2025-11-06XQuote

Source item

Many of the key pillars of the Mamdani campaign are not possible as mayor. They need the state legislature and the Governor. You can’t implement free buses, for example, at the city level. It is controlled by the MTA which is a state level organization. Nor can you implement a wealth tax. But none of these facts mattered on election night nor were they duly interrogated by anyone: media, opponents, voters. It’s like getting elected as a Governor promising to renegotiate NATO. The claim lacks basic authority but if everyone ignores it then…you get what you get: a perfect storm of unseriousness meeting vibes meeting discontent. I also think Cuomo was a very flawed candidate who spent 11 years as governor of NY and isn’t known for anything except “killing grannies and grabbing fannies”. How NYC had such a sad slate of choices is part of the problem.

Quoted context

These are the quoted author’s words.

Here’s what I think will happen in NYC under Mahdami. The free buses and government grocery stores won’t happen, they never do. They sound good during campaigns, but collapse under basic math. You can’t run a city on ideas that cost billions and produce no revenue. The only way to make housing affordable is to build more housing. The free market lowers prices, not regulation. Every time politicians try to control rent or force affordability by decree, developers stop building and landlords stop maintaining. Supply dries up, the quality collapses, and the few properties that remain skyrocket in price. Once landlords can’t make a profit, they sell, lose properties, or walk away. Eventually, the government takes over. Taxes will rise to pay for the promises, and the middle class will be the ones shouldering the burden. The rich will relocate, the poor will depend on subsidies, and the productive class will be squeezed from both sides. Thriving businesses are the foundation of any thriving city. When they leave, everything else follows, jobs, schools, grocery stores, stability. Chicago already proved this. Boeing, McDonald’s, Caterpillar, Citadel, nearly 70k jobs, all gone. Now they’re facing billion-dollar deficits, half empty schools and neighborhoods without grocery stores. I saw someone who lived in a rent-controlled apartment in California put it perfectly, he said his landlord could no longer afford maintenance so the pool was filled with dirt, the floors had soft spots, and the foundation ended up cracking. That’s what overregulation does, it destroys quality. People who voted for this will eventually feel the pain but they won’t blame the policies or the politicians, they’ll blame the rich for leaving. This conversation is always difficult because most people simply don’t understand market dynamics or incentives. In a free society, people act in their own self-interest. If you remove profit and reward dependency, productivity dies and the city with it. If you think things are expensive now, just wait until they’re “free.”
XaviercMiller ↗