Wait wait wait. You’re telling me that if you offer fair compensation for labor the people performing that labor will do the job they’re hired for?
Son of a gun. Who’d of thunk it!
And some of that money will come back and the cycle will continue.
Outside NY, the MAGA faithful condemn this and would rather have the money diverted to billionaires who will one day descend as prophesised, to give them their land of milk and honey
$30/hr is insanely low for NYC. I guarantee I couldn’t live on it there…
I don’t know if you have ever seen snow before but… this isn’t a full time job.
Roosevelt did the same thing too when soldiers came back from the war and couldn’t find work and their government Bonds were expired. He designed a lot of unification projects like bridges and all sorts of projects while those bridges are beautiful and they’re still standing today showing that we don’t have to do things cheap and we can still help people that’s grades are under that our governments to do that invest in their people.
Nd let’s not forget that there was an economic benefit too that conservatives will ignore. People were able to get out of their house and go spend money thanks to the people who shoveled. People went to work and kept things going.
Conservatives frequently think these things bring no value, and will absolutely mock it on fox news saying “so people can wALk”. But yes, the benefit is they can go keep the economy going.
Its why I don’t understand why they are against things like high speed rail. Its an investment. Every time we connect people together trade happens, and economies grow. Its kind of how that works.
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…
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.
Also those people are getting swole while they shovel snow.
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.
Let’s be real, it’s not that much money. I mean $30/hr is nice, but that’s only when there’s enough snow to be worth cleaning, and only half the year. It’s not like a full-time position paid $30/hr.
So the investment is relatively small, and the benefit is relatively large.
In a city where the vast majority either walk to work, or walk to the subway to get to work, I can’t imagine. We clear roadways in the midwest and no one bats an eye, but clearing sidewalks in a walkable city is crazy to them.
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.
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.
Turns out when people have money to spend they spend across the board, both places like walmart/amazon and also the local stores
I mean, yes, but they have the choice.
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.
Its so obvious top which is the most annoying thing. Cars are freedom. Well, no, they’re actually a huge liability that cost a small fortune and lose that value, and then you’re tethered to a gas pump forever.
Or I could, I don’t know, take public transit anywhere I wanted to go. You know, freedom to choose other things
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
This is great, but I love that he gave the school kids of New York an actual, honest-to-god snow day. No remote class, no logging on.
I saw so many people commenting on social media how they have never seen the sidewalks and streets cleared that fast in New York. He is winning people over quickly.
Money can be exchanged for goods and services!
No! Money is only supposed to be hoarded, so you can watch red line go up.
Homer is smarter than all conservatives combined
It’s a shame that removing the crayon didn’t work for RFK.
The worm ate it
Homer’s brain is anyway, the thoughts don’t usually make it all the way through Homer.
S-M-R-Ter you mean.
Tell that to conservatives that say to cut taxes and social services.
I thought you were supposed to give it to billionaires for safekeeping?
Woo hoo!
Does that include a peanut?
For an example of how crucial it is too keep roads accessible and decongested, look at the Philippines. Metro Manila is currently losing 3.5 billion pesos PER DAY due to the constant congestion, and is on track for that loss reaching 6 billion. An average company employee might earn somewhere between 20-30k per month there, so 3.5 billion is a lot of money by Filipino measure.
Ok, but all that money wasted on streets could have gone to a private pocket of a nepo tech startup promising AI billboards that would feed ads to ppl & the city would subsidise to “promote innovation”.
/s
That’s oddly specific, did I miss something?
You mean paying contractors exorbitant rates for
slaveprison laborers being paid $2.00/hr while the executives pocket most of the money?They increased prison labour to 2$/hr now??
That’s socialism!!
If they just built some more datacentres the snow would naturally melt form the climate change.
They are literally doing their best!
(And it’s horrific beyond comprehension.)Heated driveways are old school. Nowadays we need bitcoin-mining sidewalks.
How DARE he use MY Tax Money to make MY Life EASIER! EVERYONE knows Tax Money is meant for RICH PEOPLE and NO ONE else!
$30/hr, $45/hr overtime
Yea… that’s how time & a half works…
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.
And yet it’s almost double the minimum wage.
I read this as minimum wage needing to be higher, not snow shoveling wages needing to be lower.
It’s an infinitely higher percentage than zero, isn’t it?
Anything is an infinitely higher percentage than zero. That’s how math works. Don’t know what you’re trying to get at with that.
New york city has a 25billion dollar budget deficit.
Id need to see data on the cost comparison w alternatives.
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.
That’s not the only alternative. In other countries the building owner is required to clear the snow in front of their building, and it generally works quite well. The American version would be to allow people to sue building owners for damages if they don’t clear the snow.
I’m sure there are other alternatives. Not saying they are automatically better, but asking to compare them is not a crazy demand.
Tax 1% of the 1% and you instantly make that back. Why argue over pennies?
What did they mock him for? Too expensive? Won’t work?
Probably both, yeah. They’re not exactly known for being objectively right about things…
How will he ever make a profit?!
