Buffalo Really Really Free Market

Someday we will all be free and naked. Puff, puff, pass.

Buffalo is getting so trippy-dippy liberal. LOVE IT!!

Buffalo has always been a liberal city.

In its own way Buffalo has gone off the deep end right along with other liberal Great Lakes cities: Gary, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, etc.

But Buffalo and the Great Lakes have been liberal along the lines of provincial socialism of Massachusetts rather than the trippy dippy hippy LA (Hollywood Media types)/SF (porn,pot, castro, haight-ashbury) types.

Infact, much of what suburban types hype as unique and novel about things happening in the city are not liberal at all but a return to basic grass roots community prudence and frugality. Things like urban farms, urban gardens, urban markets, arts, crafts, home businesses, etc etc etc. 50 years ago that wasnt novel. It was normal.

This is the purist form of free-market capitalism, liberated from the constraints and totalitarian subjugation of the corporatism, our government has become one with. This is the type of thing we need to see. Fascism is our contemporary American economy, we do not live in a free-market anymore, when the price of money is rigged the market is not free. Corporatism/Fascism = Socialism

So let me get this straight… being even more liberal is a good thing for buffalo? So we want more public sector jobs and less private sector, so our taxes can go up even more and fewer companies stay and even fewer investment dollars pour in? Explain to me how this progressive thinking works…
If you mean liberal in terms of gay rights, more environmental friendly, etc – then certainly those are good things. However, for anyone who knows city history – at our peak and during our glory days – we were NOT a “progressive” city, but were indeed a very, very free market city. It was a city full of small and large businesses with well proportioned state/local taxes that encouraged the growth of the individual and his/her company. This is the philosophy and the governmental system that can save Buffalo, as well as NYS. However – it is not the “progressive” ideology because it encourages far less public sector involvement, de-taxation, down-sizing and ultimately a return to the philosophy of an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay… of course the republicans no longer act or think this way so I guess we are doubly screwed! Go bills!

Buffalo was indeed a progressive city, the entire WNY area was known as an area of "free thinkers" and radicals all through the 1800's.
The economic engine that built Buffalo had nothing to do with conservative or liberal leadership, we simply took advantage of our location at the gateway to the great lakes and the west. The Erie Canal and later railroads brought the opportunity for local entreprenuers to thrive. Our decline was the result of modern transportation methods that resulted in the loss of our geographic advantage.

Well let me inject a little economic history. Buffalo was a very profitable city and it did indeed have low personal (well of course Buffalo's golden age was before NYS Personal Income Tax) and low corporate taxes. Why? Where was the tax money coming from?

Answer: The #1 taxpayer for the City of Buffalo was the railroads.

The railroads so much in taxes that the city didnt need to collect that much from other businesses.

The railroads and canals and ports made Buffalo a nexus for natural resources, manufacturing, banking, services, retail, technology, medicine, communications, etc.

When the port and the erie canal dried up because of the Welland Canal, it hurt the railroads which were already hurting from the shift to air and highways. Roughly at the same time NYS decided to stop taxing the railroads trackage.

I harp on it ad nauseum but Buffalonians must understand the keys to its economy lie in 4 key areas:

1) Transportation (which includes all modes such as rail, air, canal, port, light rail, trolley, auto, etc then logistics, then import/export/international trade, customs, distribution, supply chain, warehouse and inventory management, etc.) This is not small beans! Yet we add very littel value to what passes thru our city. Buffalo has descended into little more than a conduit or way station.

2) Communications (back in the day it was the telegraph and mail, then the telephone, then the internet, ecommerce, ebusiness, wireless, high speed networks, optics, etc). This is big stuff and should be big stuff considering Buffalo is an ultra high speed corridor (UB super computers) and international corridor. Yet Buffalo's data and voice is NOT even on par with Rochester.

3) Power Generation, Power Distribution, Power Management. WNY has nuclear, coal, bio-ethanol, bio-diesel, hydro, passive geothermal, wind, etc. Plus we have natural deposits of oil, gas and coal in the Southern Tier of WNY. We should easily be a center for all this 21st century renewable and smart grid stuff. Yet we arent even thinking of it.

4) Material Science. Take a look at nearly all of our technology companies from GreatBatch to Richs and they all are very intensive Material Science companies. Materials are the essence of their next product.

5) Banking and Finance which seems to be the only remaining private sector industry.

Its the same story with Buffalo history and culture.

All the roots are there but the tree has been cut down. Buffalo cannot depend on the Center for Life Sciences in total. We must destroy the government unions and encourage our natural private sectors to regrow.

This is one awfully heavy comment thread for a simple swap meet.

'I harp on it ad nauseum but Buffalonians must understand the keys to its economy lie in 4 key areas....'

While you're lecturing the world on economics, professor, you may want to brush up on your math skills.

P.S. When you have a moment, could you refund my deposit on the Lafayette High School condo you sold me?

I had a great time at this event. I scored some medicinal remedies for a reach around.