Confusing news from the Mamdani Caliphate… “Mamdani Presses for Tax Hike on New York’s Wealthiest as Budget Deficit Looms” (Wall Street Journal):
Mamdani also wants Albany lawmakers to increase the amount of state funding the city receives. Hochul has boosted state funding to the city since she took office, according to a spokeswoman for the governor.
The governor and the mayor said earlier this month the state would fund a rollout of free child care for 2-year-olds in the city—another major policy proposal of Mamdani’s campaign.
New York City is wealthier than the rest of New York State. Why would people who say that they’re against inequality want to see money funneled from the Rust Belt cities of Upstate to Manhattan? As a parent myself, I’m a huge supporter of any government program that forces the childless to work extra hours and gives the resulting money earned to Americans who are blessed with and can enjoy children. However, how is it fair for a parent of a 2-year-old in NYC to get free child care while the parent of a 2-year-old in Syracuse or Buffalo gets nothing?
If NYC wants to add services for its residents why wouldn’t NYC fund that with city taxes, e.g., on the Wall Street heroes, owners of skyscrapers, etc.?
(The median income in NYC, of course, isn’t high, but rich people in NYC are stratospherically rich.)
Manhattan GDP per capita is over $500,000, NY State’s GDP (including Manhattan) – barely $100,000 per capita, lower then GDP per capita for entire NY City.
Makes no sense.
I’m a married man with no children. I don’t mind my tax dollars paying for expenses like educating kids, if they really are being educated and not warehoused (an increasingly questionable assertion). It is important to have an educated, literate populace in a democracy. Deducting them from income as dependents also seems reasonable.
However, what public good does free day care for a 2 year old provide? Furthermore, why do parents even have kids if they spend most of their waking hours during (even more of in this case) their formative years in the hands of government employees? They consider themselves blessed and full of joy when they aren’t spending time with their kids, and spending other people’s money to hand them off? If both have to work, I would argue they can’t afford the privilege of having kids.
OAG: Thank you for your service! But I do question the idea that it is fair for the childless to pay even $1 to those with children. People with kids get to enjoy (a) the fun of having kids around, (b) the satisfaction of reproductive success (a classic element of success as an animal). Why should folks with kids (including me!) be further rewarded with cash from those who weren’t lucky enough to have kids? If the idea is that children of the poor also need an education why not subsidize them with property tax taken from wealthier parents rather than from childless slaves who already pay a higher income tax rate? (i.e., just run the schools off property tax, as we mostly do now, but reduce the rate on those who have no kids; this would have the effect of a subsidy from the rich to the poor because rich people own more valuable houses and pay more in property taxes per person)
@philg
Don’t most wealthy people send their kids to private schools? They already subsidize other people’s brats, why should we put an extra burden on the beleaguered ultra wealthy? Have a heart, man.
Your thanks is appreciated, but don’t think because we are childless that we are unhappy or overburdened ourselves. We have the privilege of living in a county with crappy schools, with much lower property taxes. Actually, we don’t even miss the money from property taxes because we don’t have to buy kids health insurance, clothes, food, shelter, nannies/babysitters/childcare, et cetera ad nauseam for (what?) 30+ years. We travel the world on a moment’s notice and didn’t contribute to the problem of babies screaming on planes.
I also don’t live in isolation. I have friends and family with kids, and I really don’t feel less happy than them on the whole. As for biological success, I’m 99% sure that my kids would have been like Greta Thunberg, except less charming and more demonstrative. So if you really want to thank me, let it be for keeping my mal-adaptive traits out of the gene pool, not a few measly bucks I throw at state-sponsored charity. Darwin would agree, I’m a smashing success. Sure I’d rather the government distribute condoms and free tubal ligations to poor folks than pay for schooling. I don’t really have much say in the matter.
What is funny is that upstate New York would like to secede and create our own state. The response from the City is always “you need us, we subsidize you.” If that were true, wouldn’t they jump at the chance to get rid of us?
We see exodus of wealthy from CA and to some degree from WA.
When long overdue exodus of wealthy from NYC is finally going to start? Is it possible to live in NYC and not pay taxes through some smart shell property ownership or corporate renting?
Some of us radicals are creating an “underground railroad” to lead the oppressed ultrawealthy to their new homes in The Free State of Florida. (Mostly through blog articles and real-estate videos on YouTube.) Free at last, free at last, Lord Almighty tax free at last!