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Anonymous wrote:Mamdami learned from the Democratic party failures in the 2024 presidential election. You have to listen to the young people.
The young people told Biden and Harris that if they didn't speak out against Israel, they wouldn't vote for them...and they did not vote for them.
Also, if you get on BlueSky and TikTok where most Gen Z and Millennials are communicating, you'll realize the young people have learned a valuable lesson: there are more of us than old people. If we band together and vote, we can get the candidate we want who will enact the policies we want. Older generations roll their eyes at millennials, but we are the most educated generation and also the generation with the least (in terms of wealth, real estate holdings, and kids). We are also one of the most well-traveled generations. We've been to other places in the world and seen how the citizens of other countries live better than us because of proper taxation of the wealthy and corporations. We have learned that we could have all that in the US if our government simply taxed the rich and corporations at appropriate rates.
Also, just for reference, because for some reason reason people on DCUM have it perpetually stuck in their heads that Gen Z are teenagers and Millennials are 20-somethings, here are the official age breakdowns:
Baby Boomers: 1946-1964 (ages 79-61)
Gen X: 1965-1980 (ages 60-45)
Millennials: 1981-1996 (ages 44-29)
Gen Z: 1997-2012 (ages 28-13)
I'm 43. I make more right now than both of my parents did combined at this age. I don't own a house. I live with a partner, but we are not married. We do not want kids because of the cost of everything. My parents owned a house, 2 cars, and took 3 kids on 2-3 vacations each year when they were in their 40s and they did that on the salaries of a tow truck driver and an office admin.
43 is not “young”. You are middle aged (as am I, also 43).
Your observations are generally correct and applicable to millennials (but not universal; I enjoy a much better standard of living than my parents did, I am married and I have 3 kids). ZM is not going to deliver a standard of living you seek, and, if his policy proposals are actually implemented, it will make your problems worse.
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?
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….
How does 5 grocery stores (one in each burrough in food desserts where there are no private grocery stores operating) risk “destabilizing the economic system”?
And, why might there be food deserts in the city? Is it because crime drove businesses that used to be there out? If so, how do you think these government run grocery stores will fare?
And, as to your question.....
Economists and business leaders are sounding alarms over New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s plan to roll out city-owned grocery stores that he says will lower food costs.
"You don’t lower grocery bills by having government-run stores," Ryan Bourne, a top economist at the libertarian leaning Cato Institute think tank, told Fox Business. "Government-run entities have no market discipline — no need to earn profits, compete, or serve customers efficiently. That leads to bloated costs, empty shelves, and zero accountability."
Bourne called Mamdani's city-run grocery stores "the height of political hubris" by failing to acknowledge that grocers operate in competitive arenas and on razor-thin profit margins.
"If we just do the simple math here, there's no way you can sell these products at lower prices and still make money," said E.J. Antoni, chief economist at the conservative leaning Heritage Foundation think tank.
"The other problem is that if he (Mamdani) is selling things substantially less than the private market, who is going to want to go to the private market? Everyone is going to want to go to these grocery stores," Antoni told Fox Business, adding that the city-run grocery stores have the potential to exacerbate food shortages in New York City.
"If the government is going to make it impossible for the private market to compete, then the private market will stop competing. If you make it unprofitable for a grocer to do business in Manhattan, then people like John Catsimatidis are going to pull the plug," Antoni said, referencing the billionaire supermarket magnate.
In an interview with Fox Business, Catsimatidis said retail food was the toughest company in his Red Apple Group portfolio, which also includes real estate, energy and insurance assets.
"If the city of New York is going socialist, I will definitely close, or sell, or move or franchise the Gristedes locations," he said. Catsimatidis, a high-profile political donor in conservative circles, operates more than 15 Gristedes and nearly a dozen D'Agostino grocery stores in Manhattan.
"It’s going to hurt New York," Catsimatidis said of Mamdani's economic agenda should he win the November general election. He added that he is considering moving his corporate offices to New Jersey if that happens.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/mamdanis-public-grocery-stores-may-have-devastating-effects-citys-food-supply
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