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think about the quality of life, long island was once a great place to live, once
there are so many places that are still great, and will continue to be.
This is SO true! On LI, you pay such a high price to live, that one would think that the streets should be paved with gold. Instead, the infrastructure is crumbling, despite the outrageous wealth devoted to it's sustenance (Largely thanks to political corruption and unions) and the place is awash with foreigners, because they need them to sustain the population, because LI has been hemorrhaging it's original residents for the last 30 years.
Why do people stay and put up with the low quality of life? Most say "money"- which is absurd, because even if one is a millionaire on paper on LI, that wealth does not translate into a good quality of life- it is just something on paper, which is eaten up by ridonculous taxes and cost of living. If you have to work 8 or 10 hours a day and spend another 4 on a train or in traffic...you have zero quality of life, regardless of how much money one has on paper.
In so many other places, one can drive on smooth clean roads and live a relaxed and pleasant lifestyle, and truly enjoy life, even on a very modest income (I make a THIRD now of what I made on LI, and yet my quality of life is 100 times better!)
Gosh, you act like Long Island is some post-apocalyptic hellscape.
There are tons of places that have advantages that Long Island lacks, but if you appreciate being near New York City, are able to make a nice living here (and stop exaggerating about this: there's no need to be a multimillionaire), like the beaches and value being near family, then Long Island has a lot to offer.
Yes, you need to be at peace with less property and smaller houses. But life is all about trade offs. Some people find that the disadvantages of Long Island outweigh its benefits and some people do not. Doesn't make anyone crazy.
Really, when's the last time you drove through many of the once bustling villages here on LI? Oh the traffic is still there, in fact, it's as bad as ever, but what I'm referring to are the empty storefronts, the restaurants going out of business, the potholed and pockmarked roads. Yet, the building of strip malls, high-density housing and even larger commercial properties marches on, enriching developers, lawyers and last, but not least, politicians. Consider that most businesses are now wise to the IDA scams and they all threaten to leave LI in order to gain tax abatements, utility credits and other hand-outs, courtesy of our inept political leadership. And when's the last time you looked at your utility bills? The utilities agressively raised rates across the board when commodities were surging. Now, oil is less than $40/bbl and natl gas is at 14 year lows, yet my energy bills are just as high as they were when oil was at $120/bbl.
Yeah, compared to most other regions, I'd say this is pretty post-apocalyptical, economically speaking.
But I do adore a nice walk on the beach or stroll through Manhattan.
This is SO true! On LI, you pay such a high price to live, that one would think that the streets should be paved with gold. Instead, the infrastructure is crumbling, despite the outrageous wealth devoted to it's sustenance (Largely thanks to political corruption and unions) and the place is awash with foreigners, because they need them to sustain the population, because LI has been hemorrhaging it's original residents for the last 30 years.
Why do people stay and put up with the low quality of life? Most say "money"- which is absurd, because even if one is a millionaire on paper on LI, that wealth does not translate into a good quality of life- it is just something on paper, which is eaten up by ridonculous taxes and cost of living. If you have to work 8 or 10 hours a day and spend another 4 on a train or in traffic...you have zero quality of life, regardless of how much money one has on paper.
In so many other places, one can drive on smooth clean roads and live a relaxed and pleasant lifestyle, and truly enjoy life, even on a very modest income (I make a THIRD now of what I made on LI, and yet my quality of life is 100 times better!)
And when's the last time you looked at your utility bills? The utilities agressively raised rates across the board when commodities were surging. Now, oil is less than $40/bbl and natl gas is at 14 year lows, yet my energy bills are just as high as they were when oil was at $120/bbl.
.
WoW! That is something I had never even considered!
Where I am now, our electric bills have actually decreased in direct proportion to the lower oil prices- to the point where my electric bills have now returned to the where they were when I first moved here 14 years ago. (And most houses here are all electric- including heat, because electric is cheap here).
Ahhh....just more of the absurdity of NY.! -Paying ridiculous taxes which go to pay for some bloated public service commission where some fat-cat probably makes $300K a year or more, and whose relatives probably have six-figure no-show jobs....but they can't even come close to doing what some rural co-op utility run by farmers can do.
Ditto friends and relatives in other states- virtually everyone's electric has gone down- substantially. Only in NY does it go up. -While all those liberal NY politicians are always crying crocadile tears for "the people"- but I guess the people who pay the bills and taxes don't count...the only ones who do count in their book, are welfare recipients and illegal immigrants.
Thank God I got out of that place! I swear, if were still there, my head would have exploded by now.
WoW! That is something I had never even considered!
Where I am now, our electric bills have actually decreased in direct proportion to the lower oil prices- to the point where my electric bills have now returned to the where they were when I first moved here 14 years ago. (And most houses here are all electric- including heat, because electric is cheap here).
Ahhh....just more of the absurdity of NY.! -Paying ridiculous taxes which go to pay for some bloated public service commission where some fat-cat probably makes $300K a year or more, and whose relatives probably have six-figure no-show jobs....but they can't even come close to doing what some rural co-op utility run by farmers can do.
Ditto friends and relatives in other states- virtually everyone's electric has gone down- substantially. Only in NY does it go up. -While all those liberal NY politicians are always crying crocadile tears for "the people"- but I guess the people who pay the bills and taxes don't count...the only ones who do count in their book, are welfare recipients and illegal immigrants.
Thank God I got out of that place! I swear, if were still there, my head would have exploded by now.
I asked my friend in CT how much his electric bill was, and he said peak months it's around $150 or so.
I told him that's how much our electric bill is on a low usage month. Want to hear peak month?
**** PSEG aka LIPA aka new boss same as the old boss.
I asked my friend in CT how much his electric bill was, and he said peak months it's around $150 or so.
I told him that's how much our electric bill is on a low usage month. Want to hear peak month?
**** PSEG aka LIPA aka new boss same as the old boss.
Hehe, yeah- my highest bill ever was $179- and that includes heat and hot water! I rarely get more than $120 in the winter; and $70 in the summer using A/C all the time.
I tell people here about how much electricity and taxes and all were on LI- I think those who don't know me well think I'm wildly exaggerating!
Although water is expensive here- $24 a month. I can live with that!
it's amazing how the OP attacked civil servants as if they are criminals for working their jobs. As if they don't pay the same taxes and somehow are exempt from the high costs of Long Island living. As if the OP was singled out by the system and was given the entire burden of supporting Long Islands economy while others get a free ride.
Whatever the reason for crying, there sure is anger in the OP's post for attacking others who have nothing to do with the OP's failures in life.
Stop attacking and blaming others for being a Long Island loser.
Now let's see if my post gets deleted for insulting the OP and see if the OP's post gets deleted for attacking Hard working Americans as if they are the OP's reason for leaving Long Island.
Why is somebody a loser just because they don't want your lifestyle, where (according to you) both spouses work 70+ hours per week, you have hired help raising your children, and you take credit for their successes (such as you expecting your daughter to go to Julliard) but blame others for their failures?
And, why is it that you feel that state employees, teachers, and cops are somehow special, and deserve to be exempt from the lifestyle that you described? The fact that you attacked the OP for pointing out the absurd level of benefits that state employees, teachers, and cops get tells me that you feel that those groups deserve to be special. Why do you feel that way?
And, I'm not sure how you are in the position to call somebody a loser for leaving Long Island, when you neither live nor work on Long Island.
Why would anyone want to hack it, when hacking it means having to be in the top 5% of income earners, only to have to live like the bottom 5% does in the rest of the country? And where, often to be in that top 5%, one has to flush their morals down the terlit and participate in the slovenly corrupt civil-service system?
As I have said many times: most of us who stay on Long Island (including myself) stay because it is where all of our family lives, and we feel that proximity to family is more important than material wealth.
I asked my friend in CT how much his electric bill was, and he said peak months it's around $150 or so.
I told him that's how much our electric bill is on a low usage month. Want to hear peak month?
**** PSEG aka LIPA aka new boss same as the old boss.
I live in a 1900 sq ft split in Nassau my electric bill was $85 the last 2 months we have 2 tv's that are used all the time also. It will probably go down since I just gutted my kitchen and got a energy star fridge and changed my 9 kitchen highats to super efficient LED fixtures and bulbs.
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