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Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

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Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Experiments have already been done. You just need to look at history. Or you can just look at north korea and Kabul .

Or, you know, current day European social democracies. You can’t help but laugh at the amount of hysteria about Mamdani. No cost childcare? Free buses? Using existing rent control regulations to keep rent affordable? Oh no

There are fundamental differences between Europe and the US. The US is not magically going to become Europe by electing a "left" mayor.

Also this is a city- since when does a mayor set economic policies.

Last I checked free busses, and no cost childcare, still need someone to pay for them.

Rent control, if the rent is low, there won't be any rental property. What's the next step, forcing people to build? The city will build?

I guess we shall see. The sad thing is that people didn't vote because they considered all the ideas and the implications. The other sad thing is that maybe Mamdani was the best candidate.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is minimal incentive for corruption in a hereditary aristocracy. Status is determined by birthright rather than accumulation of money. And if you are a lord and do need money, you have the power to tax it legally anyway. So what incentive is there to make or take a bribe? It won't change who your parents are.

> Status is determined by birthright rather than accumulation of money. And if you are a lord and do need money, you have the power to tax it legally anyway Lords being unconcerned with—and constrained by—wealth characterises all (EDIT: none of the) non-market societies that I know of. In part because basic economics constrains the society as a whole, even if they’re ignorant of its principles.

Right. I'm not saying anything about economics not applying, only that the incentive for corruption is absent.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#393
Who would have thought that New Yorkers didn’t appreciate out-of-state billionaires playing “Zohran did 9/11” attack ads over and over on TV for months on end. He was the only candidate with a clear plan for the city, and voters rewarded him for it.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#394
post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest takeaway to me is how ridiculous it is that the US considers Mamdani somehow "experimental" or even radical. His campaign revolves around three policies: 1. Universal Child Care 2. Fast and Free Busses 3. Freezing Rent for certain Rent Controlled Units In any other context these would be policies that basically every citizen, except for a handful of people making buttloads of money off the privatization o…

Rent control in particular is an economic basket case policy, the fact that it's popular at election time should have about as much bearing on it making sense as the fact that another "experimental" candidate was considered by voters in 2024 to be "better on immigration" As for offering free stuff, the problem that - if you look at relative population numbers - NY, CA, etc are already facing is that on the margin peo…

You can’t find another city that even approaches NYC without moving to another country. And moving to London or Paris to escape taxes doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>his policies are relatively common sense and middle of the road. Rent control isn't middle of the road, it's 100% socialist. Same thing with city run grocery stores. He also wants to defund the police while replacing them with community outreach people, as well as raising the minimum wage to $30 in 5 years which is absolutely wild. None of this is middle of the road in any way, shape, or form.

The lowest I've seen for low end jobs recently in Montana is $25/hr so $30 in NYC seems entirely reasonable.

What part?

(McDonald’s is still $17 an hour in Billings.)

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

That's because they are kept milquetoast as a way to nullify any left-wing movement. https://theintercept.com/2023/03/21/fbi-colorado-springs-sur... https://jacobin.com/2018/08/fbi-infiltration-new-left-aoki-s... https://www.npr.org/2021/07/01/1012107432/how-a-former-spy-t... https://indypendent.org/2019/02/lessons-from-the-fbis-secret... https://theintercept.com/2023/02/10/deconstructed-fbi-inform...

The FBI infiltrates everything, apparently. That doesn't mean that these lunatics are all fake or insincere.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#397
post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why people reflexively vote down comments like this one since it is completely reasonable in every way. Just, I guess, leftists who can't accept viewpoints they don't agree with? Like really--read some history books, maybe read up on how bad communism was in Eastern Europe and what led to its total collapse? Let's not go down that road again! There's plenty of examples out there already. I don't even get…

Maybe it's because you're throwing around terms like "communism" incorrectly while simultaneously telling people they need to read history books. It's the same term Trump has been using to fear monger around Zoran's candidacy, and doesn't seem to relate to any of his actual policies. If you can enlighten us about the relationship between 1950s soviet bloc communism in eastern europe and a fairly run-of-the-mill 2020s…

If you're genuinely open to this conversation - the Soviet Union funded many of the world's labor movements, giving it varying amounts of influence on them. Influence which it sometimes used to spread talking points of its own choice and to its benefit. Democratic Socialists of America was born from a branch of one of these movements. This is more visible looking at DSA's foreign policy platform, where today they use virtually identical talking points to those the Soviet Union distributed to their partners back in the 60s and 70s.

I don't know if a purely organic and independent socialist movement could have existed, but in this world, the movements with the means and resources to get their voices heard are going to be the ones who inherited resources and networks from their predecessors.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#398
post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please explain how city run grocery stores are middle of the road politics. Perhaps they’re middle of the road when your road is all the way to the left.

The state should step in and run anything that the private market cannot. I don’t live in NYC, but if there’s a market failure in groceries, do it.

There isn't a market failure in groceries in NYC. There's a huge number and diversity of stores, and profit margins are as low as anywhere else in the world. Also, of course, see the sibling comment who is complaining about grocery stores while using Amazon Fresh. There's a competitive delivery market.

Of all of his policies, I actually don't really care if he wants to try to put some grocery stores in grocery deserts. It probably won't work, but whatever.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#399

I hope this win signals (to both parties) that voters are receptive and will get engaged when a clear message is presented about cost of living and quality of life issues. Some of which are taken for granted in most other western countries. I’m no political wonk, and I’m curious what others with more insight might say about his ability to fund and implement his polices. I’m reminided of Obama and his hopeful message…

>50% of the TV ad spend in the Virginia governor election was on anti-trans ads, so no, don’t hold your breath.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#400
post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I genuinely can't believe, still, that I have to spell this out for people. Obama did not do a U-turn . It is the worst naivete to think that what happened was "he had big ideas and he changed his mind." He had to bring up big ideas to get elected, and then he got elected the first Black president and some of you seem entirely too dense to actually grasp what that means. President. Not King. Subject to all of those c…

[flagged]

I'm Black.

People like you utterly missing the context absolutely makes it personal.

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