New York is a funny town. Tonight I catch up with my good friend Jon at the remnants of a going-away party for an associate at his law office. It’s all a bunch of guys around my age (32) bullshitting away at this bar, right? Good guys all; about six of us. They’re in suits, I’m in my work attire of jeans and a button-down shirt. The topic moves to housing and how it’s so hard to afford it. None of them can afford to buy a place in Manhattan; Jon just got rejected by a co-op board for a place in Brooklyn after months of hassles.
“I’m po'” bitched one of ’em, who had recently bought a Harley because he couldn’t afford an apartment.
Like all the others, he makes 150 – 250 large a year. Oooof. As a reporter, obviously, I earn just a fraction of that.
It’d be easy to make some snarky remark — but y’know what? I actually make a good salary, compared to my friends who are teachers. Not to mention the rest of the city … I think I’ve been to just about every corner of the New York in the past four years on the job, climbing up public housing stairwells rank with urine and walking past streetcorners filled with strife. I feel fortunate to be where I am.
And of course, even in the poorest areas of the city — they’re doing well, compared to most people in Africa, India or China.
And on the other end of things — Jon and his colleagues work for this Cleveland-based firm that decided a few years ago to stop giving out year-end bonuses, making them an anomaly among New York’s big corporate law firms. All their law-school buddies at similar firms got bonuses of up to $50,000. Can you blame them for bitching?
New York Fuckin’ City — it seems like no matter where you are, there’s always someone 10 rungs ahead of you, and 10 rungs below.
But it’s the teachers who are doing such an important service to our community. I left a much higher paying job in the entertainment industry and had I have stayed with it I could be living in Trump Towers. But it’s not worth it (at least so say I). I’m happier now, and financially I could be doing a lot worse.
I like your conclusion. And you could be in a million worse places than New York City, too. Well, OK, a hundred. Anyway…I started at 17,000 a year and couldn’t believe how people used to complain about ‘only’ starting at 40,000. Those people have an exaggerated sense of what they need. But it’s ok if they’re buying drinks.
Staying anonymous for this one… but I can’t imagine a bonus as small as 50K, and there are still plenty of rungs headed up above me.
yowza! but that’s what i mean…