Sandy Reveals Social Divide

Goldman Sachs lights up during Sandy's power cuts

They say death, destruction and Mother Nature  prove the ultimate equalizers of those on the high and low rungs of the social ladder. As Hurricane Sandy showed no matter where they stood before the storm, its victims afterward had many of the same needs: food, shelter and flushable toilets.

"I had to go to the wine cellar and find a good bottle of wine and drink it before it goes bad," Murry Stegelmann, a founder of investment-management firm Kilimanjaro Advisors LLC, wrote in an email after he lost power. He chose a 2005 Chateau Margaux, which retails for about a thousand dollars.

Divides between the rich and the poor are nothing new in New York, but the storm brought them vividly to the surface. Those with a car could flee. Those with wealth could move into a hotel. Those with steady jobs could decline to come into work. But the city's cooks, doormen, maintenance men, taxi drivers and maids left their loved ones at home. There were residents who could invest all of their time, money and energy into protecting their families. New York's privileged could have dinner, order a food delivery and pick up supplies an hour or two before Sandy made landfall. The cooks, cashiers and hotel workers who stayed at work instead of rushing home made that possible. On the other end of the wealth spectrum, some families brought their nannies to the hotel to help care for their children through the hurricane. All the while, waiters, maids and doormen continued to help them.

New York is the most economically divided it has been in a decade, according to the New York Times. As has occurred across the country, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Twenty-one percent of the city is in poverty, and the median household income decreased by $821 annually. Per the Times: "Median income for the lowest fifth was $8,844, down $463 from 2010. For the highest, it was $223,285, up $1,919." Manhattan, the city's wealthiest and most gentrified borough, is an extreme example. Inequality here rivals parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Last year the wealthiest 20 percent of Manhattan residents made $391,022 a year on average, according to census data. The poorest 20 percent made $9,681. All told, Manhattan's richest fifth made 40 times more money than its poorest fifth, up from 38 times in 2010. Only a handful of developing countries - such as Namibia and Sierra Leone - have higher inequality rates.

The city's heroes were the tens of thousands of policemen, firefighters, utility workers and paramedics, those public sector employees who labored all night for $40,000 to $90,000 a year and whose salaries and "gold-plated" pensions and even jobs are at risk from the Wall St Manhatten oligarchs they protected and served.