We all know what's happening here, right? We can see it each time another luxury condo goes up, another borough gets whitewashed and gentrified, or another New York City fixture closes up shop because it's gotten priced out of its neighborhood. 

The skyline's getting done up and made over with a fresh coat of toxicity while the sun's getting blocked out and blown up. The streets are more crowded and lived-on than ever all while the air is much less breathable than it's ever been. 

Not to be too much of a Debbie-downer, but uh, this city is rapidly veering off the side into a pit of exclusivity. 

No, not the kind of velvet rope exclusivity that will differentiate between "real" New Yorkers and tourists. It's an exclusivity of affordability; the oldest story in the books: the disparity between the haves and the have-nots. 

You'll be hearing a lot about this on the campaign trail for the next year-- and maybe this isn't the most appropriate platform to even address this --but the disappearance of the middle class, particularly in NYC, is no joke. 

It's not like they're vanishing like on HBO's original series, The Leftovers. It's more gradual than that. 

They're getting pushed out by their inability to satisfy seemingly simple questions: How will I afford my apartment in NYC? Can I afford my apartment and food in NYC? Where will I go if I get priced out of my neighborhood? They're not just disappearing. They're getting built out of the city's view for the future. 

There's no better physical embodiment of that disparity than the number of luxury condos going up in the next few years, and there's no better representation of all of these issues than this infographic pictured below. 

These are places most New Yorkers will only see from the air flying into JFK or from the ground looking up, and finally, there's a succinct way of summing up not only how expensive this city already is, but how expensive it's going to get. 

There's small text in there, so we'll spell it out for you: "Of the more than 200 Manhattan condominium buildings in the works – which will have aggregate sales of $45.8 billion – 44%, or $20 Billion, of all sales dollars will come from the 12 buildings below, each of which will have total sell-outs that top $1 billion."

Let those numbers sink in for a second: 200 Manhattan condominium buildings are in the works, the total sales of which will hit near $45.8 billion. A little less than 50% of those sales (or $20 billion) will come from only 12 buildings. Breaking it down further, only 6% of this new construction will sell for $20 billion. 

We throw out these huge numbers all of the time, but we often forget the difference between one million of anything, and one billion of anything. One million seconds is roughly 11.5 days-- less than two weeks. One billion seconds? More than 31 years. 

We won't go so far as to say any of this is weird or despicable (even if we sometimes think it), but who will be buying these properties? Who benefits? What kind of consequences-- unintended, ignored, or otherwise --will these have on rents elsewhere? Who knows. We'll just hope for the best, right?

Check out 7 More NYC Neighborhoods and How They Got Their Names. 

[via Viewing NYC] [Feature Image Courtesy Viewing NYC]