{"id":9445,"date":"2025-10-20T14:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T14:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/9445\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T14:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T14:56:09","slug":"a-socialist-new-york-would-weaken-us-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/9445\/","title":{"rendered":"A Socialist New York Would Weaken Us All"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cTogether, we can tax the rich, heal the sick, house the poor, defund the police & build a socialist New York,\u201d Zohran Mamdani tweeted in 2020. On his current mayoral campaign website, he calls for shifting the city\u2019s tax burden to \u201cricher and whiter neighborhoods.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

These aren\u2019t slip-ups or stray remarks. They are at the heart of his campaign for mayor of New York City this November. And if he wins, the fallout won\u2019t just be felt here. It will ripple far beyond the five boroughs, dragging down<\/a> not only New York but the nation as well.<\/p>\n

I know a lot of Americans will shrug and say: \u201cWell, New Yorkers get what they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

I get that reaction. I really do. Everyone has seen the footage of the spoiled brats at Columbia University<\/a> taking over buildings and shouting in the faces of cops and thought these idiots should be put on a slow boat to Venezuela or some other socialist paradise.<\/p>\n

But those people aren\u2019t the ones who will bear the brunt of Mamdani\u2019s experiment. Most of them aren\u2019t even native New Yorkers. They\u2019re mostly shipped in from leafy suburbs that are glad to get rid of them.<\/p>\n

The real casualties<\/a> will be New York\u2019s middle class\u2014 the cops, firefighters, and nurses who hold this city together. My own family is full of them. I was born in the Bronx surrounded by firefighters and police officers who worked brutal shifts and risked their lives every day for their neighbors. These men and women aren\u2019t radicals. They\u2019re the ones who keep the city running and they\u2019re the ones who will get squeezed the hardest.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s platform is as destructive as it is delusional: $10 billion in new taxes on high earners and businesses, a $30-an-hour minimum wage by 2030, rent freezes, so-called \u201cfree\u201d buses, so-called \u201cfree\u201d childcare, and even city-owned grocery stores.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t some bold new vision. It\u2019s the same tired socialism that has failed everywhere it\u2019s been tried. And just like everywhere else, it risks hollowing out the very tax base that pays for everything else.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing: the top 1% of New Yorkers, those making around $800,000 and up, pay nearly half the city\u2019s income taxes, per the 2023 NYC Independent Budget Office. If just 2% of them leave, the city could lose $5\u201310 billion every year hedge fund manager Bill Ackman estimates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Who makes up the difference? Not the wealthy, who can relocate to Florida or Texas with ease. Not the poorest, who qualify for welfare and public housing.<\/p>\n

The burden falls squarely on the middle class. On the firefighters, cops, nurses, and small business owners who can\u2019t simply pack up and leave.<\/p>\n

And when the city runs short? It\u2019s not Mamdani\u2019s leftist base that suffers most. It\u2019s working families.<\/p>\n

But the danger doesn\u2019t stop at the five boroughs. New York isn\u2019t just any city. It\u2019s America\u2019s economic engine, producing $1.1 trillion in GDP last year alone<\/a>. The city is also a cultural beacon. The skyline, Broadway, the Met, the museums, the energy that has always stood as a symbol of American ambition.<\/p>\n

If Mamdani\u2019s socialist experiment<\/a> drives away wealth and enterprise, New York could spiral into decline. Businesses will fail, jobs will disappear, the economy will shrink, and America will lose far more than tax revenue. We\u2019ll lose a piece of our national identity. A city that once represented freedom and opportunity will become a cautionary tale about what happens when ideology trumps reality.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a better path. New York doesn\u2019t need to punish success to support its workers. It needs leadership that understands wealth isn\u2019t the enemy. It\u2019s the engine of opportunity. Smart tax policies, incentives for businesses, and targeted relief for the middle class can keep the city both compassionate and competitive.<\/p>\n

Because if New York falls, it won\u2019t just be New Yorkers who suffer. We will all be worse off. And as someone whose family has given their lives and labor to this city, I can tell you: We can\u2019t afford to let that happen.<\/p>\n

Punishing success punishes everyone. Mamdani\u2019s vision might appeal to radicals who think money grows on trees. But for the middle class that actually makes the city run, it\u2019s a disaster. And for the country, it\u2019s a warning. If America\u2019s greatest city falls to socialist decline, nobody wins. \u00a0<\/p>\n

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cTogether, we can tax the rich, heal the sick, house the poor, defund the police & build a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56,1211,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-9445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-socialism","14":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}