NYC - A capitalist's Mecca

 New York is one of the worlds many union stations transferring money boarding transaction trains destined to finance some believed form of human progress, often creating a sense of American prosperity.  New York is the honey pot people can smell or envision from miles away. The NYC might be the Capitalist's Mecca.  The draw isn't limited to money, prosperity in any elite form might describe its appeal.  I have yet to hear, "I dream of visiting New York to feel the insignificance, view the disparity, and smell the consumption".  If you are an elite then you have some higher level presence in NYC.  There is an allure to New York City that reflects the American angst.  The ambition that seems to have an origin story sprouted in the 1600s through the spread of European immigrant commerce, later to make way for European migrants and refugees. The mercantile trade has been replaced by new modern goods to sell.  The digital age has overshadowed the industrial.  The gentrification still seems the same.  A consequence often ignored in favor of basking in the apparent prestige of luxury, despite the human cost to its inflicted.  

The Dutch called it a New something, the English called it a New York, and every generation since has added their form of New to their perception of it.  A part of me wished the Dutch would have called it shared something, and the English might have followed with Shared York.  Then today we wouldn't have the mentality of turnover and gentrification.  Would immigrants still be drawn to a Shared York.  Would there be such strong desire for individuals to separate themselves from the typical or mundane.  Would there be this illusion of certain types of hard work as inferior to innovation. The melanin rich types of hard work never lead to empires, yet empires are ultimately constructed more often than not by melanin rich laborers.  There is this magical preference for tycoons who have mastered the art of letting their money do the hard work.  These families then carry on a privilege that gets a superior distinction.  It looks a lot like a reasonable competitive advantage, yet they also get to call it earned.  Would we still believe in the lie that some earned a superior lifestyle because of some hard earned path if we measured effort in calories.  

Using a unit of measure that isn't so disenfranchising like currency might make it hard to score hard work in such lopsided ways.  I think we realize that the ownership of many innovations are ignoring much of the collective efforts that establishes the conditions necessary for these break throughs.  I see that New Yorkers along with most American's tend to ignore the sharedness of foundational human technologies galvanized by all peoples.  Ownership of technologies is the new monarchy.  The corporation is quickly becoming the new heritage.  The exploitation of these technologies has become what capitalists like to overlook when advertising to the world their exceptionalism.