“The time to live in New York is when you’re young and poor, or old and rich”

An October 28, 2009 Wall Street Journal editorial titled “Escape From New York” opened, “An old saying goes that the time to live in New York is when you’re young and poor, or old and rich—otherwise, you’re better off somewhere else.” The old and rich can afford to live in New York City; the young and poor get by with their parents’ help, or their friends’ help, or on social services.
 
The logic behind the “old saying” is well known, but the saying itself appears to be rarely used.
 
     
Google Books
Final Approaches: A Memoir
By G. C. Hensley
Auckland, NZ: Auckland University Press
2006
Pg. 40:
New York was a rather disagreeable place to visit but it was a great place to live. That is, if you were young and poor, as we were, or if you were old and rich.
 
Wall Street Journal
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
OCTOBER 28, 2009.
Escape From New York
A new study says taxes are driving people away.
An old saying goes that the time to live in New York is when you’re young and poor, or old and rich—otherwise, you’re better off somewhere else. That wisdom is getting an update this week from a study by the Empire Center for New York State Policy that shows middle-class people leaving the state in droves.