This week's issue of the New Yorker includes this tid bit, "Last year, the poorest twenty per cent of the city's households earned, on average, $8,993, and the richest five percent earned, on average, $436,931."
Bill de Blasio, New York's new mayor will, the article continues, address this inequality.
Hmmm.
If by some fluke of providence I am captured during my upcoming visit and am forced to serve on his advisory committee, what would I, the least political, least economically minded person I know, suggest?
1. Earmark some of the city's tax revenue to job training, free career counseling, education, and micro-loans.
2. Tax the rich. Mandating generosity isn't pleasant but watching people starve is worse.
3. Incentivize the rich to take sight seeing tours to the food banks, homeless shelters, and free clinics. Perhaps seeing human suffering would motivate charity, creativity, and generosity.
4. Empower NGOs (ie., philanthropic and humanitarian churches) to help.
5. From the office of the mayor laud media efforts to promote creative problem solvers. I realize the New Yorker needs to run ads like this (I'd love to know what kind of revenue this back page ad generates; it must be a lot since the magazine pays its cartoonists royally), but what if the back page made literacy volunteers, teachers, and people helpers look as classy? (By the way, I think these watch innards are beautiful! Sticker price, $123,000).
Erik, keep the blog going... you articulate musings well..thx,. I hope you get to be mayor for a week.... anyhow. The fam and I went to the SEattle Art Museum to view the Inca exhibit... fascinating and partly sobering... Some take aways... they had their 1% or 5%...awash in gold and silver and priveledge. The others lived at the whim of the 5%; including human sacrifice of even their own people. As long as the human heart beats....their will always be greed. For the mayor, I wonder how much he makes..if he wants to make a difference... maybe lead by example. Have a great time in NYC.
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