Fareed Zakaria: The crisis of democracy is really a crisis for the left

 

People seem to feel that they have been taxed, regulated, bossed around and intimidated by left-of-center politicians for decades — but the results are bad and have been getting worse.

New York, where I live, and Florida, where I often visit, provide an interesting contrast.

What do New Yorkers get for these vast sums, generated by the highest tax rates in the country? 

(If you are well off in New York City, you pay nearly as much in income taxes as in London, Paris or Berlin — without free higher education or health care.) 

New York’s poverty rate is higher than Florida’s.

 New York has a slightly lower rate of homeownership and a much higher rate of homelessness.

Despite spending more than twice as much on education per student, New York has educational outcomes — graduation rates, eighth-grade test scores — that are roughly the same as Florida’s.

If Democrats do not learn some hard lessons from the poor governance in many blue cities and states, they will be seen as defending cultural elites, woke ideology and bloated, inefficient government. 

That might be a formula for permanent minority status.

Fareed Zakaria Washington Post 4 January 2025

https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/fareed-zakaria/

Tillbaka till Rolfs länktips 4-5 januari 2025

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/01/rolfs-lanktips-4-5-januari-2025.html