You may consider those two regions total wastes of land and resources, but they do have value: they prove with startling clarity the utter lunacy of political government.
Cases in point: New York City, with some of the highest property taxes in the country as well as intense regulation of real estate in particular and business in general, is nonetheless mystified that so many storefronts sit empty. And when you’re a criminal–sorry, a politician (why do I always confuse those two?), you can put action behind your bewilderment: Manhattan’s “Borough President” (a ridiculously redundant sinecure) is writing legislation that will “penalize landlords who keep [commercial] property vacant for long periods of time.” (Thanks to Felix Bronstein for bringing this incredibly stupid idea to my attention.)
Second example of mind-boggling, so to speak, idiocy from New York’s Rulers:
The Mayor’s Office of New York City is highlighting a newly created job in its administration — a “nightlife ambassador” to serve as a liaison between the city government and nightclubs.
Translation: the city wants to squeeze even more taxes out of this industry and regulate it even more crushingly while rewarding one its hacks with a paycheck from our taxes. Nor is the city’s chief communist, “Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio” original in this evil: “he was inspired to create the position by the implementation of a ‘night mayor’ in international cities like London.” At least London’s oh-so-appropriately-named Mayor Sadiq Khan was honest about his intended plundering of clubs: he “created the position in 2016 in order to manage the economy of late-night-oriented business…”
Morons. Greedy morons.
10:03 am on June 16, 2017
