Two years ago, I reported that a Chinese eatery in Manhattan had closed because, in the owner’s words, “The state and municipal governments, with their punishing rules and regulations, seem to believe that we should be their cash machine to pay for all that ails us in society…” Our hero not only diagnosed the disease but suggested a remedy: “…our career lawmakers and politicians, local and national alike, [should] take a mandatory ‘Undercover Boss’ challenge and live in the shoes of a small business owner for a week. Maybe then they will better understand the economically stifling environment they have created…”
But politicians wouldn’t be politicians if they could learn such lessons. And the most doctrinaire of the breed curse New York. Indeed, earlier this week, the City’s Chief Thief bragged about further impoverishing his subjects: “New York City will spend at least $100 million to ensure that undocumented immigrants and others who cannot qualify for insurance can receive medical treatment, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Tuesday … ‘Everyone is guaranteed the right to health care, everyone,’ Mr. de Blasio said … ‘We are saying the word guarantee because we can make it happen.’”
What he can’t guarantee is that restaurants and other businesses will continue to operate, providing Comrade de Blitherbag with the loot for his virtue-signalling. Voila, from Felix Bronstein comes a link to this story about another casualty in New York’s Wars for Socialism. The victim isn’t as clear and direct as our Asian gentleman; still, anyone with ears to hear can understand:
“For a lot of restaurant businesses in New York, incredibly high rent”—much of which pays extortionate real-estate taxes—”and additional pressures of high payroll taxes and raising the minimum wage for people on the floor all combined made it possible for a restaurant that is busy every night, with every chair filled, to barely get by,” [one co-owner] said. “I think that’s true of a lot of places, and we’re no exception. I think there’s a larger problem in New York…”
But don’t look for Comrade de Blitherbag to repent this time, either. He’ll continue milking the golden geese until he exterminates the entire flock, if you’ll pardon so mixed a metaphor.
10:47 am on January 11, 2019
