This is Why You’re Poor

We need to throw more napalm on the fire if we’re ever going to extinguish it.  You scaremongers would claim that fighting an inferno with fuel will only worsen it.  But that means you simply don’t understand how tricky it is to run the Empire State.

Unfortunately, a new study indicates that those in charge are only running a once-admired state into the ground.  New York is a Dickens novel come to life, as downtrodden, hardscrabble commoners can only hope to scrape through the day without being run over by a carriage or stricken by a crotchety rich jerk’s cane:

A new report by the Fiscal Policy Institute called “Grow Together or Pull Further Apart? Income Concentration Trends in New York,” details the vast and growing economic gap between New York’s wealthiest and poorest communities.

The report states quite plainly that “New York State has the highest income inequality of all states.”

It won’t surprise anyone who’s looked for signs of life in upstate’s downtowns that we’re a borderline Second World Country:

Given its degree of inequality, if New York City were a nation, it would rank 15th worst among 134 countries with respect to income concentration, in between Chile and Honduras.

Is Chile bad?  It sounds bad.  And I’d personally like to aim higher than Honduras.  But the report sadly takes a different tack.  For one, the Fiscal Policy Instituters wallow in classic class warfare by making a novel observation regarding humanity, namely that some thrive more than others:

Wall Street, with its stratospheric profits and bonuses, sits within 15 miles of the Bronx–the nation’s poorest county.

But both Wall Street and 161^st Street share much in common: those on each are equally hooked on governmental cheese.  Corporate bailouts are as insalubrious as unending welfare checks.

Actually, the study refers to the boring stereotype of unfettered capitalism unfairly rewarding those who take risks and work hard to invest and grow the economy.  It’s amazing that entrepreneurs can create opportunities without Joe Biden’s gentle guidance.

Those in higher brackets could share how reducing the state’s role benefits all if they weren’t busy creating wealth for themselves and opportunities for the rest of us.

By contrast, the study generators want more mucking.  They sadly indulge in the classic leftist ploy that the downtrodden are downtrodden because we haven’t redistributed quite enough income.

The study conductors are praising misery when they, say, announce in a different study that “New York’s Income Tax System Among the Best for Working Families.” Maybe they should go back and read their own “big income gap waaah” study.  An astoundingly progressive tax rate sounds great for those in the basement until they realize the penthouse-dwellers aren’t hiring.

Endorsing excess confiscation also implies that the best way to help those at the bottom is to give them stuff taken from those at the top.  It’s unfulfilling for both groups, in part because of how it actually creates the disparity that the currency-spreaders allegedly loathe.

Raising taxes even more on the most successful is jealousy as policy.  It interdicts upon the finances of those who would otherwise pump the economy.  As a result, Tom Golisano is not coming back, while Cliff Lee and LeBron James aren’t coming at all.

The state just lost a pair of congressional seats because so many avoid residing here. The dynamic types who dodge New York aren’t out to do their part to bridge the wealth discrepancy, either.  Taking their industriousness elsewhere hurts those who could use work created by big shots spending their money.

Our wretched state’s ridiculous tax grabs and unbearable regulations encourage dependency among low-income earners while aggravating the high-bracketeers who finance it.

Such heavy planning hurts both sides.  And the economic masochists want more of it.  Poor New York poor people won’t be able to sustain much more help.