By Jada Simon
After experiencing a once-in-a-millenia kind of event like COVID-19 and drastic price increases due to inflation, being a New Yorker is no longer “the wave.” Usually, New Yorkers have so much pride in where they come from. But nowadays, so many people have stopped caring about the title of being a New Yorker and have moved to cheaper, more affordable cities.
Between 1910 and 1970, there was a period called “The Great Migration.” A hundred years ago, six million African-Americans moved up north from the south, and now it’s happening again, but in reverse. Right now, Black New Yorkers and New Yorkers of color have been the largest populations to be moving out.
According to The New York Times, “The city’s Black population has declined by nearly 200,000 people in the past two decades, or about 9 percent. Now, about one in five residents are non-Hispanic Black, compared with one in four in 2000, according to the latest census data.” This decline stems from the way these recent higher expenses have created even greater economic disparities between white residents and residents of color.
There is a TikTok creator named Nay Tali, who posts updates of her opinion on the latest NYC issues. Last July, Tali posted a video called, “Inflation Got Me Like,” showcasing a hypothetical scenario of how shockingly expensive meals became during inflation. In the video, she pretends that she went to Applebee’s to buy her usual two for $20 meal only to find out that the price changed to two for $27, but with tax, it would double the original cost. This is an accurate description of what corporations are doing now. They bump up their prices, and then when the item is priced after tax, it’s like buying two things instead of one.
Dollar Tree isn’t even a dollar anymore. Neither are 99¢ pizza shops. Both stores have upped their prices to $1.25. It’s a competition over livability now more than ever. Minimum wage is not enough to keep up with the cost of living, and New Yorkers just can’t carry on.
TikTok creator, @micasasucasa.1, went to Dollar Tree and then posted a video showing that every item she purchased had each cost $1.25. Under that video, there were many complaints about how the slight price increase will make a big difference. Some of the comments were saying that Dollar Tree had officially become “Dollar Quarter” and how the extra 25¢ would amount to a lot more money being spent in the long run, maybe even a $10 difference.
This is another way corporations are keeping up with the competition. Businesses like Dollar Tree will make small changes in pricing to appear cheaper so that consumers will want to buy more products, and then when tax is added, the total is so much greater just because of an additional few cents.
It’s just like that song, “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” So what should New Yorkers do? I think that it all depends on the person. Currently, it feels impossible to live here, speaking as someone from a very low-income background, but that’s not going to stop New Yorkers from sticking around. There’s just something so intriguing about being a New Yorker – the strength to pull through anything and the confidence in who we are. We thrive off of the stress and we feed off of the drama of this lifestyle we’ve been subjected to. I doubt that it is ever going to change.