Is that because he's filling potholes, or because rich NYC residents are paying slightly less in tax than they did in 1994?

Well you have the Tsar surrounded by his court and a rich elite completely out of touch with what is happening to the average person in the US so you have similar conditions (not really though, panem et circenses will apply until it doesn't and there is a lot more bread yet plus some more UFC matches can be arranged in what was a rose garden so the circus is covered as well).

The irony.

Distractions from running the city I guess. The massive economic black hole they are facing is not something to put the focus on.

If this is what Post imperial Russia looked like, sign me up comrade. We tried to hyper individualistic capitalism, and that failed unless your the very top of wealth pyramid. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.

I’m supposed to be afraid of socialists but not authoritarian technofeudalism paperclip maximizers? If both scenarios are “you’ll own nothing an be happy,” I’ll take the system where someone actually tries to make their constituents happy.

You can’t scare people who realize we’re already at rock bottom. People who are delusional and think they are temporarily embarrassed millionaires and billionaires are always a lost cause, they are in a cult or belief system similar to a religion.