wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] Jax from Newark September 03, 2007 - 10:47AM

  Hi Brian,

  I have lived the "middle class decline". I went from aerospace worker to office temp.

  My response was to become an economic migrant--relocating to the best opportunities in the country. I have lived in Hempstead, Minneapolis, Vegas, and (now) Newark. Outside of NYC, wages are RISING, and housing is affordable. Office jobs in Minneapolis pay close to NYC rates, but rents (in brand new apts) are a fraction of the Rotten Apple.

  The concept of a 1 income (with lifetime employment) middle class family is facing extinction. More poor now live in the SUBURBS. Poverty in NYC is 20%, and black males in NYC have Depression Era unemployment rates.

  Since most new jobs in NYC are temporary, government programs won't work (temps don't qualify).

  The best investment for gov't is to pay struggling residents to move to cities with economically sustainable living.

  Jax

  
  
• [2] Lucas from Manhattos September 03, 2007 - 11:15AM

  Manhattan Institute is either not an economist or a liar. Reason, lowering costs would not lower price because there is a limit on supply. Manhattan isle is limited in space. The price will depend only on demand. Any reduction inprice goes to the owner of the manhattan land. The idea of a captured monopoly has been called "economic rents" by economists.

  Example, Yankee tickets are price on demand. If salaries dropped half, ticket prices would stay the same.

  
  
• [3] Lucas from Manhattos September 03, 2007 - 11:20AM

  I made a typo error, the sentence should have read "Any reduction in building and supplier costs goes to the owner of the housing stock" therefore the rents would not change.

  By logic the way to lower rents is to either

  1.) reduce the number of good jobs in NYC

  2.) otherwise make living in NY less attractive.

  many Germans, French and Spanish are using their strong Euro [it used to be 87 cents per Euro in 2001 now it's 1.36 dollars per Euro] to drive up high-end home prices in Manhattan. While prices are dropping outside of manhattan because Germans don't want a house in Ohio.

  
  
• [4] TM from Brooklyn September 03, 2007 - 11:29AM

  Please, Manhattan Institute. You want to see a society with free markets? How about um, say, Nigeria or Congo?

  Free markets are a myth, because the richest and most powerful will always take advantage of that "freedom" to consolidate the power and money to itself.

  
  
• [5] john from upper west side September 03, 2007 - 12:42PM

  The book is the "zero sum society" Bu Scott Turro (spelling)

  
  
• [6] Lia from Brooklyn September 04, 2007 - 09:00PM

  Why must wnyc bring in some ultra-conservative free-market Manhattan Institute automaton on this conversation about the middle class? They are so boringly predictable in hammering away at their pet peeve - rent stabilization - even to the exclusion of the topic at hand.

  Rent stabilization has been a blessing for this city. Free-marketers cannot stand it simply because it is a New Deal style program designed to equalize the market and allow the poor and middle class to have some leverage and protection in the extreme NYC housing market.

  I'm SO SICK of free-market boosters who believe that the market solves all problems, while we stand by and watch our global climate irreversibly changed by market forces.