Abused NYC Payroll is Abusive to the People

     American internet search engines watch what you research online and then make related suggestions.  I recently got both of these stories: a huge contrast of priorities.  Take a look…

     According to a NY Post article in April, the MTA paid $224.6 million for overtime in 2018—up $50 million from 2017 and up $115 million since 2013!  That's crazy!  Click on the images to make them bigger/clearer.

     Such “overtime abuse” is absurd, considering how unreliable the trains are and how filthy the seats are.  What are those unionized workers doing during all the overtime?  Such a scam!  Yet, for 6 years, the MTA happily paid it, before a new British-born MTA president was hired and questioned it.  One worker, a Chief Measurement Operator was paid $344,147 in overtime, last year, thus securing a pension of $162,000 per year in perpetuity!  A similar scheme (scam) is used by NYC’s police and firemen.  No wonder our taxes and MTA fares continue to rise… yet we live in a filthy city with MTA getting worse each year and crime continuing in the same neighborhoods for decades, a police headquarters that ignores criminal syndicates, and a City Hall that is swamped with embezzling politicians.  Doesn’t this sound like a third-world country or dictatorship-nation? 

     New York’s governor—who oversees the MTA—helped negotiate the last cushy payment deal in 2014—fully aware of how he burdened the middle-class taxpayers.  He told reporters that “it was fair to everyone”.  (He still go re-elected).  

     In May, the MTA decided against hiring a former prosecutor to investigate their overtime abuse, and instead hired a mere consultant to "review" things.  That basically means that nothing will change.  As you might expect, the union representative whined, “I do not know how much more abuse we can take,” as he complained about the accusations against them.  Then he threatened, “The Board can’t continue this attack on Labor.  It’s not going to end well.”  (That’s what all overpaid unions say).  If Americans were more feisty (instead of digitally-distracted / overweight marshmallows sitting in Lazy-Boys), they’d “stand up” against the overtime abuse that they essentially pay for from their huge taxes and protest such threats.  After all, absolutely ANYONE can attest to how LITTLE the MTA workers actually do; it’s noticed whenever you see them “working” on a track or station, and when trains are late because engineers waddle to their trains late, and by how dirty all of the MTA's assets are.  

     This became public knowledge because a nonprofit group, Empire Center for Public Policy, was a whistleblower… just like the New York Times published an exposé, last summer.  As usual, independent sources do all the work, while a legion of MTA supervisors, auditors, general inspectors, and overseers keep silent, hoping nobody finds out.  The MTA bribes everyone's silence with exorbitant paychecks.  Just like with the police, if everyone is kept silent, nobody will know what's really going on.  

     It’s disgusting that a first-world metropolis with so much money cares so little for its customers/citizens, while lavishing money on itself—right in the “public eye”.  Why would any sane person WANT to live here?  

     Watch this video, to see how the MTA's subway is like a third-world country's!

    That afternoon, I had lunch with 2 friends.  One performs in musical theatre (a hard-working group receiving little pay and long waits between jobs).  The other friend is a unionized laborer at a theatre—where unionized janitors earn $70 per hour.  “It’s the sweetest deal,” he said, "We always get break-times throughout the day, lots of overtime pay, job security, pensions, and our smallest duties cannot be done by anyone else than us!"  Such a disparity only occurs in cities like NYC.  Who would want to try to beautify NYC through song/dance, when its more rewarding to be the union worker?  Then again, my union friend described his union as similar to a Mafia, "You do whatever they tell you, or else..."

Compare that to this… the second News article that I saw:

     In European cities, people from all walks of life and incomes find it socially acceptable to ride a bicycle to work.  In America, it is a status symbol to be a motorist, while low-income people rely on public transportation.  Not so in the Netherlands.  They have the best biking culture in the world.  Unlike a nation controlled by car manufacturers, the Netherlands does not want urban car traffic to increase; they wanted an increase in public transport and cycling.  

     With NYC's parking shortages, high costs of parking, ever-increasing tolls, and closeness of boroughs, it could certainly benefit from a similar initiative… but NYC doesn’t care.  It rarely cares about such civic needs and certainly fears losing tolls and commuter costs.  It enjoys keeping its taxpayers idling in congested bridges, traffic jams, endless road construction, crumbling often-delayed subways, and filthy overpriced monopolistic commuter trains… every day. Yet, it scarcely applies its rip-off revenue to bettering its commuters’ infrastructure. 

     That’s the huge difference in two places with similar tax rates.  The Dutch enjoy fitness while speedily arriving to work on time, while New Yorkers anxiously leave home hours earlier than necessary to endure (avoidable) commuting delays, wasting gasoline, and get frustrated—often arriving late to work... and they pay MORE for that experience.  Afterwards, the Dutch cycle home, while NYC commuters endure cramped/delayed trains and horn-honking “road rage” traffic jams (for hours), when leaving the city.  Which taxpayer is enjoying a better quality of life?

     In Amsterdam, the Ministry of Infrastructure realized that a few potholes in a small section of pavement affected riders’ perception of the maintenance of the overall road, causing a negative impression of the whole.  That mattered to them.  Therefore, the tax-paid government responsibly took action to replace virtually all uneven road surfaces (with high-quality materials--not the cheap asphalt that NYC uses which crumbles within a year).  An inspector was hired to routinely cycle throughout the city with a “comfort meter” mounted on his bike, registering any uneven road surfaces, potholes, dirty paths, or necessary repairs to signage or railings.  Amsterdam aims to make itself the world's best city to cycle in. 

     It sounds like--instead of overpaying people to be lazy--the Dutch invest in their future and get results.  They care.  In contrast, the pinnacle of America's national government recently told his taxpayers...

Okay.