I'm Movin' Out

My very first essay on this Subtack, which coincidentally appeared exactly one year ago today, was titled DECLINE IS A CHOICE. In that essay I looked at the current decline of New York City from its Giuliani heyday through the lens of Hollywood’s New York crime and grime movies of the 60’s and 70’s, and I wondered if the DEATH WISH/TAXI DRIVER era might be making a comeback in The Big Apple.

I think the jury is still out on that, but it’s certainly not looking good. And if those crime and grime days really are swinging around again, it’s worth thinking about what happens next… which brings me to Billy Joel’s 1977 hit song MOVIN’ OUT.

I don’t know Billy Joel’s politics, I suspect he is a Liberal, but for at least that one song, the oppressive nature of New York City Government seems to have made Billy a Libertarian.

First, let me stipulate that for a whole host of reasons, moving from state-to-state in search of lower tax rates and a better regulatory environment was not something Americans typically did in 1977. The World was much bigger back then. Companies, in general, did not have diverse workforces spread out across the country in a zillion different local offices to which workers could easily transfer. You couldn’t “surf the web” to find job openings on the other side of the county, And we didn’t have things like fiber optic cable, satellite communication, or the internet to make possible things like remote work.

In 1977, you had to REALLY want to leave a place…

That said, it’s pretty hard to listen to MOVIN’ OUT and not feel like Billy was telling people to vote with their feet and get the hell out of New York.

First, let’s talk about Anthony…

Anthony works in the grocery store
Savin’ his pennies for someday
Mama Leone left a note on the door
She said, Sonny, move out to the country
Workin’ too hard can give you
A heart attack ack ack ack
You oughta know by now
Who needs a house out in Hackensack
Is that what you get with your money?

Anthony’s problem is he’s working hard and saving and he still can’t get ahead. New York is expensive, the tax code wildly oppressive. Mama Leone knows things would be better for him somewhere else, but this was 1977 and Anthony couldn’t really get all the way out to “The Country”… the best he could do was “Hackensack”, where he would trade being financially underwater for a two-hour commute (each way) that probably wouldn’t net him any real savings in the end.

(Also, I’m gonna let you in on a true fact of life. I lived in the Northeast for a long time, and if the best you can do is New Jersey, then you haven’t solved a single one of your problems.)

And then there’s Sergeant O’Leary…

Sergeant O’Leary is walkin’ the beat
At night he becomes a bartender
He works at Mister Cacciatore’s down
On Sullivan Street
Across from the medical center
He’s tradin’ in his Chevy for a Cadillac ack ack ack
You oughta know by now
And if he can’t drive
With a broken back
At least he can polish the fenders

Sgt. O’Leary has the same problem as Anthony… even though he’s got a good Union Job, he can barely make ends meet without moonlighting as a bartender. Sure, he’s trading in his Chevy for a Cadillac ack ack ack but when is he ever going to have time to drive the damned thing? O’Leary’s problem, as with Anthony, is the back-breaking cost of living in high-tax, crushingly-regulatory, totalitarian New York. Wage increases can never keep up, even when we don’t have damned near double-digit inflation and a brain dead President who keeps making things worse. And on top of the stress of living paycheck-to-paycheck, your quality of life is for shit, even when you aren’t dodging people trying to push you onto the subway tracks.

Movin’ out, is right.

And then, finally we get to the mic drop…

You can pay Uncle Sam with the overtime
Is that all you get for your money
If that’s what you have in mind
If that’s what you’re all about
Good luck movin’ up
‘Cause I’m moving out

Neither of these men is really moving up… they’re treading water. And the harder they work and the more they save the more Uncle Sam takes. Their problem is not their jobs or their level of education or even their motivation to better their lives… their problem is Government.

The problem is always Government.

Now I don’t mean to suggest that Billy Joel saw the future, only that MOVIN’ OUT is an indication of exactly how long Big Blue Cities like New York have been screwing over their citizens, always assuming that those citizens would never dare leave because New York, in Mayor Eric Adams’ words, “has a brand.”

Well…

On that score, at least, not much about New York has changed since 1977, except that almost all of us have something the New Yorkers of 1977 didn’t always have.

The ability to move out.