Lewis and I realized that a vast majority of our friends moved out of New York City. Their destinations include: London (3), Florida (10), California (7), Maine, Michigan, Boston, MA (3), Portland Oregon (2), Paris (2), Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Barcelona (2), Lithuania, Chicago (3), Ohio (2), Hamburg (2), North Carolina, Minnesota, Philadelphia (2), Rochester NY, Canada (2), Dallas (4), Houston, Washington D.C. (3), Brazil (2), Maryland (2), Delaware, and Copenhagen.
Consider the four-story apartment building that I currently live in. It has 19 apartments. In 8 years, 15 people vacated and found new homes, and 3 Superintendents cycled through and went elsewhere. The only people who remained were 2 elderly couples and one family with young children. They thought it was too difficult to find something new elsewhere.
One of my first employers operated a luxury retail company. He was Parisian and discovered that operating a business in Manhattan was tiresomely expensive: hidden fees, bribes for inspectors, outrageous costs for garbage removal from mafia-like men, policemen expecting freebies, firemen expecting discounts, high taxes, and merciless rent increases. After two years, he closed the business and returned to France, where there is a true sense of Liberty.
A dear friend of Lewis and I was the top-seller at her Japanese company. She did great in Singapore. Upon arriving in New York City, she found business practices to be slovenly and brutal. Within two years, she was fed up and returned to Singapore, where the profits were smoother, and the city is vastly cleaner and orderly.
Consider all of Lewis' coworkers in his career. Hardly any of them remain in NYC; dozens relocated. Many returned to Europe and Asia, after "tasting" American life--especially how America/NYC treats retail employees. At his previous job, 13 people relocated to NYC from other countries for the privilege of working at that company. Two years later, nearly all of them returned to where they came from! One French woman stayed, but her husband divorced her and returned to France. One Spaniard married a New Yorker, and his wife gladly went with him, when he returned to Spain.
After 15 years in America, my Croatian hair stylist is longing to move back to Europe's Balkan region. His country might be recently war-torn, but it has better healthcare and cleanliness than the uber-wealthy USA.
Another cafe owner in Astoria came to America from Serbia. Costs are so expensive in NYC that he has to live with a roommate and work a second bartending job (in addition to operating his cafe 7 days a week). His life was better in Serbia.
In a previous retail job, my store director earned much more money than I did but was compelled to live with another adult roommate, in order to afford an apartment in Hell's Kitchen. Lewis' former store director (45-years-old) came to America from Belgium but needed to live with a married couple in their apartment, in order to save money. I knew an insurance executive from Chicago who transferred to New York City but needed to live with a roommate (twice in two different apartments), to afford a home close to his job. In other cities all around the world, people with high incomes can live alone, but in NYC, they often need to coexist with roommates to split costs. It is an unnecessary imposition. Alas, landlords are uncontrollably greedy.
Overpaid police allow the same neighborhoods to be riddled with lawbreakers and crime for decades.
Overpaid transit workers allow NYC's outdated public transportation system to be one of worst and unreliable in the world.
Overpaid sanitation works allow the city to be filthy.
Overpaid construction unions allow the city to be pathetically substandard with never-ending "construction".
Even "data" is not secure in America! In October 2016, 58,000,000 email accounts, home addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, and IP addresses were shared on Twitter. It was amassed by Modern Business Solutions, where it was stolen from. They never explained how it happened or how they got possession of the data. In September 2014, 5,000,000 usernames and passwords for Gmail were posted on a Russian Bitcom forum. The origin of the breach was not revealed. In May 2016, LinkedIn suffered a breach of 164,000,000 email addresses and passwords, which were sold onto "dark market". The director of Human Resources for my previous company--a global brand--was duped into revealing personal data for every employee (and he gave it out via email)! Two of America's largest credit reporting agencies failed to protect hundreds of millions of users' personal/financial data. Half of the American population was exposed by their stupidity. No penalty to them. Their only consolation to citizens was one year of free online credit protection. So uncaring. So typical.
In a previous retail job, my store director earned much more money than I did but was compelled to live with another adult roommate, in order to afford an apartment in Hell's Kitchen. Lewis' former store director (45-years-old) came to America from Belgium but needed to live with a married couple in their apartment, in order to save money. I knew an insurance executive from Chicago who transferred to New York City but needed to live with a roommate (twice in two different apartments), to afford a home close to his job. In other cities all around the world, people with high incomes can live alone, but in NYC, they often need to coexist with roommates to split costs. It is an unnecessary imposition. Alas, landlords are uncontrollably greedy.
We know many people in my neighborhood who bravely immigrated to New York City. They came from Serbia, Croatia, Russia, China, South Korea, Vietnam, Brazil, Poland, Jamaica, Ecuador, Mexico, India, Bulgaria, Pakistan, and Greece. Many of them already moved elsewhere.
One of Lewis' longtime coworkers lived in Manhattan for five years, paying nearly $2,000 per month... and sleeping on her sofa! Her tiny apartment lacks a kitchen or a bedroom. Despite her friends' suggestions of affordable (and better) homes in the boroughs, she insisted on living "in Manhattan", so she could impress her friends.
One of our friends lives with her boyfriend and their dog in a tiny East Village apartment. It is far from any subway, the bathroom is tiny, and two people can not be in the kitchen at once. Despite finding better apartments in Astoria, she insisted on staying "in Manhattan", to impress her rural relatives. She wanted a Manhattan zip code. The tradeoff seems very silly.
Another friend recently moved to Astoria. She happily surrendered her swanky Manhattan apartment because it was too expensive. To cover those insane Manhattan costs, she previously lived with two roommates in the one-bedroom apartment! She lived in the bedroom, one lived in the living room, and one lived in the closet! A local barista pays rent to live in the living room of someone's apartment. Each of those situations is crazily preposterous! That is what "sane people" put themselves through to live in NYC. They are duped by its advertising lure.
One of our friends lives with her boyfriend and their dog in a tiny East Village apartment. It is far from any subway, the bathroom is tiny, and two people can not be in the kitchen at once. Despite finding better apartments in Astoria, she insisted on staying "in Manhattan", to impress her rural relatives. She wanted a Manhattan zip code. The tradeoff seems very silly.
Another friend recently moved to Astoria. She happily surrendered her swanky Manhattan apartment because it was too expensive. To cover those insane Manhattan costs, she previously lived with two roommates in the one-bedroom apartment! She lived in the bedroom, one lived in the living room, and one lived in the closet! A local barista pays rent to live in the living room of someone's apartment. Each of those situations is crazily preposterous! That is what "sane people" put themselves through to live in NYC. They are duped by its advertising lure.
When the barista returned to his hometown--the City of Portland, Oregon--he easily got a better-paying job. He got an affordable apartment--where everything functioned as it should--and he didn't need roommates to help pay for it. He was finally accepted by local theaters to orchestrate the musical shows that he was talented at creating. In essence, everything got better.
Our friend who abandoned NYC and returned to Boston instantly got a respectable job with better wages than those offered in the wealthier City of New York. He was able to bicycle safely/efficiently to work--making his commute dreamy! He met a stable-minded guy (unlike many flaky ones in NYC's gay "scene"). His apartment costs less than NYC and is hugely nicer.
Evidently, there is a "revolving door" of residents coming to NYC and then leaving. The international influx seems to come from poorer countries. Within NYC's huge population of 8.5 million, we don't encounter many people from highly-developed countries with high standards of living. Hardly anyone in NYC is from Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, Canada, Germany, Spain, Scotland, the Netherlands, Estonia, France, Switzerland, South Africa, or Australia. I suppose its nicer where they are, rather than being in NYC.
For immigrants, America is merely like a circus and scam-artist. It lures you inside in order to fleece your money from you.
Like a revolving door, it doesn’t care if you stay or succeed. If you don’t like it, it tells you to move along, because others are waiting to take your place. False advertising and “tales of riches” draw hordes of newcomers, who are scammed by landlords, employers, salesmen, repairmen, college tuitions, physicians, lawyers, bank penalties, loan interest rates, hidden fees, sudden surcharges, governmental fees, industry monopolies, sudden rises in price, and ever-threatened wages of the lowest possible caliber.
It has remained like that since the 1870s’ Industrial Revolution, and the annual promise of improvement is just more “misleading marketing.
Watch this short video (turn the sound on)...
Take a glimpse of the truth about living in NYC...
For immigrants, America is merely like a circus and scam-artist. It lures you inside in order to fleece your money from you.
Like a revolving door, it doesn’t care if you stay or succeed. If you don’t like it, it tells you to move along, because others are waiting to take your place. False advertising and “tales of riches” draw hordes of newcomers, who are scammed by landlords, employers, salesmen, repairmen, college tuitions, physicians, lawyers, bank penalties, loan interest rates, hidden fees, sudden surcharges, governmental fees, industry monopolies, sudden rises in price, and ever-threatened wages of the lowest possible caliber.
As such, NYC is like the temptress witch in Hansel & Gretel.
It has remained like that since the 1870s’ Industrial Revolution, and the annual promise of improvement is just more “misleading marketing.
Watch this short video (turn the sound on)...
Take a glimpse of the truth about living in NYC...
Overpaid police allow the same neighborhoods to be riddled with lawbreakers and crime for decades.
Overpaid transit workers allow NYC's outdated public transportation system to be one of worst and unreliable in the world.
Overpaid sanitation works allow the city to be filthy.
Overpaid construction unions allow the city to be pathetically substandard with never-ending "construction".
Even "data" is not secure in America! In October 2016, 58,000,000 email accounts, home addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, and IP addresses were shared on Twitter. It was amassed by Modern Business Solutions, where it was stolen from. They never explained how it happened or how they got possession of the data. In September 2014, 5,000,000 usernames and passwords for Gmail were posted on a Russian Bitcom forum. The origin of the breach was not revealed. In May 2016, LinkedIn suffered a breach of 164,000,000 email addresses and passwords, which were sold onto "dark market". The director of Human Resources for my previous company--a global brand--was duped into revealing personal data for every employee (and he gave it out via email)! Two of America's largest credit reporting agencies failed to protect hundreds of millions of users' personal/financial data. Half of the American population was exposed by their stupidity. No penalty to them. Their only consolation to citizens was one year of free online credit protection. So uncaring. So typical.
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