Q. And why that's not happening for billionaire backed candidates with all the resources at their disposal? A. Voters don't want them. His popularity is rooted in common people. Voters aren't stupid, most are fully aware that he won't be available to deliver more than a fraction of what he is striving for but that would still be more than opposition can ever offer. |
True. Every last one of them need to be asked whether they support him. They also need to be asked if they condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” because Mamdani can’t condemn it. |
Well at least he is willing to condemn the Israeli backed genocide and ethnic cleansing as well as refusing to approve an apartheid system. Unlike essentially every single democrat out there. |
NP here. Do you not think there is an affordability and housing crisis in our country? That fact seems undeniable to me and should not be surprising given the energy of the occupy wall street movement over a decade ago and the growing inequality since then. So if there are problems with affordability/housing, why not try to some ideas? What I find refreshing about Mamdani is that he does not seem wed to ideology - listen to him talk about his grocery stores. It's one in each borough (which can be funded through existing city food programs) and he outright says if it doesn't work, then he will close them. Food deserts are a huge issue that the private sector has not tried so why not experiment with a public sector solution? |
But when the "means of production" are not producing for the people, what is wrong with government intervention? |
How are the means of production not producing for the people??? |
PP. Yes, there is a housing/affordability crisis. The problem with “trying ideas” is that it can make problems much worse and destroy capital, making the road to recovery that much harder. Look at California: they’ve tried many ideas for making housing affordable and it’s only gotten worse and they are in a deeper hole. Most of ZM’s proposals will make the problems worse. The answer is and will continue to be more supply, but ZM isn’t going near that. Instead he’s proposing ideas that have been proven to fail. To be fair, as much as I disagree with him about most things, his idea to let property tax valuations float to be more aligned with market value is a correct position. The grocery store issue does highlight how he can make problems worse as well as the incoherence of his positions. There is no such thing as just trying changes to an economic ecosystem. Once you introduce the government stores it will be extremely difficult to get rid of them and they will destabilize the economic system. Whoever runs them will be incentivized to expand their footprint/mandate. While the bodegas are a real problem, grocery stores have notoriously thin margins and undercutting them on price will be destabilizing. ZM simultaneously believes that greedy capitalists will exploit everyone but for some reason food deserts exist where capitalists don’t go do business. Perhaps his mental model is off…. |
Read up on socialism. It is not something the US should "aspire" to. Mamdani is a full blown socialist. Not a "democratic socialist," whatever the hell that is. (I don't believe it is a real thing - I believe that "democratic socialists" are actually thinly disguised socialists. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/socialism.asp Essential Features In a purely socialist system, all production and distribution decisions are made by the collective, directed by a central planner or government body. Worker cooperatives, however, are also a form of socialized production. Socialist systems tend to have robust welfare systems and social safety nets so that individuals rely on the state for everything from food to healthcare. The government determines the output and pricing levels of these goods and services. Socialists contend that shared ownership of resources and central planning provide a more equal distribution of goods and services and a more equitable society. KEY TAKEAWAYS Socialism is an economic and political system based on collective ownership of the means of production. In a socialist system, all legal production and distribution decisions are made by the government. The government also determines all output and pricing levels and supplies its citizens with everything from food to healthcare. Proponents of socialism believe that it leads to a more equal distribution of goods and services and a more equitable society. Socialist ideals include production for use, rather than for profit; an equitable distribution of wealth and material resources among all people; no more competitive buying and selling in the market; and free access to goods and services. Capitalism, with its belief in private ownership and the maximizing of profits, stands in contrast to socialism, but most capitalist economies today have some socialist aspects. Socialist Countries China Cuba Laos North Korea Vietnam |
Pretty much every single developed country- Switzerland with its 25% foreign born population to South Korea with its 99% Korean pop, Finland down to Morocco. Every single other country is democratic socialist. It doesn’t matter what a persons “belief” is. All developed countries have certain basic services covered and the US does not. The above poster who talked about middle aged Americans and young people (millennials & gen z) traveling & realizing that they have been scammed & the rest of the world works less and has a better quality of life is not wrong. The reason Americans had a high quality of life in the 1950-60s was b/c every place else was a struggling colonized or colonizer or war torn cbumghole & we were not. Now that we have to compete- we are the worst place to live other than an active war zone. Before you @ me- I moved, still own property in dc but yeah we moved and are super happy and will sob if we have to move back to the us. |
Mamdani is rich. Obviously our system has worked just fine for him. Go back and read your history book about the millions killed in communism. |
And here we go. It’s always a transition from “he isn’t advocating socialism” and “you can’t define socialism!” and then right to “actually socialism is good.” |
So we should trust your maga fanfic instead? Nah. |
Did someone say it wasn’t good? |
Mamdani is literally following the Trump template - get the media to slavishly cover you for free, sound bites and unchallenged platitudes, outraged opposition with lots of vitriol.... It's only a matter of time before Mamdani attacks the media and calls them "nasty people" and rails against the "Democratic Establishment." And voters will LOVE IT. He's exactly like Trump. |