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‘Huddled Masses’ Update: Why Is This ‘Crisis’ Costing New York Billions?

Posted on | August 14, 2023 | 1 Comment

Our moral and intellectual superiors:

New York City’s surging migrant population is set to double by June 2024 — meaning the city will be on the hook for 100,000 homeless immigrants — as costs are estimated to rise to a mind-boggling high of $12 billion over the next three years.
“We are past our breaking point,” Mayor Adams declared in a dire address at City Hall Wednesday, pleading with the feds and everyday New Yorkers to help mitigate the crisis.
The city currently spends a nightly average of $383 per 25,600 asylum-seeker households, including families with kids, adult couples and singles — for housing, food and other services, according to officials.
“With more than 57,300 individuals currently in our care on an average night, it amounts to $9.8 million a day. Almost $300 million a month and nearly $3.6 billion a year,” the mayor said.
“This is the floor, not the ceiling,” he warned, revealing the city’s current expenses could rise even further.

(Hat-tip: Sarah Hoyt at Instapundit.)

Apparently, no one else has bothered doing the arithmetic here. Saturday night on The Other Podcast, this topic was raised by John Hoge who had a post about a similar “crisis” in Massachusetts. The reason Democrat-controlled “blue” states are now caterwauling about their “crisis” is that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, whose state has been coping for years with the flood of illegal immigrants caused by the failure of the federal government to secure the border, decided to start sending busloads of these asylum seekers to the places where liberals vote for “sanctuary laws” and elect liberal Democrats who embrace such policies.

Yes, but what about the arithmetic? Adams speaks of “25,600 asylum-seeker households” costing the city $383 per day or, by another calculus, “57,300 individuals” who cost the city $9.8 million a day — which simple division tells me amounts to $171.03 per “individual.” Multiply that by 365 days of the year, and this means that New York City is spending $62,425.83 per year on each member of its “surging migrant population.”

Every man, woman and child of these “huddled masses” is consuming, at taxpayer expense, a sum nearly $10,000 a year greater than the median household income in Alabama. Of course, the migrants themselves get nary a nickel of that spending, which is funneled through a vast bureaucracy and into the coffers of non-profit social-service charities, so that what most of this money actually goes to is keeping sociology majors employed. Also, a lot of the money is paid to rent hotel rooms for the “57,300 individuals,” so that spending $9.8 million a day functions as a subsidy to hotel owners, and also guaranteeing employment for the hotel maids whose job it is to clean up after the “huddled masses.”

While it is not my habit to offer advice to liberal Democrats, perhaps Mayor Adams will heed this suggestion: New York City can help these migrants, and ultimately end the city’s refugee “crisis,” by the simple expedient of (a) giving money directly to the migrants, on condition that (b) they leave New York. Basically, offer them a free one-way plane ticket and guarantee them $3,000 a month for the first six months in their new place of residence, on condition that they never return to New York.

For a lump-sum expenditure of less than $20,000, you thereby save the taxpayers of New York $40,000 a year going forward. Oh, and I should add, that’s $3,000 a month for each member of the migrant household, including children, so that a family of four would get $12,000 a month for six months after their relocation from New York. And you know something, Mayor Adams? There are lots of places in this country — certainly Alabama is among them — where any family with a monthly income of $12,000 would be considered wealthy. Hell, these migrants could be living it up like the Kardashians, if only you’d do it my way.

Perhaps readers now understand why it’s not my habit to offer advice to liberal Democrats — my ideas are just too pure genius for them.



 

Category: Immigration, New York

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One Response to “‘Huddled Masses’ Update: Why Is This ‘Crisis’ Costing New York Billions?”

  1. Oh New York, Failure City - The DaleyGator
    August 14th, 2023 @ 10:19 am

    […] ‘Huddled Masses’ Update: Why Is This ‘Crisis’ Costing New York Billions? […]