Mamdani Madness
The election of Zohran Mamdani to the post of New York Mayor has created waves, not to mention predictions that the remainder of the city’s mega-rich will flee to Florida or some other red state. Mamdani has been called both a socialist and a communist. Whatever he calls himself, his claim that the workers must “seize the means of production” places him firmly in the latter category.
His apparent attitude to the State of Israel has also raised alarm bells, including with the ADL whose National Director Jonathan Greenblatt whined to Fox News about the purported increase in anti-Semitism Mamdani’s ascent will cause. Greenblatt may be a clown but his pernicious outfit should be shut down or at least denied tax-exempt status. These are people who could find anti-Semitism in an egg cup and often do in their relentless task to smear Americans.
Having said that, whatever Mamdani says about Israel and Zionism is likely to be of no consequence. Actual attacks on Jews need to be dealt with by law enforcement, while the Trump Administration has taken a firm line, clamping down on the insanity emanating from America’s institutions of higher learning where anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, gender ideology and all manner of insane and destructive doctrines are incubated.
Most New Yorkers are more concerned with the cost of living, public services and public safety, so let us concentrate on these.
Mamdani’s campaign website includes biographies and photographs of his transition team, who are all women. Here is a prediction, at some point there will be accusations of and perhaps a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment.
One of the biggest problems for New Yorkers is the cost of housing, especially commercial renting. Mamdani has spoken about freezing rents, but as people like Kevin O’Leary have pointed out – people who understand these things – a rent freeze or any interference with markets has effects that often undermine the intent. The most obvious example of this is the minimum wage. Mamdani has said he wants to increase the minimum wage to $30 an hour by 2030. The idea behind the minimum wage is a noble one; everyone is entitled to a decent standard of living, the argument goes, and no one should have to work for a pittance.
The reality is the minimum wage destroys jobs – entry level jobs and part-time jobs housewives would work for pin money. A small diner might employ a housewife or a pensioner to clear tables for a couple of hours and perhaps do some washing up. Here is a short video I made eleven years ago, with a transcript; it explains why the minimum wage won’t work for your local greasy spoon. Others who have made similar arguments in video and text have come to the same conclusions. Namely, the minimum wage destroys entry level jobs or forces employers to lay off staff. It also leads to increased automation.
Returning to renting homes, if landlords are not able to make decent profits, what do you think will happen? Their premises will degrade as they fail to instigate repairs or perform simple maintenance. Having said that, there is a real alternative for ordinary people, that is social housing. This exists in New York and can be expanded. In the UK, well over five million people are served by housing associations; the social housing in New York needs to be expanded. Housing associations are charities, not socialist projects.
One of Mamdani’s ideas that has come in for massive criticism is a fare-free transport system, which leads to a very obvious question: who pays?
Clearly, national and/or local government, but, and it is a big but, public transport systems are heavily subsidised anyway. Does it make sense to collect revenue from both the public and the state? Back in 2011, I published a proposal for a fare-free transport system for London.
No, this is not a pipe dream; Belgrade now has a fare-free public transport system. Okay, New York is much bigger, but so what? One of the objections raised to fare-free transport is the warranted claim that undesirables will infest it around the clock, the homeless, etc. Mamdani has plans to deal with the homeless, so they shouldn’t be much of a problem.
Prostitution is, or is said to be, a big problem in New York. Mamdani says he isn’t in favour of locking up women who engage in the oldest profession, although he appears to have fallen at least in part for the sex trafficking narrative.
A lot more could be said about his policies but there is one which explodes the claim that he is an Islamist and another that calls his Islamic credentials into question.
The former is that he appears to have no problem with homosexuality or other sexual perversions, including the trans movement. Homosexuals are one of the biggest targets of Islamists; there have been a number of high profile murders and terrorist acts related to this, the most outrageous of which was the Pulse nightclub massacre of June 2016 in which 49 people were murdered by Islamist fanatic Omar Mateen. No self-respecting Islamist or jihadi would touch Mamdani with a barge-pole; the same can be said of London’s odious Mayor Sadiq Khan for the same reason.
Regarding Islam proper, Mamdani appears to have said nothing at all about usury, a major no-no for the religion. Instead, he rails at big business and Donald Trump, but Trump too has railed against the special interests, and has been taking them on since 2016, which is the main reason he is hated so much by the media. Overall, Mamdani has much more in common with Donald Trump than he would admit or like to admit. Perhaps instead of railing at him he should meet with him, then, they might be able to fix New York together.