[In April 1999 (the most recent month for which I have figures) New York City spent $1,131,527,854 on Medicaid for 1,776,596 eligibles. That's in one month. I find the figure interesting because it answers part of the quesion of where the Second Avenue Subway is. That's
enough to pay for a mile of that super-expensive subway line every month with enough money left over for tax and tip.]
I've got something else that'll knock your socks off. NYC spends more on indigent health care than does the _entire state of California_, which has something like five times the population (and probably a higher percentage of poor people). I still cannot accept the fact that NYC has 13 public hospitals, as compared to one each in Chicago and Los Angeles.
I do disagree to some extent with your statement about the city's economic dependency on Wall Street. It is true that the securities industry is responsible for a disproportionate share of municipal revenues, thanks to its high salaries. But Wall Street accounts for a surprisingly low percentage of city jobs, even taking the multiplier effect into account, and the number of jobs has risen quite modestly even as the Dow heads upward. As a result, major cutbacks on Wall Street would not cause a dramatic increase in unemployment. City revenues would be hit hard, but given the wasteful spending on health care, I'm not so sure that would be a bad idea.