Happy Labor Day. I began the day looking through the news, and seeing the usual round of Labor Day stories about the New York economy. There is no doubt New York State’s economy is not the strongest in the country. There is no doubt there are people in this state with economic problems. And there is no doubt that bad state and local government policies play a role in creating those problems.
And yet, hearing what is said in the media, by interest groups, and by elected and would-be elected officials, I find that the state’s problems are generally vastly exaggerated and misdiagnosed. Some of the purported problems are inherent conditions which cannot be remedied; others are the flip side of good things New Yorkers would be loath to give up. Some of the exaggerated problems are little more than a disingenuous excuse for more public money for interests that aren’t necessarily the most in need – a plea for the continuation, or even expansion, of policies that were bad to begin with. Meanwhile the state’s actual economic problems, as I see them, are generally not on the state government agenda, mainly because there isn’t an organized group giving campaign contributions that is interested in them. I’ll discuss the real problems, and my suggested solutions, in later essays (probably next week). First, however, I’ll go over what I see as phony or exaggerated problems: slow job and population growth in New York City, poverty and income inequality in New York City, the high cost of living in the Downstate Suburbs, and job losses and decline in Upstate New York.