Trending
We do not need a crystal ball to see the future of New York state if things don't change soon. Merely observe what has happened in places with similar policies.
England is a Leftist economic disaster, and so is France, but let's look at Germany. Germany was Europe's industrial heartland. It was a world leader in technology and engineering. It anchored the European economy since World War II.
But Germany is now crippled by a bloated and self-defeating Welfare State and irrational Green Energy policies. Their industry is leaving, their economy is retracting, and young Germans don't believe they have a future.
Germany sounds a lot like New York state -- where our greatest export is our brightest young people.
Germany's economic problems were acknowledged last year when Chancellor Friedrich Merz openly admitted the failure of their Welfare State: "We need to work more and, crucially, more efficiently. We have no hope of maintaining our nation's prosperity with a four-day week or work-life balance."
Merz openly admitted that the Welfare State has destroyed Germany's economy. The Welfare State -- like its Socialism cousin -- always undermines the productive engine of the economy, resulting in economic shortages and affordability issues. The German Welfare State imposes a crushing burden on taxpayers and demoralizes those who still work.
Quoting a business owner in Germany: "People have no shame in exploiting the Welfare State." That sounds like New York, where Leftist politicians frequently boast of it.
But can Germany - or anybody - perform a self-rescue from Leftist policies of illusionary "Democratic Socialism" or the Welfare State once 51% of the population thinks it can live for free by democratically enslaving the other 49%?
Consider Governor Hochul's pathetic plea for the rich to "move back to New York and cut [her] a check to support New York's generous welfare system." In that single statement Hochul admitted that Leftist policies have killed the New York economy. It sounds like Germany, except New Yorkers can easily escape elsewhere.
A country can have either a prosperous economy, or a generous Welfare State, but not both. The people at the bottom cannot be helped by looting the people who actually produce the wealth upon which all of society depends.
Germany also undermined itself with its Energiewende program, (their Green New Deal). Leftist German politicians claimed Green Energy would make electricity cheap and create 500,000 new jobs. Germany proudly eliminated its traditional and nuclear electricity generation, replacing them with Wind and Solar. Just like New York.
Prior to Energiewende, Germany had the most advanced nuclear power industry in the world, but its nuclear plants now lay shuttered - wasting hundreds of billions of dollars in German wealth. New York did the same thing by shuttering Indian Point and flushing $15 billion down the Green Energy toilet, while Albany now admits we need $30 billion for more Nuclear. Go figure.
Germany does indeed lead the world in the installation of "renewables," but that also means they have the industrialized world's most expensive electricity and most unreliable grid. Germany must routinely purchase nuclear power from France and coal power from Poland whenever they encounter periods of Dunkelflaute (low wind and low solar). They shutter industry and lay-off workers for weeks at a time because they don't have power. That is coming to New York under current law.
Germany was also forced to reopen its dirty coal (lignite) mining and re-start coal generation to keep the lights on. New York was forced to import coal-fired power from Pennsylvania to make up for killing the Indian Point nuclear plant.
Germany had planned to be the world's biggest supplier of Wind and Solar equipment, but they lost the market to China, which uses cheap reliable coal-fired power to run its industry. Germany cannot compete with China's affordable power. Instead of creating 500,000 jobs -- as promised by its Leftist politicians -- Germany lost 200,000.
Germans now pay 50-100% more for electricity than the rest of Europe. Similarly, New York now pays 70% more than the US average for electricity.
Apparently, China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam didn't get the "Green" memo, and are accelerating their use of coal with no end in sight. Hence, Germany's Green Energy policies (like those of New York) are self-defeating virtue signals in a world that does not care about Net Zero nonsense. China uses over 50% of all the coal and is ever increasing.
The result of Germany's Energiewende has been economic bust and deindustrialization. BASF is the world's largest chemical company. It just moved $10 billion of investment from Germany to China, with whom Germany already had a $66 Billion annual trade deficit.
Volkswagen is cutting 50,000 jobs, while ThyssenKrupp is cutting 11,000. Bosch is cutting 13,000. Meanwhile Germany's Leftist politicians continue to fiddle while their economy and culture burn.
Just like in New York.
Elections have consequences. Will you fix it?
Michael Dee is a Silver Creek resident while Scott Axelson resides in Jamestown.