I Love New York: The Haves and the Have-nots

Manhattan is an area of New York City crowded with skyscrapers, and every morning here you can see helicopters making their noisy arrivals. They arrive at the same time each day, no exceptions. When I wondered what kind of people were on board, I discovered that it was millionaires commuting to work from a neighboring town. Although the wealthy say they travel by helicopter in order to shorten their commute time, the standard of living of such millionaires is far beyond the imaginations of us Japanese.

When I visited the picturesque suburban neighborhoods of New York, I found these wealthy people’s homes. Their mansions are situated on extensive grounds that seem like they could hold around 20 baseball stadiums. According to a person who knows a daughter of one of these millionaires, when the daughter wanted to travel a mere two blocks in Manhattan, she used a taxi.

In collaboration with Dartmouth College, an Ivy League school in northeastern New Hampshire, there’s also a retirement home where those admitted can take relevant courses from the university. There are many wealthy people at these facilities. In addition to a lump sum of nearly $500,000, residents must also pay a large monthly facility use fee. However, when it comes to enjoying the full range of these social services, they don’t think twice about paying large additional expenses.

In contrast to this lifestyle, you can see people begging for money every day in New York’s subway stations. They hold signs with messages like “I haven’t eaten today. Please help me.” It’s heart-rending to see. These are the haves and the have-nots. In this country, the gap between these two groups is too extreme.