Not all socialists in mayoral runs won on Tuesday.
Sure, socialist/communist Zohran Mamdani is now Mayor Elect of New York, but Omar Fateh lost to the incumbent mayor of Minneapolis on a second counting of the city’s ranked choice vote system. The latter is a victory for old-fashioned city politics, but what is the former?
Mamdani obviously wants to take from the rich and give to the poor, with a lot of government workers shuffling the money in between rich benefactors and poor dependents. Running grocery stores, of all things: Mamdani seeks to bring the efficiency of the DMV to the food industry.
But just how much harm can he do?
He still has to balance city budgets, and if he wants to spend billions, he has to “raise” billions in revenue. He cannot simply spend money he’s created — Mamdani doesn’t control the money supply. After all, socialism doesn’t create wealth ex nihilo.
Further, he will face opposition on his many pipe dreams. Since he has almost no work experience, and none managing anything, he may also prove to be way over his head.
Worst case? If he pushes his dream earnestly and effectually in the Big Apple, the rich and industrious will flee. (A possibility so likely that it is worth stating multiple times: when fools vote socialist, the wise vote with their feet.) Mamdani may usher in Atlas Shrugged faster than any pro-capitalist political party ever could.
Which, though disastrous for the poor, might prove educational.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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2 replies on “How Socialists Learn”
A few years ago, I wrote:
“[A] great many people essentially believe that
“ All that is necessary for socialism to work is for us to take control and to be sufficiently virtuous; thus, when socialism fails it is either because we are not in control or are not sufficiently virtuous; and thus, no matter how much or how often attempts at socialism fail, we must struggle to take control and to be virtuous — perhaps by finding ways to incentivize virtuousness — until socialism succeeds.
“Some critics would perhaps want to ask the genuinely important question of to just whom this “we” and “us” refer, but for my purpose here they can be left as a variable to be assigned whatever value the political left might want. My objection is that lurking in the argument is
“ If X were virtuous enough, then X would be able to make socialism work.
“And, in this context, even a genuine failure of socialism will not be seen as a reason to quit trying. The socialists can always tell themselves ‘We can succeed next time, or at least fail better.’ ”
As for Mr Mamdani, he is not a voguing fool like Ms Ocasio-Cortez, nor is he a mere wanna-be tyrant in codger’s clothing like Mr Sanders. Mr Mamdani is a conscious enemy of the West, seeking to inflict greater damage through the political system than do ordinary knaves and fools.
Previous socialist planning in New York was predicated on the idea that big multi-billion financial companies had no alternative. But 2 months ago, the FTC approved restarting the Texas stock exchange. Last one was destroyed in 1900 by hurricane but it rivaled NYC in size and was on track to outgrow it. Will be operational in ‘26.
Marx said that his revolution had to occur everywhere all at once, else the producers would just leave.
Expect that to be the next New York revelation.