Hating New York
What we can learn from a MAGA obsession
I've never lived in New York... or any other big city. Always small cities. So I have no dog in this hunt, which maybe makes it more interesting. I can loot at the topic objectively.
The numbers are very clear: New York City is a good place to live... if you can afford it. 
So... why does MAGA hate on NYC? What's the mechanism?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
MAGA and MAGA-adjacent types are very good at finding things and people to hate. They hate immigrants (unless they’re white South Africans), LGBTQ people and wokeness. They hate universities and are doing their best to destroy American science. The New York Times reports that they hate Europe . And they very much hate New York City.
OK, I’m not impartial on this issue. I grew up on Long Island and still think of NYC proper as “the city.” I live in Manhattan now, and my experience is that if you can afford housing — which is admittedly a huge problem — it’s actually a very good life, with an incredible range of things to do either in walking distance or a short subway ride away. Not everyone wants to live this way, but nobody is saying they should. All we ask is that some Americans be allowed to have favorable views of a place that provides the advantages density and, yes, diversity can offer.
But that, of course, is exactly what the U.S. right refuses to accept. New York is one of the safest places in America , yet much of the country insists on seeing it as a terrifying urban hellscape. Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, insists that everyone is afraid to ride the subway :
If you want people to take the train, to take transit, then make it safe, make it clean, make it beautiful, make it wonderful, don’t make it a shithole.
Indeed, the subway is such an intolerable shithole that more than 4 million people ride it every day, myself among them. To be honest, the subway isn’t beautiful by any stretch of the imagination, and you can’t take it without coming into close contact with people who don’t look like you. But it’s quite safe — more on that in a minute — and it works very well at getting people quickly across the heart of a densely populated city.
As an aside, it’s remarkable that federal officials — who are supposed to work for all of us — feel free to trash-talk major American cities, as long as the cities in question vote Democratic.
But anyway, Duffy is an idiot, so I found it more interesting when Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, who reputedly isn’t an idiot, declared that “We want the U.S. to be more like Florida and less like New York.” I guess that he gets some points for trash-talking the whole state, not just the big city. But still.
What was he going on about? Well, Florida spends considerably less money on government programs and hence manages without an income tax. “And I can tell you having lived in both, it’s better not to have an income tax, and Florida gives better services.”
So is Florida clearly a better place than New York? Let’s look at some numbers:
Start at the top. In my opinion, one important aspect of the quality of life is not being dead, and New Yorkers on average live three years longer than Floridians. Life expectancy is even higher, 81.5 years, in New York City .
Why do New Yorkers live longer? One answer is that city life — which involves a lot more walking than suburban life — is generally good for you.
Another is that New Yorkers are considerably less likely than Floridians to be murdered. In my experience many Americans simply refuse to believe that New York in 2025 isn’t what it was in 1975, that it’s actually a low-crime city. But it is.
And New Yorkers are much less likely than most Americans to die in traffic accidents. Why? In the city and surrounding areas, one main answer has to be that so many people take public transit rather than driving.
Which brings us to the whole issue of subway safety. Last year was unusually bad, with ten people murdered on the subway. Some of the murders were gruesome. But bear in mind, again, that 4 million people ride the subway each day — and that in 2023 thirty-four hundred Floridians died in car crashes. Taking the subway is much, much safer than driving.
Some Florida residents may also have died from lack of adequate medical care. Seniors in Florida, as in every state, are covered by Medicare. But Florida has refused to expand Medicaid, and in general New York makes much more effort to ensure coverage. As a result, Floridians under 65 are more than twice as likely as their New York counterparts to lack health insurance.
Of course, when Bessent says that America should be like Florida, he probably isn’t thinking about being unable to afford medical care, an issue that rarely arises for people with a net worth of at least $500 million .
He is, however, thinking about taxes. But here’s the funny thing: for most Floridians, taxes aren’t all that low. The state has a 6 percent sales tax, plus additional sales taxes levied by some local governments, and significant property taxes. The bottom 40 percent of Floridians pay almost exactly the same state and local taxes as a percentage of their income as the bottom 40 percent of New Yorkers.
The difference is at the top, where New Yorkers pay a state income tax plus, if they live in the city, a city income tax on top. So yes, if you’re in the top 1 percent, you pay much lower taxes if you live in Florida.
And these high taxes on the rich must do a lot of damage to New York’s economy, making it much less productive than Florida’s, right? Um. There are multiple reasons New York has such high real GDP per capita, but if taxes are doing a lot of harm you sure can’t see it in the data.
So what’s with Scott Bessent telling the United States to be more like Florida? It’s especially unseemly when he cites his personal experience of living in the two places — after all, he’s in the class that will never need Medicaid, probably never takes public transit, and benefits from Florida’s highly regressive tax system.
If you want to make the case for Florida-type governance, OK. But there is absolutely no reason to believe that what’s good for Scott Bessent is good for America.
Whatever
Tags
Who is online
90 visitors
If we needed more proof that MAGA is irrational, this adds to the pile of proof. Sadly, ... I 'm afraid we already have all the proof we need. These people have no idea what they're doing.
It should hardly be surprising to hear a Republican treasury secretary advocate for lower taxes and reduced regulations.
Florida is the fastest growing state economy in the US. NY is 35th.
So he should be saying we want the US to be more like FL than NY. His sole job is money, after all.
Fixed.
Bessent is Treasury Secretary because he's a multi-billionaire.
Florida is growing fast... but is still far behind NY, and especially NYC (which is the actual topic, here) in just about every statistical category. And Florida is going to drown, so this is probably moot...
He's not actually. He's worth about 1/2 a billion.
But he is rich. And he did earn it all himself, by being very good with money. One would think that those would be excellent qualifications for a Treasury Sec.
So the point remains, i t should hardly be surprising to hear a Republican treasury secretary advocate for lower taxes and reduced regulations. Republicans have been advocating for that all of my life. The notable exception being the Puritan wing of the party, who often seem incapable of minding their own business with regard to who is sleeping with whom or who is smoking/drinking what.
Now that you mention it, that's an interesting situation in the article. Krugman flips back and forth a bit with his statistics between NYC and NY state.
But he's a lifetime New Yorker, and he's a bit defensive about his home, which is absolutely expected and honorable. I think we all should be proud of our culture. I think one of the great things about the USA is the ability of different states to govern themselves and maintain their own identity.
The table in the seed seems pretty conclusive.
You mean the table full of particular data points Krugman is using specifically to make his case?
I'm sure it does.
If you only listen to the prosecution, everybody seems guilty.
It's pretty comprehensive. I'd be glad to see a Florida-favorable table, for comparison.
As I said, Krugman is just being a bit defensive about NY. His point is that the place isn't actually the shithole that the RW says it is.
Bessent, who, as Krugman says, is definitely not an idiot, is probably referring to the US News rankings that came out showing FL as the #1 state for growth.
It's ranked #1 in economy, #2 in education, #6 overall, top 10 in fiscal stability..... and 47th in opportunity
(however that's defined).
I guess no place is perfect.
There's no supporting data in the USNews article. They give rankings, but don't explain them.
There is literally a link on the page entitled "How the States Were Ranked".
Not so fast. A vast amount of infrastructure in Manhattan lies way below sea level.
One super Sandy kind of storm or a tsunami of any size and it's all over.
Did you follow that link?
True. Preliminary planning for seawalls is already engaged.
Florida??
Trump lives there.
Bob
I agree the numbers are in the chart are clear, but exactly what they prove is IMHO- nothing
Do you think that the seven factors you list in the chart are the real and only factors on which people base a choice of where it is better to live? I don't
And in both states where you live (i.e. upstate NY versus near NYC or northern FL versus the Miami Dade area) will significantly change these numbers and other factors on quality of life.
I enjoyed the article - jmo
The table isn't exhaustive. You can add hundreds of indicators, I suppose... but this short list looks pretty significant to me. Of course, different people have different criteria. Statistics are useful for masses, not individuals.
I agree with that and statistics alone are seldom the only reason needed to make a decision - there are other factors human interest, social, common sense, family etc
But I am sure you know that
We agree.