anon2525
There’s a lot more wrong in the Northeast than just R/E taxes…
Also, if you’re not aware already, you should know that any private colleges or private universities in your community or state do not pay property taxes, despite 1) owning lots of real estate, 2) being private businesses working for private profit, and 3) making use of the public services in the communities in which they reside. Keep this in mind as people are losing their houses due to property taxes.
anon2525
This, this is why America is going down.
Whither Mexico? Ireland? Will they draw inspiration from the revolutions? Or do they need more desperation first?
Formerly T-Bear
@ b.
What a perfectly inane comment, what an unfounded opinion, what an abject failure of comprehension, what an erroneous conclusion, what a waste of space your comment was. You will fit in quite well with the cohort here that is out to prove their status beyond doubt.
FWIW my comment made was to final paragraph of Charles D preceding it.
dcblogger
The left will not be ready by 2012. If Scary Sarah is the nominee Obama wins, if some less ludicrious Republican is nominated, Obama might still win. It is a very sad thought.
It is very very difficult to get people to give up on the Democrats. They just don’t see any of the emergent parties as credible. The emergent parties need to build themselves up and the voters need to be alieanted from the duopoly in a way that does not alieanate them from politics altogether.
If we work hard we can elect someone like Elizabeth Warren in a three way Presidential race in 2016. I really don’t see anything meaningful happening before then.
Mandos
Oh, what cohort is this? What status? Please explain.
alyosha
In autumn, people cling ever more tightly to their cherished beliefs – in the Democrats or in Liberalism, for example, or in a simpleminded faith in The Constitution or in Small Government Conservativism – and the country polarizes between left and right over these beliefs even as the life bleeds out of these once potent ideas.
In winter, people so despise the entrenched order, which has corrupted all of these ideas, and their condition is so impoverished, that holding on to these beliefs, which formerly occupied so much of their energy, is now seen as a ridiculously expensive luxury. There is a melding of energies between former opponents, born of the fact that they’ve all been reduced to the same broken state.
This is the kind of thing that’s happening in Egypt – it’s not a left or right thing, people seem pretty unanimous in their hatred of the existing order, regardless of where they came from. This doesn’t at all address the way things will move forward from here.
In the US, we’re still in late autumn. Winter hasn’t really hit yet. You’ll know it’s here when people leave what’s left of their former comforts (and their cherished beliefs), and take to streets. It may seem impossible now, given the wildly successful mass media induced hypnosis, but eventually people do have to eat.
I was struck by the fact that in all the Middle Eastern revolts, the entrenched regime always seems to have been in power for about three decades. The Reagan revolution happened here and abroad likewise about three decades ago, and during this time, our country has turned into more or less a ceremonial democracy, the public face of an entrenched oligarchy -there’s a changing of the guard, through free elections, and yet nothing really changes, especially as our country nears its winter.
Bill
Teaparty and Republican hardliners: You are all idiots. Cutting spending does not fix the core problem. You can cut and cut until there is nothing to cut and there will still be a deficit! So how do we shrink the “deficit?” How… do we balance our state’s budget?
Is the suspense killing you yet?
Read my lips: WE NEED NEW TAXES!
You don’t get nothing for free. All those services you enjoy in our great socialist compact of fire departments, police, and garbage pickup require tax money to run. Now here is a big idea. Why don’t you guys take some of that money you give to the pentagon (biggest eaters of our federal budget)? The pentagon is spending 300 billion on a fucken plane. 300 billon dollars would send millions of people to college or feed thousands of starving American kids. It would also cut a big chunk out of the deficit. Pretty cool stuff huh? Or my personal favorite, the pentagon spent 7 million dollars on a spray to turn enemy troops gay. I dunno about you but I can think of much better uses for 7 million dollars than that. That is your tax money guys. As you can see its defending the country against attacks…by turning them gay?
stevo67
Mandos: You’re basically asking other groups to let their issues be thrown under the bus for the economic ones.
In a few short years (or months) the economic ones will be the only issues that matter. If we had a non-corporate media and a better educated citizenry most of the country would realize it by now. As it is, we are living the 21st century version of bread and circuses, with high fructose corn syrup making food cheap both in cost and nutritional value, and the never ending entertainment of cable TV as our own private circus.
Add the Puritanical hypocrisy over morality and values the oligarchy use to keep the right wing rabble in place, matched by the Moral Relativist hypocrisy elites use to keep the Left in check, and we have the perfect storm of rich getting richer through the use of a divide and conquer political stratagem. Worked for Rome for hundreds of years- why not here?
Pepe
evil or stupid?
they’re not mutually exclusive.
anon2525
evil or stupid?
they’re not mutually exclusive.
I’ve said the same in posts back when this question arose around the neo-liberals. They can certainly be both, but people want to debate it as possibly exclusive (usually Team Evil takes this position). As far as I can tell, they are useful idiots to those who are the primary beneficiaries of neo-liberal policies. The useful idiots believe in it because it is a simple explanation and so it makes sense to them (it just leaves out some parts of reality). And since they also benefit, mostly with careers, they fall under the influence of the Sinclair Principle.
S Brennan
“….people had a better choice in the gubernatorial race – Howie Hawkins on the Green Party line.” – Charles D
Charles if the Greens would do something as simple as change their name to…say…the “Labor” Party* they would get a lot more votes. Tying a party name to one single issue** is incredibly dumb marketing. And yes if your marketing sucks, evil triumphs without much effort. And I say this as an engineer, who has to repeatedly point out to fellow engineers…we have to sell the damn thing…if we want to keep designing/building things.
*I really don’t care what the name is so long as it cover 80% of the electorates issues.
** Many on this board are fond of single personal issues that have no meaning to the majority of folks who work at low/menial paying jobs. I know of no known cure for this condition.
anon2525
This, this is why America is going down. Because Americans keep electing people like Andrew Cuomo and Barack Obama. Earn your money while you can, folks, ’cause your leaders are determined to crash out the economy.
If you change the names and places, this description of Ireland could be written about the U.S.:
Ireland: Land of Thieves, Charlatans and Sodomites
excerpt:
“Meanwhile, a select group were living the high life, like oil barons or movie stars jetting here and there, flying their private planes and helicopters all over the country to race meetings and golf tournaments and toddler birthday parties. And when they ran out of suitable sump holes in Ireland they spread their good cheer abroad. Over €1,265 billion was invested by Irish citizens abroad in 2009. One shouldn’t mention that the bankers were in the pockets of the builders, who were in the pockets of the developers, who were in the pockets of the politicians and that the resulting circle jerk which met in secret every few days, regular as clockwork, had a grand old wanking session. It is downright begrudgery to allude to the financial regulator or the governor of the Central Bank or to ask how they could sleep so soundly through the nightmare that was the rape of their country.
…
Besides, our politicians are incorrigible, especially the fuckheads in Fianna Fáil, who’ve been in power for most of our republic’s history. They’ve sold our future into slavery, thrown away our sovereignty, reduced a nation to penury, dismantled an infrastructure that was the envy of the civilized world, broken every institution, shown contempt for the people and utterly disgraced our country. “
David Kowalski
New York City and New York State have changed and not for the better. The Wall Street and big bank crowd live here. Mainly in a few choice suburbs and in the lower half of Manhattan below say 100th or even 96th street. The change is startling if you drive by. The Mayor is the richest man in the city and he spent unprecedented sums to get elected and re-elected. He governs like a dictator for the good of lower Manhattan.
Meanwhile the State income tax for the wealthiest has declined by about 45% from 15% to 8%+. Schools and roads and pensions have been ignored. The Yankees and Mets got new ball parks (the Yankees did pay a large part of the cost for their park). A million middle class people left NYC in about 10 or 12 years and were replaced by new immigrants without the votes or the voice to protect the old agreements. A few years ago, the Times posted a piece that showed that 40% of the income for the entire City in the first quarter went to Wall Street. They hemmed and hawed and said it included bonuses but the fats were true. A few thousand people were reaping 40% of the income in a city of 8 million for a whole quarter.
Cuomo and Patterson are not the people to take on this disparity in wealth and the desperate shortfalls. Spitzer might have been but he was destroyed by the Wall Street crowd and their $2.8 million in private expenditures mostly to private detectives.
This has to be done on a national level or it has to be done b y a special person who is like Caesar’s wife above reproach.
Oh yeah. The donut economy. Part of Westchester and part of Long Island still do OK. The Hamptons and surroundings thrive. Part of Long Island and Staten Island tread water. The rest of the state is sinking. Add the numbers and New York State might “work” for as few as 3 million of its 19 million residents, certainly fewer than 5 million. So whatcan be done and who can be doing it?
Pepe
“When the people shall have nothing left to eat, they shall eat the rich.” –Rousseau
anon2525
Earn your money while you can, folks, ’cause your leaders are determined to crash out the economy. And if oil prices don’t stop increasing, you won’t even have a year, you’ll have six months before the next downturn.
Dimitri Orlov (in a video series from The Nation) speaks on lessons from the Soviet Union: link
beowulf
Also, if you’re not aware already, you should know that any private colleges or private universities in your community or state do not pay property taxes
Good point. to that end (and sorry for taking a bit to get to that end), I really do think the best tax reform plan out there is the flat tax plan offered by Arthur Laffer. 13% income tax, 13% VAT (back in 1992, if you’ll recall, Jerry Brown ran for president and advocated this). Here’s the interesting part, Laffer would tax unrealized cap gains (a de facto wealth tax) on both individuals and nonprofits (including universities). So its a plan that goes after “elites” disliked by liberals and conservatives.
http://books.google.com/books?id=QzGAPcjf6ksC&pg=PA182&lpg=PA182
As for throwing social liberalism under the bus for economic liberalism, frankly this should have been done years ago. Its the What happened to Kansas syndrome, Republicans get working class voters to vote against their economic interests by encouraging them to vote for their social interests. The solution is simple, states rights.
The federal govt has a duty ensure every American’s civil rights are being protected, states rights does not mean the right to bring back segregation. But beyond that, I’d tell voters that social issues (abortion, guns, gay marriage, decriminalizing pot) should reflect the social values of each state and should be decided by each state legislature. But economic and national security issues can only be handled by Congress. I’d frame national security to include controlling immigration (border fence and E-verify) and trade (impose tariffs and use revenue to cut payroll taxes, YMMV).
Draining national politics of social issues moves federal races to an area where economic progressives are holding the high cards in popular support. Since a prosperous country is more apt to be a tolerant country, focusing on economic policies that increase median (as opposed to average) income will lead to more progressive electorate and, in turn, more progressive state legislatures.
anon2525
I really do think the best tax reform plan out there is the flat tax plan offered by Arthur Laffer. 13% income tax, 13% VAT
It’s not. A single, simple formula is not going to work because people will adjust to it in order to keep their wealth from being taxed. Instead, an on-going analysis of non-productive economic activities needs to be done so that the tax law is revised to tax the non-productive activity. Want to carry out a million stock trades per second, skimming fractions of a cent with each trade? OK. Non-productive. Taxed. Want to pass on an estate and establish an aristocracy? OK. Non-productive. Taxed. Rinse and repeat for other wealth and income-hiding schemes until we have moved from ‘Actual’ to ‘Ideal’ as shown in Figure 2:
http://baselinescenario.com/2010/09/28/americans-want-to-live-in-sweden/