I’d love to know what the economic ROI is on paying people that much to clear snow. I bet it’s huge in NYC.

Plus all the money paid out in wages went back into the local economy for rent, food, etc. It didn't go to offshore tax havens.

Conservative don't want to make things better for everyone, they want to make things better for themselves.

This makes them short sighted and only see the money right in front of their face, which in this case, is going into the pockets of people shovelling snow.

They don't see the benefit because it doesn't benefit them immediately.

But you can bet your life that they will reap the benefit as they pull themselves up by other peoples bootstraps.

The issue with public transport is that it's an investment that will pay off in years, not next quarter, or even next election. They don't give a fuck if it doesn't benefit them specifically, and right now.

Also, it evens the field. They don't want this because the bottom having more means they are less above them.

Because everything's a get rich quick scheme or a scam, investments to them are rigging bets on polymarket

Let’s not forget also, that when you pay people directly they go and spend that money. Businesses cannot have customers if the customers don’t have money. The reason why money is kept so tight is a) blind greed and b) because then people can only afford to patronize Walmart or Amazon, not their local stores.

Conservatives like to act as though raising minimum wage will kill local businesses despite the fact that that is not how that works.

Clean energy is another example of an investment which obviously saves money in the long term and also improves the economy in the short term. Conservatives don't care about that because they don't care about the long term, and even if they do, they want all of these issues to still be around so they have something to yell about (since apparently voters only care about something being a problem and can't tell if the 'solution' will actually make things better or worse). There's also a lot of lobbyist money that they can keep on getting by preventing these sorts of investments. If we stopped relying on a couple of oil companies, then those oil companies wouldn't be able to give the politicians money.

Besides that, people are struggling to make ends meet. If the city pays them to do something, that money isn't just staying in saving accounts. They are going to spend it, likely very very soon.

And it's not a new concept either, it has been proven many times and there's plenty of case studies. High speed rail too, all over Europe, China and Japan. But when your job has been given to you by an oil company donation...

It's an investment to the public, not a direct injection of cash/investment that they will directly benefit from.

Conservatives are stupid, basically. Given a set of facts they will draw back conclusions

I assume oil companies broke the brain of the worst americans so now they only want what's best for oil companies, most of the time without even realising it.

Woah, woah, woah! I don't want investment that benefits everyone. I only want investment that benefits me! It's a zero-sum game and I need to be the one winning.

I agree but I think we are currently driving past that place in history where everything is based on buying and selling things for money. The current imbalance of capital is slowly catching on to the rest of the world, not just the ones who've known it all along.

They aren't even used to bomb brown people overseas 😡

Maybe.

Taxes rarely get any good propaganda, though. I don't mind news stories like this being plastered everwhere if it means people will start believing their government can do something for them again.

Yeah hate to live in a world where expected behaviour becomes our paradise.

A basic thing that capitalists can't grasp.

You mean paying contractors exorbitant rates for slave prison laborers being paid $2.00/hr while the executives pocket most of the money?

That's oddly specific, did I miss something?

Roosevelt as in Franklin Delano Roosevelt? He was already dead when the war was over. His successor, Harry Truman, could have implemented this policy?

Probably both, yeah. They're not exactly known for being objectively right about things..

How will he ever make a profit?!

I can't tell if this is a joke, satire, or sarcasm. Nothing in the post indicates anything related to socialism, nor are there any incentives mentioned. The mayor simply offered fair compensation for labor. I would even say that $40 an hour is still a relatively small amount of money.

A lot of seasonal workers are exempt from earning overtime.

And $30/hr doesn't even seem all that high for a high-cost-of-living area like NY.

$30/hour is about $60K/year.

That's an absolutely livable wage in NYC. You might need a roommate, but it's easily achievable. I lived there for almost a decade (recently), but since you shouldn't trust random people on the internet, here's the MIT living wage calculator:

• Manhattan: https://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/36061
• Brooklyn: https://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/36047
• Bronx: https://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/36005
• Staten Island: https://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/36085
• Queens: https://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/36081

As a single adult with no kids, you're just barely under the "living" wage in most of those, but well above "poverty" in all of them. In any borough, with a roommate, you're cruising comfortably (see the "2 Adults (Both Working): 0 Children" column). In the Bronx, as a single adult with no kids, $30 is above the living wage mark.

It's also worth noting, people may live outside the city, but take a train or subway in for work. Living just outside the city brings costs down quite a bit.

I don't know if you have ever seen snow before but... this isn't a full time job.

I mean... It's temporary snow removal. Let's call it seasonal. So like not full time.

Then don’t think of it as $30/hr wages. Think of it as almost $500 for two days on top of your normal job. Or I don’t know who helped out, but maybe it’s almost $500 for two days a high schooler can use for snything

Can't really use plows or snowblowers on NYC sidewalks. Too many trashbags and sidewalk sheds.

In my town they have a snow blower on a small tractor trying to clear walking routes to school. But there always places it cant handle such as a narrow spot or tree or post obstructions on the sidewalk. Maybe a car not pulled in far enough. Kids have to walk in the street until the constriction is passed, unless someone shovels

I’m sure the same is true in nyc: various machinery in most places, but some just can’t fit a machine for various reasons.

Note that they didn’t hire millions of shovelers. If they didn’t have machines doing most of the work, they’d still be shovelling

Public Works is a net-generator of revenue for a municipality. They allow businesses to operate, which increases tax revenue.

The alternative to hiring people to shovel the snow is having business halt and the city taking a massive loss in tax revenue, to say nothing of the social, economic, and public safety benefits.

Tax 1% of the 1% and you instantly make that back. Why argue over pennies?

It says in the op photo, they paid people to shovel snow