I Will Run For Mayor Of NYC
This year's group of democratic candidates is a joke. I will run before the century is over.
I will run as a D, but I am secretly an R, fiscally.
I shall bulldoze every last housing project and sell the land to Extell and Related. We can have Hudson Yards' popping up all over the place. I will rezone every fricking neighborhood. I will put an end to rent regulation and the other silliness NYC has (80/20, Mitchell Lama, whatever).
Make the poor live in freaking' Jersey! Manhattan should be Monaco. That wealth will overflow into Brooklyn, Queens, and around The Grand Concourse in BX.
I believe it is the greatest and most important city in the world, but it could be a lot better.
What are some of your ideas?
Legalize ponzi schemes so wealth creation gets a little easier
You having fun over there?
Pretty sure this is a troll post, but I'll bite. Affordable housing absolutely kills me. You can bust your ass to make $ and pay market rent, and live next to people who work a fraction as hard as you and are only there because they're getting paid to be. I swear the government does everything in its power to support mediocrity and kill incentives to work. How about a little free market, where ya know... you live where you can afford to live (crazy, right?). And this doesn't even touch on rent control. An artifact of a law which has zero reason to still be around and by keeping supply down, ultimately fucks more people than it helps. Btw, good luck ever getting elected by taking these stances.
Right, so what is objectively right won't get the vote because people vote for what benefits them and not for what is right. Anybody else feel like Democracy isn't ideal? Or why don't Democrats and Republicans just split the country in half? Seriously. Wouldn't it be much easier to live in a state where the entire population is on the same page politically and runs the state however they want to?
I think we tried that in like 1862.
The blue states wouldn't fiscally survive.
So fuck 'em then.
I can't publicly take these stances. I will have to be a demagogue.
I agree with your sentiment. I think anyone who receives a penny from the government should be barred from voting. Guys like Bloomberg and Dimon also deserve more votes than Joe the plumber.
In defense of affordable housing:
I'm located in Boston. I work downtown in the Financial District. I had been searching for an apartment that was both close my office (1st priority) and in a decent location. There was literally nothing in my price range (banking analyst). My office is surrounded by luxury high rises. The city of Boston does not want to drive people like me out of the city. I'm a young professional, potential high income earner, and have strong ties to the area.
I found an apartment that is part of the Boston Redevelopment Authority Affordable Housing program (http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/affordhousing/ah.asp) and am currently waiting on approval. Basically what the program does is it forces new building developers to either 1) allocate a % of apartment units to "Affordable Housing" (rent must fall within a certain band depending on the size of the apartment) or 2) pay a yearly fee to the BRA (the fees fund the program). Basically, since I fall in a salary range between $52,000 and $68,000 and have assets under $100,000, I should qualify for the apartment at a rent of ~$1500. It's still extremely hard to find these apartments (4 applications were put in within minutes on the one I am applying for), but the number is increasing as new buildings are put up (a lottery is held for new units).
I know everyone is ready to scream socialism and pity the poor property developers, but I think this program actually works (it has been successful in other cities), and that the explosion of luxury apartment living is a failure of capitalism. Without any incentive for developers to produce lower income range housing, you end up with huge class divides within the city (especially in places like Boston and NYC, where housing demands far outpace supply). The wealthy (and older) people live downtown, and middle class (younger) people are forced to move to the outskirts of the city or the suburbs. Under the BRA program, the building developers operate a small percentage of their apartments at a loss, but are free to charge what they want for other units. It doesn't seem to have slowed down housing development in the least, as there are still huge profits to be made (in that aspect, it is like a corporate income tax - you aren't going to deny yourself a marginal dollar of profit just because you will pay a portion in taxes). You still have ridiculous luxury apartments popping up all over the place, but the inhabitants aren't as unhealthily homogeneous.
There is definitely some humor in a guy who isn't wealthy (and may not even work in the industry) talking about how he wants to run all the "poor" people out of NYC and turn it into a bland corporate wealthy worshiping city.
The city is so insanely expensive to live in. $70K is considered middle class, but it doesn't even get you a decent apartment as a single working professional.
You're just sitting there masturbating to the idea of some sort of corporate utopia.
I am not wealthy yet. I will be. Why does that matter, anyway? If the market doesn't let me live in Midtown, so be it. (If we had a truly free market, and ridiculous unions didn't exist in this city, that wouldn't be a problem, anyway)
Furthermore, what is wrong with homogeneity?
You are damn right I don't want to live near a welfare momma and her gun-toting spawn.
I think this is why I have no other friends that want to be investment bankers. I'm pretty sure they all talk like this.
It is so expensive because it is not allowed to be a free market. The middle class (those guys earning 50K per annum, etc.) would have affordable housing without most of the silly democratic policies like absurd union wages, zoning laws, "affordable housing", projects, etc.
For the record, I am not in the industry of finance. Not sure why that's relevant. I respect the Hell out of the industry and hate that it's been so demonized.
Bro, it's free choice. Is it expensive living in the city? Sure. But no one is forcing people to make that decision. You don't want to pay for it- don't, live elsewhere (tons of people do). But here's what's beyond asinine. People busting their asses to make enough money to be able to live there, and then living in the same buildings as people who aren't making even close to that same sacrifice just because of some shitty government program. If you don't qualify for affordable housing, you may very likely end up paying MORE for an apartment of possibly LESSER quality, than someone who does qualify. You can't possibly see nothing wrong with this? The incentive is literally to make less money.
It's not about "running the poor out of the city". It's about letting people A) make their own choices, and B) do what they can afford. Let rents go where they want, if they get too high no one will pay them. This is literally high school economics. Anyway, I'm out of this convo because it's just gonna rustle jimmies.
Do you use the word "annum" in real life? You should stop and your luck with the ladies may shift!
Haha, "annum".
Find this guy incredibly ironic when he talks about the free market but when in reality he's going into medicine which is arguably the most over-regulated profession in America. Nowhere else in the world do doctors like AxionJaxion make nearly as much money, and that's because we have artificial supply constraints.
What kind of artificial supply constraints are there?
http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/25/american-medical-association-opinions-…
An excellent article (the title is a tad dramatic I admit) that answers your questions. I suppose 'artificial' is the wrong word - and it's more the result of industry lobbying - but either way it is not free market.
The author of the article is from the Reason Foundation - a right wing libertarian think tank - just as disclosure.
Umm, I'm middle class and was priced out of living in the city. You, a poor ass medical student, wouldn't be able to live in the city either. Also, I can think of a million things wrong with homogeneity, most importantly being that cities suck without young people.
Guys, let's all quit our jobs and collect SS disability payments and live in affordable housing. True ballin' lifestyle right there.
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