Just because someone cames up with a really bad solution doesn’t mean he didn’t identify a legitimate problem. At the core of Marx’s economic thought is the identification of a “contradiction” in capitalism: each individual business can maximize its own profits by cutting its workers’ pay, but business in general has to turn around and sell products and services to those same workers in order to make money. The result, Marx asserted, there would be a series of increasingly dire crises and depressions, a theory that looked pretty good in 1932. But capitalism is an adaptable economic system. For the past decade or more, businesses have been able to make rising profits, and top executives have been able to capture a rising share of national income, by selling more and more to those who have less and less. This has been possible for three reasons. First, thus far health insurance and pensions, which affect well being in the future when one is sick or retired, have been cut more than cash, which is spent today. Second, Americans have gone deeper and deeper into debt, increasing spending today but cutting it tomorrow. And third, people in the rest of the world have been willing to lend Americans the money they need to spend more than they earn. But the wheels may be about to come off this system, and New York City and State had better be ready for the fiscal consequences.

Just because someone cames up with a really bad solution doesn’t mean he didn’t identify a legitimate problem. At the core of Marx’s economic thought is the identification of a “contradiction” in capitalism: each individual business can maximize its own profits by cutting its workers’ pay, but business in general has to turn around and sell products and services to those same workers in order to make money. The result, Marx asserted, there would be a series of increasingly dire crises and depressions, a theory that looked pretty good in 1932. But capitalism is an adaptable economic system. For the past decade or more, businesses have been able to make rising profits, and top executives have been able to capture a rising share of national income, by selling more and more to those who have less and less. This has been possible for three reasons. First, thus far health insurance and pensions, which affect well being in the future when one is sick or retired, have been cut more than cash, which is spent today. Second, Americans have gone deeper and deeper into debt, increasing spending today but cutting it tomorrow. And third, people in the rest of the world have been willing to lend Americans the money they need to spend more than they earn. But the wheels may be about to come off this system, and New York City and State had better be ready for the fiscal consequences.

There is a reason why advertisers target the young, and why they are willing to pay more for media that attracts a young audience. It isn’t that they young have more money; they have less today and, as a result of public policies, their own spending habits, and the decisions of prior generations in the marketplace, today’s young people may also have less throughout their lives. Despite this, advertisers target the young, and opinion leaders among the young, because there are apparently very few people with open minds. Most people, it seems, do and think what people around them do and think, rather than deciding how they are to live and what they will believe. And once they have been shaped in a particular way, this tends to get locked in. The general unwillingness to be open to new ideas has implications both for politics and public policy, including transportation policy.

There is a reason why advertisers target the young, and why they are willing to pay more for media that attracts a young audience. It isn’t that they young have more money; they have less today and, as a result of public policies, their own spending habits, and the decisions of prior generations in the marketplace, today’s young people may also have less throughout their lives. Despite this, advertisers target the young, and opinion leaders among the young, because there are apparently very few people with open minds. Most people, it seems, do and think what people around them do and think, rather than deciding how they are to live and what they will believe. And once they have been shaped in a particular way, this tends to get locked in. The general unwillingness to be open to new ideas has implications both for politics and public policy, including transportation policy.

The non-farm employment numbers from the New York State Department of Labor are out for June. From June 2006 to June 2007, government employment in New York State rose by 4,500, while government employment in New York City fell by 2,400. Which means that government employment in the portion of the state outside New York City rose by 6,900 year-over-year. Again. No wonder the seniors outside New York City want more and more tax breaks. Of course, the rest of the state could point out that they suffered from the decline in government employment in New York City, since those outside New York City also hold a large share of the government jobs in it, and drive in to work. So NYC cutbacks had to made it up somewhere else.

The non-farm employment numbers from the New York State Department of Labor are out for June. From June 2006 to June 2007, government employment in New York State rose by 4,500, while government employment in New York City fell by 2,400. Which means that government employment in the portion of the state outside New York City rose by 6,900 year-over-year. Again. No wonder the seniors outside New York City want more and more tax breaks. Of course, the rest of the state could point out that they suffered from the decline in government employment in New York City, since those outside New York City also hold a large share of the government jobs in it, and drive in to work. So NYC cutbacks had to made it up somewhere else.