The panic about the supposed threat to socialism or communism is hardly new to American history, and therefore the reaction in some circles The supposed victory Zahran Mamdani, self -described democratic socialism, in the preliminary elections of the New York mayor last week was not surprising. books On X. A little shocking, perhaps the response of the economist at Harvard University Larry Samarz, former Treasury Secretary during the Clinton administration, who accused Mamdani from the call to “Trotkyite Economic Policies”, which is supposed to be a reference to his calls for freeing the rent, free buses, government -run groceries, and higher taxes on millionaires and companies. (Samarz also said that Mamdani showed a great ability to learn during the campaign and expressed his hope that “a lot of reassurance” will be made to believers in the market economy.)
Certainly these reactions to what might be called “Zohranomics” did not completely amaze Mamdani supporters, many of whom take criticism from financiers and central Democrats as an affirmation of the right path. “Never disappoint, right?” Isabella M. Weber, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amheres, who signed a Public message I told me the receipt of the Mamdani campaign proposals during a lengthy conversation last week. Weber rose to the lead during Corona virus disease-19th, when it called for government price controls and published detailed research on how large companies benefit from global emergency to raise their prices and profit margin. In response to Samarz’s comments, she said that the Mamdani program was described as Trotiscit was “ridiculous” and did not tell us anything “about Mamdani’s agenda that she is trying to get.
In the open message that Nation A few days before the introductory elections, more than twenty progressive economists from the United States and other countries described the Mamdani policy platform as “a bold but practical plan to address some of the most urgent challenges in New York City – everything, everything, the cost of living.” Weber told me that she felt that Mamdani “achieved well to present himself as a person standing for the ability to withstand the costs of life and focuses on what I called” the basics ” – things that people could not do without: housing, food, transportation, and child care.
Weber varies Mamdani’s proposals with the equivalent Joe BidenManagement during the crisis of living costs at the country level Donald Trump And other Republicans who successfully took advantage of the elections last year. He narrated how Biden denounced his speech in the state of the Union in 2024, companies to benefit from a period of crisis by increasing their prices or reducing the size of their offers, but then did not do much about it. After Kamala Harris replaced the Biden store on the democratic ticket, it suggested a federal ban on the decline in prices by food suppliers and grocery stores. After that, she returned to this case, “based on pressure from similar quarters criticizing the Mamdani campaign.”
Harris’s suggestion’s criticism was that price controls do not succeed, and that the same fees are delivered in Mamdani’s invitation to freeze rent for nearly a million straight apartments for rent. (Freezing will not apply to the city’s market apartments or so.) Sadly column This is the merit of Andrew Como over Mamdani, but it was a goal for both, New York TimesThe editorial council said that the freezing of rent, “could restrict housing supplies and make it difficult for the younger New York population and new expatriates bearing the costs of housing. “The argument is that if the owners and developers see the freezing of the rent, they will be deterred from investing in new, affordable, affordable housing. When this point was placed on Weber, she said that it is important to realize that Mamdani’s invitation to freeze the rent is accompanied by a pledge to build two hundred thousand additional straight units over the next ten years, plans his campaign to complete this by expanding the scope of public investments, and changing the laws of division The regions, and the rapid planning approval. Weber said: “If you just freeze the rent without being built, I don’t think this is a great idea.”
Creating more affordable housing is hardly a new root goal for the country, of course. In 2014, at the beginning of his eight -year term, Bill de Pacio also revealed a plan to build or maintain two hundred thousand apartments at reasonable prices, and in 2021, his administration announced that it had achieved this goal. It can be said, that the most successful expansion in the city’s shares in the city came with the construction of public housing projects, which started during the great depression during the era of Mayor Fiorelo La Guardia, who established the Housing Authority in New York City (Nisha), And continued in post -war contracts. After that, federal funding dried up, and public housing is linked to crime and other problems. In recent decades, heads of municipalities in New York have built mainly affected housing through public and private partnerships, where developers receive profit and non -profit for tax exemptions and other forms of support to put the buildings that are particularly managed. Mamdani Website He says he will “” need “public housing, and to double the city’s investment in the” main renovations of NYCA residence “and use NishaThe owned lands, such as parking lots, as affordable housing sites -the proposal of De Placio as well.
This seems reasonable, delayed, but the lack of housing facing the city is tremendous: some recent studies say it needs to build up to half a million new homes. MAMDANI has placed less focus on encouraging the development of the market price. He gave some gestures to The “abundance” suite From the Democratic Party, such as pledge to eliminate the minimum parking and encourage development around metro stations and other transportation centers. But the primary goal of his plan is to “unleash the public sector to build housing for many.”
Another goal is to provide the city’s residents with cheap and healthy food. The Mamdani campaign says that new grocery stores will work in the city-owned buildings in low-income areas that currently lack adequate options-deserts. The matter continued, “without the need to pay rental taxes or property, they will reduce public expenditures and move to savings to shoppers.” Before moving to Massachusetts, Weber once lived in the Sunseet Park neighborhood in Brooklyn, where she sometimes found it difficult to shop for healthy foods. She said, “The price dimension” – from Mamdani’s proposal – “is important, but the other is the possibility of access to the nutritional food.”
It is important to note, just as some media accounts do, that Mamdani proposes a experimental scheme that includes only five new stores – one in each area. In Metropolis with more than fifteen thousand supermarkets owned by the private sector and groceries, this appears to be a small beer. However, Weber said the experiment could be valuable. She noted that if it succeeds, it may be expanded, and in the end it can encourage more competitive prices in private stores: “If you have a reliable cheap alternative and does not benefit from opportunities to raise prices when they happen, this can change the dynamics of pricing for the entire sectors. This is likely to come from a general advantage that comes from a general option.”
In the minds of many people, the term “general option” is associated with health care. But public transport is a general option as well, and as Weber pointed out, the proposal to make bus riding free with Mamdani’s focus on the basic needs. She said: “The affordable transport options are necessary for a basic material well -being, to reach a job, earn money, and earn a living.” Some thinkers and progressive groups have expanded the concept of public option to other areas, including communications, financial services and retail food. In a recent article, Mamdani’s proposal on grocery stores, Becky Zhao, Director of Policy and Research on the Economic Security Project, books“Public options show what is possible when governments respond to the needs of local communities and build real alternatives to their components, when we wrestle with the imbalance of power in our economy, and focus on market solutions that restrict companies’ strength during energy building for all Americans.” Of course, public options will not succeed unless they offer what they promised. For example, there is nothing to ensure that the city’s grocery stores are able to provide cheaper and nutritious foods. “For this reason you need a pilot,” Weber admitted. “To find out if you can pull it.”
