“The Warmth of Collectivism”: Beginning the Mamdani Era

The warmth of collectivism, beginning the Mamdani era by William L. Anderson.

As he placed his hand on the Quran, Zoran Mamdani was sworn in as the new mayor of New York City on a cold New Year's day,

promising that I was elected as a democratic socialist, and I will govern as a democratic socialist.

I will not abandon my principles for fear of being deemed radical.

Indeed, his inaugural speech was full of the radical proposals that marked his campaign as he promised.

His administration, he declared, would make life better for New Yorkers,

and if for too long these communities have existed as distinct from one another,

we will draw the city closer together. We will replace the fragility of rugged individualism

with the warmth of collectivism. As I read those words, my mind traveled to the freezing gulags in

Siberia where the man idolized by the intellectual forebears of Mamdani supporters,

Joseph Stalin sent innocent people to let them feel the full warmth of collectivism,

working until they died under the ideology of collectivism, Mamdani now embraces along with his followers.

However, as his non-VIP supporters quickly found out, the warmth of collectivism didn't apply to the

disastrous block party celebration after the inauguration. Around 10,000 supporters stood outside

city hall during the event, built as an inauguration for a new era block party by Mamdani's staff,

crammed into several barricaded pens without access to bathrooms or any food concession stand.

Socialism apparently didn't include free food, but Mamdani did promise a lot of free things to

New Yorkers. To be paid by other New Yorkers, of course. The cost of childcare will no longer

discourage young adults from starting a family, because we will deliver universal childcare

for the many by taxing the wealthiest few. Those in rent stabilized homes will no longer

dread the latest rent hike, because we will freeze the rent. Getting on a bus without worrying about

a fair hike or whether you'll be late to your destination will no longer be deemed a small miracle,

because we will make buses fast and free. These policies are not simply about the costs we make free,

but the lives we fill with freedom for too long in our city freedom has belonged only to those

who can afford to buy it. Our city hall will change that. He then added what might be the most

ironic thing he said all day. These promises carried our movement to city hall, and they will

carry us from the rallying cries of a campaign to the realities of a new era in politics.

Indeed, it is the ultimate irony to claim that politics can trump reality, for that is what he has done.

When we wipe aside all the ideology that so-called democratic socialist shovel out,

it always comes down to their candidates promising lots of free stuff, with all that stuff being

paid for by others. Although Mamdani seemed confident that the wealthiest few will stick around

finances campaign promises, that is unlikely, as one doubts that there will be enough new money to

confiscate from the wealthiest few to produce the billions of new tax dollars needed for Mamdani to

provide free goodies to his constituents. Demonizing, but also inadvertently praising capitalism.

In calling for government to provide better services, Mamdani also admitted that private

enterprise often outshines socialism, saying, for too long we have turned to the private sector for

greatness, while accepting mediocrity from those who serve the public. I cannot blame anyone who has

come to question the role of government, whose faith in democracy has been eroded by decades of

apathy. We will restore that trust by walking a different path. One where government is no longer

solely the final recourse for those struggling, one where excellence is no longer the exception.

We expect greatness from the cooks wielding a thousand spices, from those who stride out onto

Broadway stages, from our starting point guard at Madison Square Garden, let us demand the same from

those who work in government. In a city where the mere names of our streets are associated with the

innovation of the industries that call them home, we will make the words, city hall synonymous with

both resolve and results. Anyone who has dealt with government services in New York knows that

demanding excellence from unionized city workers is the impossible dream. There are few more

privileged people on the planet than the members of New York City municipal unions, and the notion

that they and their union bosses would see themselves as anything, but the city's masters is laughable.

And under Mamdani, who owes his job to those unions, this situation will only grow worse. As Gregory

Breziger noted in a recent article, Mamdani held his inauguration at the site of the now abandoned

subway station at city hall, a station that was first constructed in 1904 by private investors who

created a subway system that at the time was one of the wonders of the world. Of course, in 1940 the

city took over the subway system because private enterprise had failed. However, as Breziger notes,

the city government forced the Interboro Rapid Transit Company, which owned the subways,

to keep its fare at the original price, five cents, as Henry Haslet wrote.

New York City's first subway opened in 1904. The fare was five cents. The subways remained under

private ownership until 1940. The fare was still five cents, but meanwhile wholesale prices had

gone up 32 percent. Wage rates had tripled. The lines were granted tax exemption by the city.

They petitioned for higher fares, but the five cent fare was sacred.

The city father decided that the only way to keep it was to eliminate private profit

and run the trains themselves. Of course, as Haslet points out, once it took ownership,

the city raised its fares on numerous occasions, but still ran large deficits, which have continued

throughout the era of government ownership. The subway system still uses 100-year-old hand switches

and other relics of bygone eras that other metro systems around the world have abandoned

for modern computerized equipment. The New York Times reports,

most of the subway system still uses ancient signal technology. The equipment has to be manually

operated around the clock from a network of underground control towers. New York City still

owns the subway, but it is run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is under the control

of the governor of New York State. No matter what, the subways are under capitalized and poor repair

and will remain so under the Mamdani administration. Although Mamdani did point out government failures,

one doubts that city services will improve under his regime, his rhetoric to the contrary.

Like all socialists, he seeks to demonize private business owners and especially private landlords.

As he owes his office to the left-wing activists who serve as regulators in the housing and business

markets, who Mamdani among them, according to his own previous statements, believe in the

abolition of private property and especially private housing. Conclusion, like previous mayor

Bill de Blasio, who also believed that government should own or at least control all property,

Mamdani will do what all socialists do, continue to destroy what is left of the city's

capital base, tax-private enterprise to death, waste taxpayer money, and blame capitalism

for all of their failures. Unlike Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both of whom serve

in Congress and do not have to bear the costs of bad decisions made under socialism all the

while receiving adoring media coverage, Zoran Mamdani will have to govern and his platform

cannot help but fail. At some point in office after the political euphoria has passed,

it will become obvious that a cornucopia of freebies is not in the future of New York voters

who have believed that this time the socialists will take care of them. In the end, economics

reflects real things and New Yorkers will find out once again that prices are not lists of arbitrary

numbers but rather part of the real economy. While Mamdani and his political allies will live in

relative comfort, their expenses borne by ordinary taxpayers, those supporters who counted on

Mamdani's political manipulations to help them get ahead will find once again they have been

conned. For more content like this visit mises.org