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Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani's policies as 'normal'

theguardian.com

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Re: Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani's policies as 'normal'

#91

Post by port11 »

all2 wrote: post #40
newyankee wrote: post #4

Have most Western countries mostly given up on supply side policies for housing price stablisation as an option ? Odd given how much construction tech has improved.

Housing prices won't ever stabilize as long as land is a tradeable commodity that 'stores' value. If people can make money with man-in-the-middle techniques and cheap money (low interest rates), then they will, and this will drive the real-estate boom-bust cycle we have that runs on ~18 year cycle (last bust was late 2008, early 2009, prior bust was around 1990) Become communist (or communist lite) and reserve land o…

Some cities in Europe have famously tried to place a ceiling on the price of a square meter, to varying degrees of success. The German federal government has notoriously reversed Berlin's decision to do so.

Since land belongs to everybody and to no one, perhaps we should let the government decide what to do with it. Or at least promote more co-op housing and land trusts.

Re: Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani's policies as 'normal'

#92

Post by port11 »

omnimus wrote: post #80
jleyank wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People should remember that “left wing” isn’t things like negotiating drug prices, it’s nationalizing the drug companies.

You are getting downvoted because that statement is false dichotomy. Left wing drug policies are about affordability and access. Nationalization is one extreme rare end of that but far more common are negotiations and regulations of prices.

He's also being downvoted because economic left-wing policies are different from the socio-cultural left. And then again because I don't know of any recent leftist government advocating nationalisation of drug companies?

Re: Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani's policies as 'normal'

#93

Post by port11 »

yongjik wrote: post #51

Well, let me see, America's sitting president recently demolished one third of the historic presidential residence to build a ballroom, government workers are not being paid for a month, and government-employed thugs are snatching people off the street based on skin color. I find it almost quaint that we are still concerned about whether buses should be free. (No, for the record I don't think buses should be free, bu…

Free buses are basically a negative tax on the lower classes. Whether they're very cheap or free is a minor distinction, if you believe in publicly-subsidised mass transport.

Re: Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani's policies as 'normal'

#94

Post by port11 »

GardenLetter27 wrote: post #42

Nope, absolutely not. Rent control has been a complete disaster in Europe - e.g. Stockholm.

I've posted this before, but rent control has been shown in some cities to be very effective. It's not a magic bullet, but can be combined effectively with supply-side solutions.

Re: Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani's policies as 'normal'

#95

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

dekken_ wrote: post #39
afavour wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To stop dancing around the obvious: I understand that you don’t want to pay taxes and are annoyed that you live in a society that has decided, via very regular democratic process, that people should pay taxes. That doesn’t mean democracy is a failure, it just means your opinion is in the minority.

now you're just lying, blatantly. My point was about the degree of taxation.

Do you not live in a parliamentary democracy with regular elections?

Re: Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani's policies as 'normal'

#96

Post by rsynnott »

rsynnott wrote: post #83
abe94 wrote: post #36

Maybe the subsidized transit is normal in europe, and universal childcare in some parts of europe (definetly not all of western europe), but this article is stretching when claiming state run grocery stores are normal. Its also conveniently leaving out the policy ideas on reducing policing, and introducing mental health crisis workers which have been tried in the US (SF) and worked disastrously.

Per the article, they exist elsewhere, including elsewhere in the US. Most European cities don't typically really suffer from the problem that New York apparently has (where groceries in New York are apparently significantly more expensive than outside, and significant areas don't have proper supermarkets at all). If they did, in many countries there would absolutely be some sort of intervention.

Sidenote: Has there been serious research into _why_ these 'food deserts' happen (or at least their urban form; the rural version seems more explicable), and/or why they seem to happen in the US more than in other developed countries, does anyone know? On the face of it, even as a fairly market-sceptical person, this is one that I would kind of expect the invisible hand to deal with.

Re: Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani's policies as 'normal'

#97

Post by captn3m0 »

rsynnott wrote: post #96
rsynnott wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Per the article, they exist elsewhere, including elsewhere in the US. Most European cities don't typically really suffer from the problem that New York apparently has (where groceries in New York are apparently significantly more expensive than outside, and significant areas don't have proper supermarkets at all). If they did, in many countries there would absolutely be some sort of intervention.

Sidenote: Has there been serious research into _why_ these 'food deserts' happen (or at least their urban form; the rural version seems more explicable), and/or why they seem to happen in the US more than in other developed countries, does anyone know? On the face of it, even as a fairly market-sceptical person, this is one that I would kind of expect the invisible hand to deal with.

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/634-food-deserts/

99pi has a nice podcast on food deserts. It puts the blame on the decision from the FTC to stop enforcing the Robinson-Patman Act, and only use consumer prices as the metric for antitrust rulings.

Re: Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani's policies as 'normal'

#98

Post by wutbrodo »

tkel wrote: post #69
abe94 wrote: post #36

Maybe the subsidized transit is normal in europe, and universal childcare in some parts of europe (definetly not all of western europe), but this article is stretching when claiming state run grocery stores are normal. Its also conveniently leaving out the policy ideas on reducing policing, and introducing mental health crisis workers which have been tried in the US (SF) and worked disastrously.

17 states have government owned stores, it's common across the US. They sell liquor and in some states they also sell groceries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_beverage_control_sta... On policing, Urban Alchemy is the company that was contracted in SF. Having worked directly with Urban Alchemy for years in LA, their staff are severly underqualified and 95% of the time will do nothing once arriving on site. T…

> No first responder can prevent a crime from happening, all responders arrive after crime has occurred

I've never understood this claim. Are you unaware of the concept of deterrence, or do you reject that it exists?

Re: Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani's policies as 'normal'

#99

Post by abe94 »

tkel wrote: post #69
abe94 wrote: post #36

Maybe the subsidized transit is normal in europe, and universal childcare in some parts of europe (definetly not all of western europe), but this article is stretching when claiming state run grocery stores are normal. Its also conveniently leaving out the policy ideas on reducing policing, and introducing mental health crisis workers which have been tried in the US (SF) and worked disastrously.

17 states have government owned stores, it's common across the US. They sell liquor and in some states they also sell groceries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_beverage_control_sta... On policing, Urban Alchemy is the company that was contracted in SF. Having worked directly with Urban Alchemy for years in LA, their staff are severly underqualified and 95% of the time will do nothing once arriving on site. T…

A liquor store and a grocery store aren't the same thing, they were set up for different reasons, have different policy goals and are run differently. Also if the goal is helping with "food deserts" - which seems like a tenuous claim already for a city with a ton of bodegas there are better less costly solutions. When comparing actual state run grocery store pilots (in the US) they have been a disaster - see the kansas city example here (https://www.kcur.org/news/2025-08-12/kansas-city-grocery-sto...)

Denver is the best example in the US that saw limited success, and one of the very few - in most places similar approaches were tried (in the US), we were worse off then just keeping police as the primary responders. In NYC specifically we tried a pilot recently, and it was (unsurprisingly) ineffectual - where police had to be called as backup 65% anyway(https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/audit-of-the-behavioral-...). So no in NY at least police don't make the situation worse thats a myth.

Re: Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani's policies as 'normal'

#100

Post by dekken_ »

greggoB wrote: post #89
dekken_ wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes Gregg, I was speaking as a European using the American revolution as an example, not strictly speaking about NYC right now, I hope that's clear

Whatever you're generally trying to say is not clear; looking at the other comments, I appear to not be the only one struggling with it. Why are you using the American revolution as an example? Like in what way is that remotely relevant? The revolution was the result of an actual denial of representation for all colonists, it wasn't about the general dynamics of a democracy in which the majority that wins an electon…

My original point was about people having any say in terms of how much tax they pay. And the American revolution was an example in the extreme of what can happen, given it did happen.
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