Or you could read it as critical of capitalism.
"motivation, purpose, social skills, creativity" arguably all valued more under socialism/communism (admittedly there's a lot of semantics going on under the hood here). Which is why so much tallent goes to waste as grist in the capitalist mill.
Lived in NY for a while (manhattan) and travelled to a lot of other states. The comparison rings true for me, NY has it's own culture for sure.