Detroit Is Dying Because GM Stuck Around, New York City Booms Because Nabisco Did Not

Forbes reports compares New York to Detroit:

One of the best examples of this is the richest city in the world, New York City. What’s perhaps been forgotten is that as recently as the 1920s more manufacturing in total dollar value took place there than any other American city. Fast forward to the present, it’s safe to say that next to nothing consumed by New Yorkers is actually manufactured within the city’s limits. This bears repeating: Less than 100 years ago New York was the U.S.’s top manufacturing hub, whereas today manufacturing there is near non-existent.

Yet despite the above truth, New York remains the world’s richest city.

So what replaced all the manufacturing that disappeared? There are so many answers to this question, but the obvious one is that more advanced forms of commerce did. While Google is based in Mountain View, CA, since 2000 it’s come to amass over 3.5 million square feet of space in Manhattan; much of that office space in what is a former Nabisco factory.

Importantly, the Google story is the norm. Former glass factories are now populated by fancy restaurants meant to serve New York’s well-heeled residents, while sugar plants from the early 20th century have been turned into loft space for wealthy residents in the 21st. New Yorkers “import” food, clothing and glassware made around the world, and this gives them time to pursue higher-yielding work in the culinary arts, advertising, and most prominently there, finance.

Detroit struggles because relying on politicians to subsidize you is expensive.