A polemic against New York City

New York’s entire economy is based on monopolies of information. Wall Street banks make a mint trading because they have inside information on the market flows of the products they trade.  Literary agents arbitrage scarce access to book publishers against a mass of hopeful authors. Real estate brokers (and these are brokers on rental properties, not properties for sale) routinely make a 15% commission when you sign a lease, pocketing a good two-months salary (read, upwards of $5000) for the privilege of telling you where there’s an apartment free.

In New York, those monopolies go unchallenged.

The claim is that New York will never have a vibrant tech community, because of its hustler mentality and discomfort with "open information" models.  The article seemed overstated to me (for one thing he has a Manhattan bias and neglects the importance of manufacturing to NYC), but still it is making a basic point of interest.

I liked this line, though I wonder about the cheap living:

Basically, startups flourish in the Bay Area the same reason the homeless do: decent weather, relatively cheap living, and no stigma attached to your lifestyle.

For the pointer I thank Chris F. Masse.

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