The fiscal crisis is a recurring pattern in capitalist economies like NYC. Similar breakdowns will continue to happen when economic expansion is continuously prioritized. Instead of addressing the causes of a fiscal crisis, service and budget are cut, and the government divests in poor communities. Only the government can choose to prioritize social needs over market desires, and only then will this cycle become less popular.

The passage focuses on addressing how using welfare recipients and workers served as a political strategy, therefore misleading many on the actual causes of the fiscal crisis. NY was spending the same amount of money on its working and lower class as other big cities. This includes wages, pensions, and other welfare benefits. Things went wrong when big corporations wanted to abruptly transform the city into a big, capitalist center.

This is a strong evidence for an argument that undocumented immigration isn't an inherent problem; it just stems from modern laws and ways of living. Many European immigrants from this time were considered "legal" because there were few legal barriers that existed to even break in the first place. The criteria was arguably inclusive with a focus on open entry, minimal paperwork, and health.

This passage responds to a very common misconception, or common ignorance, of people only connecting "Asian" with East Asians, thereby completely excluding South Asians from their own geography. I like how it addresses modern mistakes with historical trends and facts.