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I'm not sure how much more explicit I can make this. I can only ask you to try harder when you read. I understand it might be a little hard to grasp since qualifiers make sentences longer, but in the end, it can be worth it!
New York and London are most important and elite cities in the world. Get over it.
I see that you both spied the "within the same tier as those two" part of it. Good job! Now let's look at something like, oh let's say, "in various categories." Paris is a likely choice--not only does it rank highly in many categories, but it also has a lot of influence within the specific sphere of the Francophonie (Francafrique in particular). In that sense, Moscow also has its own sphere with many of the former Soviet countries (though you can argue that Russia isn't part of the West). Then you have cities like DC and Los Angeles that specialize in a few very important categories. Moreover, for many of the regions of the world, the regional center is far more important than any kind of hemispherical center which makes the whole idea of a hemispherical center silly. Some cities are more influential overall than others? Certainly. One (or two) cities serving as a hemispherical or even global center? No.
Chicago!
Ya thi city produces the most shrimp in the world, and oh oh look that city host the most hot dog eating contest in the world. Point is there is not city that does everything the best. That goes without saying. New york city and london are the most overall powerful cities in the western hemisphere and are global and national centers for their respective countries
Even without going international, a case could be made that DC is more powerful then NY.
Granted DC is a midsized, one horse town, but it has a pretty powerful horse. NY is far larger, more international, interesting and glamorous. But in terms of raw concentrated power there isn't another institution like the Fed Gov.
Over 1/4 of US GDP flows through the gov directly. Not to mention the indirect economic power it wields through institutions like the Federal Reserve, FDIC, SEC, World Bank, IMF etc. Wall Street’s “Masters of the Universe” were forced to sit on their hands as the economy tanked, meanwhile the gov spent over 10 trillion dollars fighting the problem. The Fed had a 2 hr meeting where they decided to create over a Trillion dollars, out of thin air!
For better or worse, its power is growing by the day as the government “reshapes” the finance, automotive, energy, food, education and health care industries, just to name a few.
Outside of economics, the government has vast power over people’s day to day lives through high profile court cases (Brown vs. Board, Roe vs. Wade) to obscure regulatory decisions on the acceptable amount of arsenic in drinking water.
Plus there is the whole, FBI, CIA, NSA, Pentagon, overthrowing sovereign nations aspect. I’m guessing people in Baghdad think DC matters.
Sorry, if this has morphed into a pay more attention to gov/politics rant.
All that being said, I agree with most of the posters-- the world is too diverse and power too diffuse for there to be true center of the universe... be it DC, NYC, London or any other.
Just like New York City is more powerful than Albany, New York City is more powerful than DC
Ya thi city produces the most shrimp in the world, and oh oh look that city host the most hot dog eating contest in the world. Point is there is not city that does everything the best. That goes without saying. New york city and london are the most overall powerful cities in the western hemisphere and are global and national centers for their respective countries
Yes, because having political influence over the world in DC, media influence in LA, or multiple multinationals and heading the french-speaking world in Paris is equivalent to having the most shrimp in the world. That is exactly what I was saying.
I'm not arguing with you that NYC and London are the overall preeminent cities in the Western Hemisphere--I have said as much. What I argued against was that any city can truly be a center for the world. Power and influence is much too decentralized for even the most powerful and influential cities to be a center.
And did you really just equate a state capital with the national capital? You really don't see the difference in magnitude between state and federal agencies?
Just like New York City is more powerful than Albany, New York City is more powerful than DC
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With all due respect, that analogy doesn't quite hold for 2 reasons.
1) NYC is far less important to the nation as a whole then it is to NY state alone. NYC accounts for the nearly 1/2 of NYS population. So of course it will be by far the most important city. Nationally, NYC is basically irrelevant from a share of population prospective.
2) A state government is vastly different than the federal government of the word's most powerful nation. It budget is far smaller, it doesn't regulate vast industries, it doesn't have a monetary policy, it can't print money, it doesn't control who can be a citizen, it can't make war, and it's reach doesn't expand much beyond its borders as it doesn't have a foreign policy.
Many of the areas that NYC dominates aren't that important in people's lives, beyond a superficial manner: fashion, celebrity culture, Broadway.
NYC of course looms large in people's minds, but much of it is in a vapid "Sex in the City" kinda way. In areas that actually matter, media and finance it is heavily connected with DC.
Plus, there are tons of areas where neither city is particularly important. Academia or IT come to mind.
That's not to say that NYC isn't a powerful city or even the most powerful city. But it isn't the be all and end all that some people think it is. The world is too big for any city to dominate.
And DC can't simply be dismissed as a power center by comparing it to Albany. That is like dismissing Wall Street by comparing it to Charlotte.
With all due respect, that analogy doesn't quite hold for 2 reasons.
1) NYC is far less important to the nation as a whole then it is to NY state alone. NYC accounts for the nearly 1/2 of NYS population. So of course it will be by far the most important city. Nationally, NYC is basically irrelevant from a share of population prospective.
2) A state government is vastly different than the federal government of the word's most powerful nation. It budget is fall smaller, it doesn't regulate vast industries, it doesn't have a monetary policy, it can't print money, it doesn't control who can be a citizen, it can't make war, and it's reach doesn't expand much beyond its borders as it doesn't have a foreign policy.
Many of the areas that NYC dominates aren't that important in people's lives, beyond a superficial manner: fashion, celebrity culture, Broadway.
NYC of course looms large in people's minds, but much of it is in a vapid "Sex in the City" kinda way. In areas that actually matter, media and finance it is heavily connected with DC.
Plus, there are tons of areas where neither city is particularly important. Academia or IT come to mind.
That's not to say that NYC isn't a powerful city or even the most powerful city. But it isn't the be all and end all that some people think it is. The world is too big for any city to dominate.
And DC can't simply be dismissed as power center by comparing it to Albany. That is like dismissing Wall Street by comparing it to Charlotte.
How does that analogy not work. All the big decisions get made in albany, new york has to look to albany for political reasons. Same with dc and its relationship to any city. New york however is still vastly more powerful a city than Dc and albany.
And for someone to dismiss its influence as only being sex in the city oriented is laughable. If wall st coughs the nation catches a cold. New york is the reason why we are in a recession, was the city that got us out of the great depressin 70 years ago. New york is the most powerful financial center in the world. How does Dc come close to it. If anything i never understood why political power was taken from new york in the first place. New york should have stayed the capitol. And new york is hands down the media capitol of the nation.
Its weird for you to mention those two things and actually try to pit them agaisnt new york. U might aswell add skyscrapers too
How does that analogy not work. All the big decisions get made in albany, new york has to look to albany for political reasons. Same with dc and its relationship to any city. New york however is still vastly more powerful a city than Dc and albany.
And for someone to dismiss its influence as only being sex in the city oriented is laughable. If wall st coughs the nation catches a cold. New york is the reason why we are in a recession, was the city that got us out of the great depressin 70 years ago. New york is the most powerful financial center in the world. How does Dc come close to it. If anything i never understood why political power was taken from new york in the first place. New york should have stayed the capitol. And new york is hands down the media capitol of the nation.
Its weird for you to mention those two things and actually try to pit them agaisnt new york. U might aswell add skyscrapers too
Not to turn this into a NYC vs. DC pissing match...maybe too late
I didn't mean to imply that NYC is just some "Sex in the City" celeb hub, I just meant that there is a glamorous, larger than life factor to NYC which exaggerates the city's true power (although still enormous in reality). When standing in Time Square you may feel like you are in the center of the universe, with the giant buildings and overwhelming crowds. But does Times Square actually impact people's lives? Is someone in Cleveland's life materially different because 3 states away 20,000 tourists are crammed into a giant square? No, IMO.
Although, DC is not a financial capital in the traditional sense, the city does have significant power over global markets, given its abilities to tax, regulate, set trade policies, subsidize, bail out, and print money.
With the media comment, I just meant that the NYC-based "hard news" media spends significant amounts of time covering DC.
Getting off topic, IMO people think about NYC more then they should because it is glamorous and iconic, and underestimate DC because it can seem small and parochial to many. For example, who thinks about things like the FDA or the EPA on a daily basis? Very few people. But they do matter.
None of this means that NYC isn't important, its just not the only place in the world that matters. Even if it is the world's most powerful city, in the grand scheme of things it still constitutes of small share of total world power. NYC is one pull among many, and its pull weakens the further you get from it.
Final Rant ( I promise):
It is too simplistic to say that when Wall Street coughs the nation catches a cold. It is more likely to be the other way around. The current crisis was rooted in dumb mistakes all over the world: Wall Street's short term outlook, American's pathetic savings rate, Washington's failure to regulate, the Fed's easy money policies, China's and the rest of the world's willingness to fund our massive trade deficits, the real estate industry's delusions about ever rising home prices, and the American consumer's willingness to buy into the delusion. All of which illustrates the point the world is too diffuse and complex for any one city to dominate? If Wall Street has so much power to control markets, would they have allowed the stock market to fall in half. All the world is a stage, Wall Street (and NYC) is a mere player, albeit a major one.
Last edited by Caymon83; 07-09-2009 at 03:26 AM..
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