&gt;<i>For somebody who&#x27;s an expert on this, I&#x27;m shocked at such a reduction. Infant mortality rates, for example, are more important to me than awesome jazz clubs.</i><p>&quot;Shocked&quot; at what? It&#x27;s not like he said today&#x27;s people should live in 19th century conditions to create better jazz.<p>If &quot;infant mortality&quot; rates shock you, then there are much better targets than a historian talking about jazz clubs in old times. Like the fact that the US, for all its wealth, resources and technology, lags behinds far too many modern countries in infant mortality reduction, and what should be done to change that.<p>If anything when he says &quot;is it really any worse than the situation today when everybody’s fed but you have an incredible percentage of New Yorkers who live in the shelter system&quot; he&#x27;s really addressing this issue, that there&#x27;s far too many things to fix even now.