Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s mayor-elect, waged one of the most impressive outsider campaigns in modern politics on a relentless message about the affordability crisis sapping America’s largest and most thoroughly global “superstar” city.
Two flaws in believing that any of the strategies listed in the article can actually be accomplished.
1. New York is landlocked. Sometimes there are structural problems that simply set the boundaries of what can be done. You can't fight mother nature. It's an abnormal place, nature-wise, to start with. Nature is more powerful than any political strategies are....far more powerful.
2. But the biggie is this: This article doesn't deal with all of these issues in the context that Mamdani is a SOCIALIST. It assumes a capitalist spirit to accomplish all of these things.
"Through thick and thin, New York has remained a magnet for entrepreneurs, creative types, and ambitious people of all backgrounds, trades, and stations."
This is NOT socialism. It is capitalism, through and through.
And here is an observation that would be funny if it wasn't for the fact that people in NYC (and elsewhere) will pay for his socialism: WHEN IT SUITS HIM, MAMDANI IS A CAPITALIST! When it is for his benefit. He set up a capitalistic system to get voters. People were competing with each other to recruit voters and were getting MORE MONEY than others if they were successful. NO socialism there, right Zorham?
And now with his picking of his "cabinet." He is choosing people to get the big bucks from NYC based upon their prior accomplishments. Capitalism! How socialist of you, Zorham!
People have a difficult time conceptualizing what socialism even is. For so many of us, the system of capitalism is what drives us. And it is what results in better lives for us. We understand the world through that lens, so will not allow ourselves to truly let his destructive philosophy sink in.
We are boomers, proudly. Our grandparents had absolutely crushing lives. Things are soooooo much better now. Even the poorest among us has enough food, thanks to welfare, and our grandparents and parents often didn't even have that basic part of life. The lowest income quintile receives $65.000 in government benefits.
And all of those accomplishments that have resulted in our better lives were from capitalism...from somebody wanting to make money.....not from a socialistic system that believes, basically, in giving people "free stuff" (by ha ha taxing the rich!).
Mamdani is a hypocrite. He's a socialist when it doesn't affect him, and a capitalist when it benefits him.
He can't be successful in NYC because he will lay his socialist beliefs on EVERYBODY ELSE.
Since government programs caused the student debt and housing crises, I don’t know how more government programs, especially from someone who thinks government can fix all problems, is going to help. Socialism does not work. I fear that the DSA is having too much influence on the Democrat party.
Unaddressed is how NYC is housing half a million illegal immigrants and how NYC schools are epic failures. How is someone who is functionally illiterate going to land a job with a "living" wage (whatever that is).
I've posed this exact question many times during online discussions about immigration policy. The stock pro-open borders answer is that even low-skilled, low-wage illegal immigrants collectively generate more in tax revenues than they consume in public benefits programs. That answer is, of course, mathematically impossible given how the progressive income tax system is structured. But anyone who points out this irrefutable fact is deemed to be racist and xenophobic - even though most prominent Democrats said pretty much the same thing up to around 2008. Heck, Bernie Sanders basically said this less than two weeks ago.
Nothing so clearly demonstrates the realignment of our political parties as clearly as immigration. It still boggles my mind that clamping down on mass immigration of unskilled labor is now considered “right” rather than “left”
Also keep in mind that we let in roughly 1.5 to 2 million illegal immigrants per year under Biden but the h1b program is limited to about 60k. The h1b immigrants are the ones competing with college-educated white liberals for jobs and housing. So as far as college-educated white liberals go, immigration is, "do as I say, not as I do."
Can Mamdani be a mayor who builds? No, he cannot. At the same time as he proposes to raise city income tax by $10 billion, he also proposes to borrow $70 billion in new municipal bonds. From his website: "Zohran will allocate $70 billion new capital dollars in the City’s Ten-Year Capital Plan to create new affordable housing, raised on the municipal bond market. This is on top of the about $30 billion the City is already planning to spend, making our total investment $100 billion." Yet, as of 2022, New York City already had more bond debt per capita than any other city in the nation, $35,000. Chicago, which has fiscal problems of its own, had $27,000. To lend to a city already so deep in debt would mean high risk, therefore high interest rates if the bonds can be sold at all.
In the end, another too long post that has no practical meaning to the ordinary folk. Taking the Dem anti everything Trump mantra, when the socialist do fail, the Republic will still stand.
While it’s certainly fair to criticize the right for referring to things like government run daycare as “socialism” rather that Scandinavian “welfare capitalism”, when your platform includes rent control and government run grocery stores, you’re a socialist. Rent control has reduced the housing supply everywhere it’s been tried, what exactly makes the left think it will work this time?
The first thing any city needs to thrive is law and order not the soft on crime nonsense the sheltered Brahmin left demands. Free busses only sound like a good idea to people who have never ridden them. Anyone who has understands that turns them into mobile homeless shelters when the weather gets bad.
The off course the way “to curtail barriers to market entry, particularly for firms that are likely to boast living-wage positions and cluster other remunerative companies with desirable products and services” is through deregulation and tax breaks especially for big companies. Who’s is the exact opposite of what Mandami campaigned on. Has the DSA even come close to rebuking AOC for tanking the Amazon deal?
Developers aren't going to be the issue here; it will be lenders. Most big residential construction loans are business-purpose which means that there isn't any sort of government guarantee behind them if the borrower defaults.
If lenders sense a higher risk in lending to NY residential, they will either decline to lend there, or they will will charge higher interest rates. This will increase the rents required in order to cover the additional interest.
We will see. The guy could be as masterful at governing as he is at waging a social media campaign, or he might not be fit to be the alderman of a sleepy district with five people in it. We don't have much to go on, so we have no idea.
Regardless, if he wants to land a win for 'socialism' (however he's defining that rarely well-defined concept) then he'll govern pragmatically and focus on running the city well instead of pursuing ideological crusades. On both the left and the right, mayors, governors, presidents--statesman of all jurisdictions--often make the mistake of thinking people care about ideology more than whether they're doing well, when for the most part they don't. Make the people feel they're doing well and you'll get their vote whether you call yourself a "sensible centrist" or an "anarcho-communist-libertarian-fascist-poodle". We're about to find out whether Zohran's got the goods in that department or not.
You're missing the obvious choice for Mamdani: He can declare that as Mayor, he can't achieve any of his promises because the enemies of the people in Albany and Washington stand in his way. Therefore, he can argue, he needs to be elected Governor of New York in order to have enough power to deliver real change for the people. This could be why he refused to endorse Hochul for re-election. I'm pretty sure he could knock her out of the race in the primary.
Mamdani's fiscal plan includes stricter enforcement of tax collection. His website says "The New York City Independent Budget Office has calculated the relationship between auditors and revenue specifically in NYC, finding that hiring just 50 additional tax auditors will increase NYC revenue by $165 million."
"Furthermore, New York City is owed more than $2.1 billion in unpaid fines—a situation that has worsened under Eric Adams. Landlords alone owe $800 million for negligent management of their buildings. In many cases, staffing shortages mean that it takes years to try to collect from
delinquent landlords with judgments against them. The Mamdani administration will rectify this, staffing at the level required to collect 25 percent of these outstanding fines per year, resulting in collecting an additional $525M a year for the next term."
Mayor Mamdani, then, will not only raise taxes on his highest income constituents but also audit more of them. He will not only freeze rents but hire more collectors of unpaid fines, especially those assessed against landlords. BOHICA, Knickerbockers.
Originally from the other side of Bridgeport I'm amazed anyone would want to live in any big eastern city, especially New York City. Ever on the positive side I hope Mandami is successful in whatever it is he wants to do.
Soaring rhetoric, but the science already left the station. Socialism does not work: not in the commie version, not in the administrative state version, not in the regulatory state version.
It is telling, I think, that the only large group of humans still entranced by socialism are college-educated women. In my experience as a profound sexist, women are peculiarly inclined to believe what they have been carefully taught. Men not so much.
But one thing always works. Humans will always vote for free stuff. It's in the genes.
All you write about is interesting and speculative, but in the end it's a wait and see what happens. A lot of what he plans in the financial end depends on others in the state legislature and how it will react to his desires for increased taxation to carry out his programs.
Good article (as usual).
Two flaws in believing that any of the strategies listed in the article can actually be accomplished.
1. New York is landlocked. Sometimes there are structural problems that simply set the boundaries of what can be done. You can't fight mother nature. It's an abnormal place, nature-wise, to start with. Nature is more powerful than any political strategies are....far more powerful.
2. But the biggie is this: This article doesn't deal with all of these issues in the context that Mamdani is a SOCIALIST. It assumes a capitalist spirit to accomplish all of these things.
"Through thick and thin, New York has remained a magnet for entrepreneurs, creative types, and ambitious people of all backgrounds, trades, and stations."
This is NOT socialism. It is capitalism, through and through.
And here is an observation that would be funny if it wasn't for the fact that people in NYC (and elsewhere) will pay for his socialism: WHEN IT SUITS HIM, MAMDANI IS A CAPITALIST! When it is for his benefit. He set up a capitalistic system to get voters. People were competing with each other to recruit voters and were getting MORE MONEY than others if they were successful. NO socialism there, right Zorham?
And now with his picking of his "cabinet." He is choosing people to get the big bucks from NYC based upon their prior accomplishments. Capitalism! How socialist of you, Zorham!
People have a difficult time conceptualizing what socialism even is. For so many of us, the system of capitalism is what drives us. And it is what results in better lives for us. We understand the world through that lens, so will not allow ourselves to truly let his destructive philosophy sink in.
We are boomers, proudly. Our grandparents had absolutely crushing lives. Things are soooooo much better now. Even the poorest among us has enough food, thanks to welfare, and our grandparents and parents often didn't even have that basic part of life. The lowest income quintile receives $65.000 in government benefits.
And all of those accomplishments that have resulted in our better lives were from capitalism...from somebody wanting to make money.....not from a socialistic system that believes, basically, in giving people "free stuff" (by ha ha taxing the rich!).
Mamdani is a hypocrite. He's a socialist when it doesn't affect him, and a capitalist when it benefits him.
He can't be successful in NYC because he will lay his socialist beliefs on EVERYBODY ELSE.
Since government programs caused the student debt and housing crises, I don’t know how more government programs, especially from someone who thinks government can fix all problems, is going to help. Socialism does not work. I fear that the DSA is having too much influence on the Democrat party.
Unaddressed is how NYC is housing half a million illegal immigrants and how NYC schools are epic failures. How is someone who is functionally illiterate going to land a job with a "living" wage (whatever that is).
I've posed this exact question many times during online discussions about immigration policy. The stock pro-open borders answer is that even low-skilled, low-wage illegal immigrants collectively generate more in tax revenues than they consume in public benefits programs. That answer is, of course, mathematically impossible given how the progressive income tax system is structured. But anyone who points out this irrefutable fact is deemed to be racist and xenophobic - even though most prominent Democrats said pretty much the same thing up to around 2008. Heck, Bernie Sanders basically said this less than two weeks ago.
Nothing so clearly demonstrates the realignment of our political parties as clearly as immigration. It still boggles my mind that clamping down on mass immigration of unskilled labor is now considered “right” rather than “left”
Also keep in mind that we let in roughly 1.5 to 2 million illegal immigrants per year under Biden but the h1b program is limited to about 60k. The h1b immigrants are the ones competing with college-educated white liberals for jobs and housing. So as far as college-educated white liberals go, immigration is, "do as I say, not as I do."
Can Mamdani be a mayor who builds? No, he cannot. At the same time as he proposes to raise city income tax by $10 billion, he also proposes to borrow $70 billion in new municipal bonds. From his website: "Zohran will allocate $70 billion new capital dollars in the City’s Ten-Year Capital Plan to create new affordable housing, raised on the municipal bond market. This is on top of the about $30 billion the City is already planning to spend, making our total investment $100 billion." Yet, as of 2022, New York City already had more bond debt per capita than any other city in the nation, $35,000. Chicago, which has fiscal problems of its own, had $27,000. To lend to a city already so deep in debt would mean high risk, therefore high interest rates if the bonds can be sold at all.
In the end, another too long post that has no practical meaning to the ordinary folk. Taking the Dem anti everything Trump mantra, when the socialist do fail, the Republic will still stand.
While it’s certainly fair to criticize the right for referring to things like government run daycare as “socialism” rather that Scandinavian “welfare capitalism”, when your platform includes rent control and government run grocery stores, you’re a socialist. Rent control has reduced the housing supply everywhere it’s been tried, what exactly makes the left think it will work this time?
The first thing any city needs to thrive is law and order not the soft on crime nonsense the sheltered Brahmin left demands. Free busses only sound like a good idea to people who have never ridden them. Anyone who has understands that turns them into mobile homeless shelters when the weather gets bad.
The off course the way “to curtail barriers to market entry, particularly for firms that are likely to boast living-wage positions and cluster other remunerative companies with desirable products and services” is through deregulation and tax breaks especially for big companies. Who’s is the exact opposite of what Mandami campaigned on. Has the DSA even come close to rebuking AOC for tanking the Amazon deal?
Developers aren't going to be the issue here; it will be lenders. Most big residential construction loans are business-purpose which means that there isn't any sort of government guarantee behind them if the borrower defaults.
If lenders sense a higher risk in lending to NY residential, they will either decline to lend there, or they will will charge higher interest rates. This will increase the rents required in order to cover the additional interest.
We will see. The guy could be as masterful at governing as he is at waging a social media campaign, or he might not be fit to be the alderman of a sleepy district with five people in it. We don't have much to go on, so we have no idea.
Regardless, if he wants to land a win for 'socialism' (however he's defining that rarely well-defined concept) then he'll govern pragmatically and focus on running the city well instead of pursuing ideological crusades. On both the left and the right, mayors, governors, presidents--statesman of all jurisdictions--often make the mistake of thinking people care about ideology more than whether they're doing well, when for the most part they don't. Make the people feel they're doing well and you'll get their vote whether you call yourself a "sensible centrist" or an "anarcho-communist-libertarian-fascist-poodle". We're about to find out whether Zohran's got the goods in that department or not.
You're missing the obvious choice for Mamdani: He can declare that as Mayor, he can't achieve any of his promises because the enemies of the people in Albany and Washington stand in his way. Therefore, he can argue, he needs to be elected Governor of New York in order to have enough power to deliver real change for the people. This could be why he refused to endorse Hochul for re-election. I'm pretty sure he could knock her out of the race in the primary.
Mamdani's fiscal plan includes stricter enforcement of tax collection. His website says "The New York City Independent Budget Office has calculated the relationship between auditors and revenue specifically in NYC, finding that hiring just 50 additional tax auditors will increase NYC revenue by $165 million."
"Furthermore, New York City is owed more than $2.1 billion in unpaid fines—a situation that has worsened under Eric Adams. Landlords alone owe $800 million for negligent management of their buildings. In many cases, staffing shortages mean that it takes years to try to collect from
delinquent landlords with judgments against them. The Mamdani administration will rectify this, staffing at the level required to collect 25 percent of these outstanding fines per year, resulting in collecting an additional $525M a year for the next term."
Mayor Mamdani, then, will not only raise taxes on his highest income constituents but also audit more of them. He will not only freeze rents but hire more collectors of unpaid fines, especially those assessed against landlords. BOHICA, Knickerbockers.
Originally from the other side of Bridgeport I'm amazed anyone would want to live in any big eastern city, especially New York City. Ever on the positive side I hope Mandami is successful in whatever it is he wants to do.
Soaring rhetoric, but the science already left the station. Socialism does not work: not in the commie version, not in the administrative state version, not in the regulatory state version.
It is telling, I think, that the only large group of humans still entranced by socialism are college-educated women. In my experience as a profound sexist, women are peculiarly inclined to believe what they have been carefully taught. Men not so much.
But one thing always works. Humans will always vote for free stuff. It's in the genes.
Best case for Mamdoni is that he is stymied and can’t keep any of his campaign promises, blames everyone else, runs for governor and keeps failing up.
All you write about is interesting and speculative, but in the end it's a wait and see what happens. A lot of what he plans in the financial end depends on others in the state legislature and how it will react to his desires for increased taxation to carry out his programs.