Feb
23
Class 8 Blog Post – Income Inequality in NYC // Sheena Chin
February 23, 2015 | Leave a Comment
From just reading the titles of the articles we were to read for this class, I could deduct my own statements regarding income inequality in New York City. Including all of the five boroughs, Manhattan would house the richest New Yorkers and the poorest would hail from the Bronx or Brooklyn. It came of no surprise to me to learn that New York City alone would have income disparities comparable to countries like Sierra Leone or Namibia in Africa.
The first article from The New Yorker was a particularly interesting one – it portrayed income inequality along single subway lines and quantified subway stations through median incomes! Unsurprisingly, the highest MEDIAN household incomes came from the Chambers Street, Park Place, and World Trade Center stops in lower Manhattan at an astounding $205,192. Can I repeat that this is the MEDIAN household income in these Lower Manhattan subway stations? Compared to the median household income from the poorest subway stop on Sutter Avenue at $12,288, you really start to wonder how people one train away could be living entirely different.
To be honest, I did not really care for the second article from CNN Money as it basically told me what I already knew. Sure, the richer New Yorkers have only been getting richer and the poor and middle class have stagnated. Sure, the mayor wants to impose more and more taxes on the rich for urban development. My remark is, we’ve been taxing the rich for awhile now! They get heavily taxed on their incomes all the time, and for the last fifteen years now, it surely hasn’t worked. I want to know what policy changes the mayor can implement to ensure that New Yorkers are standing on more equal playing fields, not what the mayor(s) have been doing.
The last article from City Journal was the fighting piece that I needed to read because even though I recognize now the negative effects of income inequality, it was refreshing that it argued from the other side of the debate. One statement that stuck out to me was, “For it is Gotham’s vast private wealth that disproportionately pays for the city’s vast public wealth.” Interestingly enough, it is the rich who provide for New York City’s public resources like those of museums, the MTA, Central Park, and libraries that all together increase societal wealth. These public resources are those that we all collectively take advantage of as New Yorkers, but it is seldom that we recognize credit where it’s due. Another interesting bit from the article was when it stated that the rich who are blamed for high income inequality should be accredited as public assets that enrich New York City overall.
The improvement of New York City from thirty years ago to today is greatly significant in change. Thirty years ago in the 1980s, you couldn’t ride the subway after 10 PM, or else you risk getting shot or robbed on the way home. There were no neighborhood enrichment classes at local libraries, no cultural trips through varying themed museums around the city, and definitely no clean public parks situated in each of the five boroughs. Today, all of these exist, and they exist because of New York City tax dollars. While all New Yorkers have to surrender a portion of their income to taxes, this is even more relevant to the wealthy who give up a larger percentage of their income for taxes. From this article, I agree that while the wealthy New Yorkers cause high income inequality, they do benefit New York City overall by contributing their incomes to public improvement.
In conclusion, I learned that New York City’s income inequality is drastically high as compared to the rest of the country, but I believe that this is okay. As an Asian growing up in the middle class, I am privileged with the resources provided to me by this City, which would not have been possible without the tax dollars of the wealthy. I believe that social mobility is possible in New York City given our bounty of public wealth. If we all work hard and take advantage of what we are offered, we can improve ourselves unlimitedly.
