Why I Hate New York City - It's So Poor

One of the biggest reasons why I hate New York City is the constant need for everything in the city to be described in the superlative. It's the "greatest" city in the world, it's the "biggest" city in America, it has the "best" food, the "most diverse" population, the "best" arts, the "most famous arena in the world", and on and on and on and on.

New Yorkers frequently speak and act as if they fully believe that they are actually the "greatest people in the world", and I can understand how they are so easily blinded to reality when they are surrounded by such superlative propaganda every single day.

But, finally, here is a New York City superlative that I can fully support: A recent article in the City Journal makes the claim that New York City is the poorest place in America (with Detroit running a close second).

According to the article, a salary of $100,000 in NYC buys you the same standard of living as roughly $50,000 in Chicago or $62,000 in Washington, DC. The cost of housing in New York City is nearly 70 percent higher than Chicago, while the cost of groceries are nearly 30 percent higher.

The bottom line: "The result is that New York City residents have far less purchasing power than anyone seems to realize."

Maybe they are just too blinded by all the superlatives to notice how much they are paying for everything. And then comes the even better part:

"The next step is to apply these cost-of-living differentials to the most recent census estimates for per-capita income. This calculation yields a measurement of each city’s average standard of living. Once you crunch the numbers, you find that the real standard of living in Washington, D.C. is 118 percent higher than in New York City. In Chicago, it’s 75 percent higher."

So to all those people living in New York - paying WAY too much for a tiny apartment, squeezing themselves into a packed subway car twice a day, and generally being surrounded by so many people in the street than it makes it near-impossible to breathe or think - who are telling themselves its all worth it because they live in the greatest city on Earth: You might want to break out of the bubble and reconsider. Your city is a financial hell-hole, and I'm laughing at you.

The author, Eamon Moynihan (who is one of my heroes for writing this), deserves to have the last word. Pay attention to his answer to the question of why New York City is such a mess (hint: "regulation"):

"It’s clear that New York has a big problem. On a comparative basis, we’re poor, thanks to a stratospheric cost of living—which itself is the result, I believe, of excessive and poorly designed regulation...right now, New York is simply too expensive."