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Comment by mcny | Hacker News Reader

I am ABSOLUTELY sick and tired of upstate folks making decisions for New York.

How? The state assembly vote was an unanimous "yay". In the senate, only two state senators voted against, but they were actually from "upstate". Blaming "upstate folks making decisions for New York" makes no sense here.

https://nyassembly.gov/leg/?default_fld=&leg_video=&bn=A0487...

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S4091

This isn't "upstate being out of touch," this is "the MTA union is corrupt."

I don't think the union is corrupt. The union's job is to advocate for its members. The legislators' job is to say "no, you're asking for too much".

Now try this with corporations:

"I don't think the company[1] is corrupt. The company's job is to advocate for its shareholders. The legislators' job is to say "no, you're asking for too much"."

[1] take your pick of Comcast, Boeing, or United Health

You're right. The real problem is that the MTA union is a big voting and donation bloc that selects the people they negotiate against. The real solution is to do away with the MTA union. An organization founded on corruption doing its intended purpose isn't any less corrupt.

It would be nice if the union found ways to advocate for its members that were less hostile to the well functioning of the MTA.

Unfortunately, I think the hostility here is very much part of the point. It's an expression of power.

Other countries' unions are much more open minded about automation.

> Other countries' unions are much more open minded about automation.

Other countries have social services outside of "fuck you, go die".

The US sucks major ass to be a working person, period. Your job is everything. If you lose your job, you can lose it all. Most people are one or two bad weeks away from being homeless here.

Yes, the stakes are higher. My job isn't just a job - it's my health insurance, it's the roof over my head, it's the food on my table, it's my reputation.

Want people to be less hostile to automation? Great, start by making automation less hostile to them. When automation threatens your actual life, people are going to oppose it. At the end of the day, we're animals. When a Gazelle sees a Lion, they run.

The New York State welfare system is better than the US average by a lot, actually. The problem is overcomplexity (e.g means testing) makes it scary to rely on, and general shit American efficiency means outcomes per dollar are not as good as Europe.

The "machine" politicians who these less-than-enligtened unions tend to support are actually more to the right (of the Democratic party) and less interested in expanding the welfare state. In fact, there have been times the unions are explicitly against more benefits to the general public because they feel they weaken union contracts in comparison (stuff that only they got before now everyone gets).

I wish I was kidding with these things...

European style sectoral bargaining is much better, and makes for much more enlightened unions. Hopefully we get it in the US, there are some positive signs it might be possible.

I think NY state concurs wrt to NYC.

So why don't y'all split the state up? NYC in one corner, the rest of NY on the other.

Then upstate folk will get real political representation in Albany, and NYC will send two interesting senators to DC. As much as I disagree with AOC I'd love for her to become a senator.

Easier said than done, as it needs consent of the state legislature and the us congress. The last time a state was split off like this was West Virginia exiting Virginia in 1863, while Virginia had seceded.

Kinda ironic that it took a civil war the last time it happened.

More ironic that you'll probably find more confederate flags in WV than in VA, today.

They don't exactly brag about their state's loyalty to the nation back then.

States can’t just decide by themselves to split up. The federation has to consent, which with our permanently deadlocked congress will never happen.

First step the state has to want to split, though. And I guarantee you that the red capitols (most of them) are game.

That leaves a small hurdle of getting a couple of purple states. Perhaps a great compromise is reached - NY ex-NYC merges with PA ex-Philly and Philly joins NYC.

More importantly the natural resources in upstate actually belong to New York, not to upstate.

They belong to the state.

But these things can be negotiated in the divorce

I completely agree with your sentiment, but the same goes the other way. I grew up in Upstate NY and people were always annoyed by the city making decisions for upstate.

I totally agree with the concept you're talking about though. Especially here - this feels like it should be a municipality's decision.

And as someone living in the top of New York, I'm ABSOLUTELY sick and tired of city folks making some of the absolute stupidest decisions for the rest of New York, but we all have to eat the same shit sandwich, so: eat up, buddy!

At least Shel Silver's reign of terror is over.

Shel Silverstein?

Sheldon Silver. Former NY Speaker of the House.

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