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Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

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541–550 of 1001 posts

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#541
post #372

Zohran is exactly the kind of change candidate that the San Francisco machine with Grow SF would actively seek to squash. But Zohran's not alone, today's election was a massive swing back in almost every single race. School boards, city councils, state houses and senates, all swung radically left. It should be ringing alarm bells that the SF / YC / startup community that used to champion utilitarian, meritocratic QoL…

That may be so, but how far do you think viral radical left wing populism is going to get you towards regaining people who voted for trump?

well Prop 50 to redraw California's district lines passed by a nearly 30% margin and counting right now. That's an absolute spanking leading up to 26 midterms.

The story tonight isn't about Trump at all though, it's about millennial DSA types beating the establishment Democratic institution - in NYC, Detroit, Mississippi. In 24 everyone was astonished at the lack of response - "what is DNC going to do about losing to Trump, twice?". This is the beginning of what will be the eventual answer.

Also it doesn't need to be said, but the mobilization of 1M+ votes for Zohran's campaign today renders the fringes meaningless. He's now automatically in the conversation for the Presidential primary for 2028.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. New york city has rent control on 1 million units already 2. New york city has laws making it so you can only increase rent by a small fraction of the investment for renovation taking a large amount of units off the market as its economically infeasible 3. Nyc has a very strict zoning and regulation system that is reducing housing supply

(from wikipedia) 1. rent control is a specific, technical term which represents about 24k units 2. rent stabilized representing about 1M sets limits on rent increases in exchange for tax breaks for the building 3. corruption

When you have to argue semantics by defining a new term ("it's not rent control, it's rent stabilization") that's a pretty good sign that you've fucked up and you're trying to hide it.

What's next, "these people are technically not in poverty, they're income challenged"

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#543

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's an argument to be made that many of the allegedly "radical" Democratic policies fall into an uncanny valley of wonkiness, where they're enough of a reach to get people riled up emotionally but not enough to have the kind of punchy, obvious benefits that would get people to be supporting on a similarly gut-level basis. Arguments about whether the minimum wage should be $X or $X+2 seem like accounting t…

> There's no appetite for saying stuff like "we will seize $100 billion from the wealthiest individuals and give it to everyone else as cash payments". Indeed. Because anyone who is numerate enough to do the division quickly realizes that this works out to about $300 per person, and stops being excited about the Wowie Big Number.

Still better.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#544
post #372

Zohran is exactly the kind of change candidate that the San Francisco machine with Grow SF would actively seek to squash. But Zohran's not alone, today's election was a massive swing back in almost every single race. School boards, city councils, state houses and senates, all swung radically left. It should be ringing alarm bells that the SF / YC / startup community that used to champion utilitarian, meritocratic QoL…

Peter Thiel and Mamdani are more alike than you may think. https://x.com/aphysicist/status/1937879912221667792 https://finance.yahoo.com/news/billionaire-peter-thiel-warns... Nobody wants to hear this because it departs from the 'billionaire bad' trope. But Thiel has been remarkably consistent in his criticism of housing being the center of all of the Millenial economic woes.

Peter Thiel being pragmatic about housing to avoid the proles from getting uppity in his desired future isn't much of a flex.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#545

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 minimum wage not being indexed to inflation has been theft for decades. It would take a minimum wage of almost $60/hr to maintain purchasing power from 50-60 years ago. https://www.epi.org/blog/the-value-of-the-federal-minimum-wa... https://finance.yahoo.com/news/minimum-wage-york-2024-live-1... https://livingwage.mit.edu/ Edit: If the system of “we make asset prices go up while labor prices are inflated away” ge…

So if minimum wage was $60 in a year you'll see a bread loaf for $900

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#546
post #158
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not clear to me why a multigenerational dynasty specifically is a bad thing? Presumably the kids can learn from the parents, get connected, etc. Also, Mamdani's policies are incredibly controversial, that's why it's such big news. Lots of people predicting that Mamdani's criminal policies, economic policies, and lack of experienced staffers will lead the city to dark days.

You want your elected officials to "keep connections" accross generations? You also think New York can't find someone that's at least as competent as someone in a multigenerational dynasty?

Based on what I saw in the debates, I'm sure there are lots of people in NYC more capable than anyone on the ballet.

But yes, someone with connections is going to be more operationally effective than someone without them. If the leader isn't themselves well connected, they should at least have close advisors who do.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#547
post #469
post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Example: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-... In case of the cities you don't even need to move that far. I know multiple people in Seattle who just moved to nearby towns 105-15 minutes by car, 20-45 by transit) to avoid Seattle specific issues, and some people who move just outside of king county to avoid even more nonsense. Mostly techies, but not exclusively. It's not like American citie…

It's funny that you mention moving outside the city when Zohran's tax plan is centered on bringing the corporate tax rate in-line with our neighboring state.

I'll also caveat that any parallels you might see in Seattle don't really apply to NYC. Besides the low car ownership rates, wealthy individuals choose to in NYC for it's convenience and culture, which really are unique in the US.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#548

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The minimum wage not being indexed to inflation has been theft for decades. It would take a minimum wage of almost $60/hr to maintain purchasing power from 50-60 years ago. https://www.epi.org/blog/the-value-of-the-federal-minimum-wa... https://finance.yahoo.com/news/minimum-wage-york-2024-live-1... https://livingwage.mit.edu/ Edit: If the system of “we make asset prices go up while labor prices are inflated away” ge…

So if minimum wage was $60 in a year you'll see a bread loaf for $900

Please prove this assertion. Show your math. I can pickup a loaf of bread for $1.42 in a state with a $15/hr minimum wage, as of this comment. What does a $30 minimum wage make it? $2? $2.50? The horror. $900? I am doing my best to be polite and charitable.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#549
post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> About the only response to this stuff a reasonable person can muster is "he doesn't believe that now" He clearly still believes in police reform. In some places that includes reducing police budgets in favor of more effective public safety programs. That's what "defund the police" means. Not "abolish", reduce funding. In NYC he's running on maintaining police funding at current levels and adding additional nonviole…

Oh, the answer really is “let everyone go,” and then “get rid of all billionaires, cap wealth at $100,000,000 and tax the rest at 99%, and make sure every single person has a high-quality, safe place to live, good food, medical care, and friends.

Suddenly there will be far less crime.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#550
post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“It works in Europe” isn’t a very good American political rallying cry though; Americans generally don’t have the opinion that Europe works very well.

Only because American discourse and thinking is so utterly poisoned by the absolute bullshit that is “American exceptionalism”. In terms of almost any possible quality of life metric you can think of Europe is ahead of the US. That combined with just a breathtaking level of ignorance of what Europe is actually like in any meaningful sense. You saw this a lot in this NYC election where they were trying to paint Mamdan…

Except the McMansions and that every family has at least 3 cars…
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