By George Capsis
The front page of the Times reported that half of all the money spent so far to support Democratic and Republican candidates for president came from just 158 families—$176 million. This is inevitable as more of world’s wealth slides into fewer and fewer hands.
The top one-tenth of one percent owns as much US wealth as the bottom 90 percent. America now has more wealth inequality than any other developed country on earth.
The Times explains that most of this money goes to “Republican candidates who have pledged to pare regulations; cut taxes on income, capital gains and inheritances; and shrink entitlement programs” policies that supporters see “as the surest way of promoting economic growth…”
The West Village, thanks to landmarking, has perhaps a disproportionate share of old buildings with rent regulated apartments and hence older tenants living on social security—some even receiving Federal government Section 8 which pays up to 70% of their rent, which is one of the entitlements I am sure the Republicans want to cut.
Contrast this to the 100 units in the Rudin condo towers that replaced St. Vincent’s hospital. These units sell from $2 million to over $30 million. The owners of these residences will be turning up at Community Board meetings in a few months making their voices heard—they are the new West Villagers, and they are for a Pastis restaurant on Gansevoort Street along with more luxury condos to accommodate their friends and relatives.
Indeed as the old rent regulated Villagers pass on or move to Florida, their rent-regulated apartments will be renovated to escape regulations and rented to the children of the one percenters as they graduate the Ivy League colleges—this will be the new “rich” West Village.
Which brings us to Bernie Sanders.
The Times, with a sense of relief, declared Hillary Clinton the debate winner on gun control, his understanding of capitalism and his innocence in contrasting our medical payment system mess to the free, life time medical support in Denmark, her—“this is not Denmark” got a round of applause. The Times was anxious because Bernie was coming up so strong and they wanted Hillary to win, so they read her performance as a winning performance. But then all the phone polls show that Bernie won.
It was also reported that the Republicans thought Sanders the winner because they are sure they can win against anybody who calls himself a Democratic Socialist.
I heard Bernie Sanders speak at Town Hall and I cringed at his Brooklyn accent and despair at his getting elected because he is Jewish and worst of all, he is 70 years old—but he has my vote. In fact he sounds and looks like me—but unfortunately he is not as old.
Ok, the Times is going to endorse Hillary, but WestView endorsed de Blasion when he was 80 points behind while the Times endorsed Quinn.
