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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

#551

Post by debtta »

GenerWork wrote: post #170
octaane wrote: post #73

You guys have it all wrong. There was only one candidate for the dem party, Here's the list: 1) Cuomo. Sexpest who has been accused by many women of some pretty shitty stuff. Also a member of a multi-generational dynasty, which is not good. 2) Mayor Adams. Federally indicted by the Feds. They have a 99% conviction rate. Not because they're corrupt, but because they only go after people who have dome some really egreg…

>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.

I mean, if 50% of the population vote for something, arguably it is middle of the road.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#552

Post by Taek »

nobody9999 wrote: post #287
Taek wrote: 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.

>Mamdani's policies are incredibly controversial, that's why it's such big news. Which policies are "incredibly controversial?" And be specific. Here'a a direct link to his platform for your reference" https://www.zohranfornyc.com/platform No rush. I'll wait.

His policies around being soft on crime (do you know what NYC was like in the 90's? It's not some distant history), the free bus fare, the city owned grocery stores, the rent control, are all policies that many feel threaten the economic viability and safety of the city.

If you don't think any of those policies are contentious, you are living in a bubble and greatly disconnected from huge portions of the population.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#553

Post by fastball »

Epa095 wrote: post #463
GenerWork wrote: post #230

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.

I see it as a middle of the road statement to say that government should work for its constituents, and help ensure that they get basic nessesities like shelter, food, schooling and health care (yes, I know that this is already controversial). Using the market is well and fine, but if it for some reason does not work it's the government's job to find a solution which works. Think about how things are handled in emerg…

The problem with the idea that it is the government's job to ensure "necessities" is that the list of what is a "necessity" only ever gets larger – it never shrinks.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#554

Post by lisdexan »

NullCascade wrote: post #497
voidhorse wrote: post #143

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…

"Free buses" is not really a thing even in the most left leaning European countries. Most experts recommend very cheap subsidized public transportation but not free.

Well Luxembourg is pretty much less a dense Staten Island, and they do more stuff than buses.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#555

Post by samdoesnothing »

testfoobar wrote: post #141
_coveredInBees wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Atlantic had a good article on this and how it isn't the doom and gloom you lay out above: https://www.theatlantic.com/economy/archive/2025/11/mamdani-... As some of the replies note, it has been rather successful and popular in other cities like Berlin.

Rent control is always initially popular with the people who are already in apartments. But it is longer term effects on supply and quality that are corrosive. An alternative is Austin: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/22/austin-texas-rents-f... "Austin rents have fallen for nearly two years. Here’s why. Austin rents have tumbled for 19 straight months, data from Zillow show. The typical asking rent in the capita…

It's kind of incredible how the obvious and true solution to rents being too high is to BUILD MORE HOUSES and yet somehow people manage to convince themselves that in fact, the real solution to rents being to high is to artificially cap their prices. Incredible stupidity.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#556

Post by fastball »

nice_byte wrote: post #321
brandonagr2 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government run grocery stores are middle of the road? What would progressive ideas look like on that spectrum?

"communism is when government do thing"

Communism is literally when the government owns the means of production. Owning the means of distribution is not far from that at all.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#557

Post by dyauspitr »

FuckButtons wrote: post #462
dluan wrote: 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?

Pretty much a clean sweep for the dems today including a trashing on prop 50. In general I think only something on the fringes can draw away people attracted to the fringes.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#558

Post by samdoesnothing »

kelnos wrote: post #481
testfoobar wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course Krugman got that wrong. It is funny. But economists don't disagree about the effects of price controls. These are easy to observe and model. These concepts are also taught to Economics undergraduates all over the world - often in their first Microeconomics class. They are not controversial. Here is a Khan Academy video: https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/microec...

I feel like economists (as the Krugman quote above seems to illustrate) don't consider the real world. Price controls aren't necessary when there's abundance. When housing supply meets (or slightly exceeds) demand, landlords don't jack up rents every year and displace tenants. When it doesn't, and can't, what do we do to keep people from losing their homes? (And don't give me the usual drivel about how people who are…

Isn't the obvious solution to build more houses (apartments, flats, whatever)? Like, isn't it incredibly obvious that there is actually a simple solution to this problem - build more so that there is an abundance of choice? How people come to the conclusion that in a densely populated and highly desirable area, the solution isn't building more capacity but rather to artificially cap prices?

It's like a database server running out of memory and the proposed solution isn't to increase memory, but rather just reject new entries into the DB because it's full.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#559

Post by whoooboyy »

BrenBarn wrote: post #307
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> he called for universal health care but once he was elected he started saying it was "too radical" ACA was the most radical package that could have passed, and it still cost Democrats the Congress. This line of argument reminds of the folks who complained about Sinema and Manchin. You know what we’d have with a few more Sinemas and Manchins in the party right now? A majority. The bill that passes is better than the…

With 20/20 hindsight I'd say that's the wrong lesson. The actual lesson is that if you're struggling to get 40% of the legislature to make obvious improvements to your country, you should use your majority for even more radical things. If they'd used that same majority to pack the supreme court, pass a nationwide anti-gerrymandering law, break up hundreds of large corporations, and so on, we might have averted a ton…

It wasn't hard to see at the time. People just thought the West Wing was how politics should work. That somehow all the players come to play good, fair ball. Many of us were out here caucusing against Obama and Gore and Biden because they represented an obvious losing strategy in the long term.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#560

Post by pantulis »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #115
nialv7 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kinda feel Obama is more of a Trojan horse. It was not he tried and failed to get what he campaigned for implemented, it was more like he did a U turn after he got elected. e.g. he called for universal health care but once he was elected he started saying it was "too radical". I hope the same doesn't happen with Zohran. If he was going to fail after all, I wish that will at least be after he had fought as hard as h…

> he called for universal health care but once he was elected he started saying it was "too radical" ACA was the most radical package that could have passed, and it still cost Democrats the Congress. This line of argument reminds of the folks who complained about Sinema and Manchin. You know what we’d have with a few more Sinemas and Manchins in the party right now? A majority. The bill that passes is better than the…

> The bill that passes is better than the ideal that doesn’t.

This is the essence of politics.

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