The Impact Of the New York Transit Strike

The New York transit strike has been used by retailers - mostly big retailers, though you only hear about the small ones being affected lest you think that the strike is hurting rich folk the most - as a reason for their various sales slumps in the aftermath of the strike's onset. News reports have focused on small stores, even though Macy's and Bloomingdale's would benefit handsomely if the strike were settled tomorrow. Finance and insurance businesses are also hurting - their own employees have to get to work somehow! - but in the end, the board members of these companies will still have money to burn no matter much productivity they lose in the meantime. Transit workers and middle-class commuters alike are in this together, however much the local Fox television affiliate insists otherwise on the the ten o'clock news.

Admittedly, some people on the lower end of the economic ladder are hurting. New York's street performers, for example, can only perform for the most part in the subway stations these days, because it's just too cold to do so on the sidewalks outside. These performers are mostly struggling artists and entertainers who are trying to get discovered, and this is usually their only way of making it. Why, look at Jason Alexander - he started out as a street performer in New York, and then he eventually won a part on "Seinfeld," which led to . . . okay, bad example! :-O

Seriously, I understand that such people, and many others, are affected by this strike. But that doesn't mean Roger Toussaint is wrong or unreasonable. And working people in other professions should understand that.