Half of New Yorkers Say They Are Barely or Not Getting By, Poll Shows

[Purveyor]

By ALEXANDER BURNS and GIOVANNI RUSSONELLONOV. 18, 2015

Half of New York City residents say they are struggling economically, making ends meet just barely, if at all, and most feel sharp uncertainty about the future of the city’s next generation, a new poll shows.

The poll, conducted by The New York Times and Siena College, shows great disparities in quality of life among the city’s five boroughs. The stresses weighing on New Yorkers vary widely, from the Bronx, where residents feel acute concern about access to jobs and educational opportunity, to Staten Island, where one in five report recently experiencing vandalism or theft.

But an atmosphere of economic anxiety pervades all areas of the city: 51 percent of New Yorkers said they were either just getting by or finding it difficult to do so.

Even in Manhattan, three in 10 said they were just getting by. (Fifty-eight percent said they were doing all right or thriving financially — the highest response of the five boroughs.)

In some respects, the poll echoed the “tale of two cities” theme of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2013 campaign: Residents of the Bronx and Brooklyn shared the most pronounced sense of economic insecurity, and the lowest confidence in local government and the police — a distinctly different experience from the rest of the city.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/19/nyregion/half-of-new-yorkers-say-they-are-barely-or-not-getting-by-poll-shows.html

[840high]

1. kick

[Igel]

2. As a sociological poll, nice.

As an economic one, not so nice.

I know a fair number of couples, each making in the triple digits in Houston, that say they're just getting by. They can only afford a two-week vacation overseas, their Lexuses, and $500k houses, and therefore they're not "thriving" but getting buy. They can't take extra vacations throughout the year and have had to cut back on entertainment. And that new kitchen will have to wait 6 months. The horror.

I know people making less than a quarter of what these families make who say they're doing well. Their "new kitchen" cost less than just the refrigerator that the "barely getting by" family would tolerate in their kitchen.

It's attitude and expectations. When I was making $12k/year or less and living in a single-room apartment, I considered myself doing okay. I was in grad school. Now, I consider our family's income meagre as we pay off a 2400 sq ft house and can't save enough for a new car (no loan) in 18 months.

[MisterP]

3. that sounds like we need more neoliberalism! only halfway there