Mamdani’s Suicide Note for New York City

Yesterday’s column mocked the the socialist mayoral candidate who won the Democratic primary in New York City.

As I noted, Zohran Mamdani is an AOC-style hard-core leftist who wants to travel in the wrong direction as far and as fast as Javier Milei is traveling in the right direction.

Several readers have asked me to elaborate.

What exactly is he proposing?

A report in the New York Times by Matthew Haag and Benjamin Oreskes summarizes his crazy views.

To see that I’m not exaggerating about his lunatic platform, here are the most relevant excerpts.

…much of Mr. Mamdani’s agenda relies in large measure on increasing revenue through taxes on businesses and the wealthy…Along with raising income taxes, he has pledged to shift the property tax burden “from the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods,” according to his campaign website. …Mr. Mamdani is proposing a new income tax of 2 percent on residents making more than a $1 million a year… He also wants the state to sign off on an increase of the top corporate tax rate to 11.5 percent, up from 7.25 percent now. …He wants to build 200,000 units of affordable housing and freeze rent on the city’s nearly one million rent-stabilized apartments. …Mr. Mamdani says the city should “implement free child care for every New Yorker aged 6 weeks to 5 years.” …his aides estimate its cost at between $5 billion and $8 billion. …New York City’s bus system serves more than 1.1 million riders every day. Mr. Mamdani wants to make their trips free. …Mr. Mamdani has proposed creating five city-owned grocery stores… Mr. Mamdani wants to nearly double the minimum wage to $30 per hour by 2030.

Wow. That’s not an economic platform. That’s a suicide note for New York City.

The only silver lining to this dark cloud is that many of his proposals would require approval from the state government.

That may not happen. Yes, the left controls the state government, but there is a difference between conventional leftists and crazy leftists.

So I hope and suspect that some of Mamdani’s ideas, such as a higher state corporate tax, may never happen.

But one thing that probably will happen is that Mamdani’s election (assuming he wins in November) will hasten the already-existing exodus of successful people from New York City.

Cameron Henderson of the U.K.-based Telegraph has a column discussing how Mamdani’s intended victims are planning to escape.

New York is bracing for an “exodus of billionaires” after the Democrats nominated a staunch socialist as their candidate for mayor. …The primary result has sparked panic among New York’s ultra-rich, with luxury real estate agents inundated with calls from clients looking to relocate or freeze plans to move their businesses to Manhattan. One high-end broker described Mr Mamdani’s victory as the “worst thing for the housing market since 9/11”, while another called it the “nail in the coffin” for New York. …“It’s the most devastating thing (to our industry) since 9/11,” he added. “We are going to have the biggest exodus of New Yorkers since Covid – except this time, they’re not going to come back.” …As New York’s top one per cent look to leave the city, low-tax states such as Florida, which does not levy income tax, are set to become “big winners”… According to the city’s independent budget office, one per cent of households pay 40 per cent of city income taxes…said Mr Kraut…“If those companies and ultra net worth individuals choose to leave the city, your tax base goes bye bye.”

From a moral perspective, I applaud when intended victims escape predatory politicians.

But let’s focus on a very practical issue, which is what happens when some (maybe many) of the people paying for government decide it’s not worth it any more.

If there’s even a small shift in the number of rich taxpayers, New York (both city and state) will be in deep trouble.

Let’s close with this tweet from Daniel di Martino. As you can see, Mamdani is a true-believing genuine socialist.

Government ownership of the “means of production” is textbook socialism.

The fact that it always leads to failure apparently doesn’t matter to people like Mamdani.