While no New York elected official can get through any public statement without using the words “senior citizen,” other states are very concerned with keeping and attracting the young. Connecticut for example, based on this article in the Hartford Courant: “State Has To Reverse Aging.” Is the Courant concerned about the young leaving because that might mean Connecticut isn’t a good place for them? No. They are worried for a reason that even the New York State Legislature could appreciate: the need for someone to pay taxes for older generations to go on living the style they have promised themselves. “OK, you may say, we have a smaller state, so what? Less traffic. Easier to get UConn tickets.” But “with the best and brightest in San Jose, and a large elderly population here, who will pay the taxes? The casinos? So before the state turns into one big Medicaid nursing home, we need to get moving. We need to improve the business climate and enhance the quality of life so we can create and attract real jobs. We need to stop building so much ‘active adult’ housing for people leaving the workforce and build something for the people trying to enter the workforce.”
Housing is a reason for young people to leave Connecticut, a reason the housing bust might reverse. But there are many reasons for young people to leave, or not move to, New York, a place where they are seen as cows to be milked by everyone who matters in Albany. While they have abandoned the rest of the state, the young continue to arrive in New York City — for reasons having nothing to do with Albany. I guess we’re going to find out how desperate they are to live here in this recession, as the vested interests take from those without deals more and more and offer less and less in return.