Zohran Mamdani says, ’I don’t think that we should have billionaires’

Such a handsome guy.

I have a feeling he WILL be the next Mayor of NYC.

I don't think we should either.

He’s not wrong. Who the fuck needs a billion to live?

Keep talking, Veruca darling...

Ny god what a monster

No one really NEEDS a billion dollars. But there is justification in having the ambition, creativity, hard work and balls to earn it. If there isn't oppression or evil in acquiring it, the drive to succeed is what makes progressive evolution.

THAT said, after maybe 2 or 3 Billion, which is pretty much impossible to spend anyway, my view is anything over that MUST be given away via philanthropy, charity, etc. Let Beyonce and Jay Z, or Buffett or Zuch or Michael Jordan have the vision to earn their money. But anything over 2 or 3 Billion, needs to be put back into the economy in some fashion.

^^ And I don't mean via government taxation. Capitalism and liberty mean multi Billionaires still should be able to make their own choices. But what good is billions of dollars just sitting around. There's got a be a way to require that excess fortunes be given to foundations that provide money for research, wellness, environmental sustainability, etc.

What's wrong with just taking it via taxes, r7? A huge amount medical and scientific research is (or was, Trump seems to trying to end this) funded by the federal government.

Don't mess with the Zohran!

Socialism is a failed experiment. Most of the billionaires' wealth is tied to the stock market. When Facebook was initially started, do you think Zuckerberg had billions? Or Steve Jobs? This Mamdani guy is a loser. He does not have the brains to become wealthy. All those Democratic socialists are losers. None of them has the brains to become wealthy, and like any good old communist, they want to take their wealth away. None of the greatest inventions ever came from communist countries. Because there is no reward. Socialism is a modern 20th-century farce. Before that, since the start of civilization, there was no socialism. People invented things and profited off of those inventions, and probably paid the king royalties. Income inequality has existed since the time of Buddha. And Mamdani wants to reinvent socialism. Has he even looked at Venezuela, the Soviet Union, and other failed states? What is amazing is that people in NYC voted for him. Something has gone seriously wrong in America. Either way, they are being educated, or the younger people have lost all ambition.

Agree.

Socialism is a vapid dream.

When you're right you're right

That anti-socialism crap is so tired. What's wrong with raising taxes and expanding the social safety net? We would just be improving the society we already have. It's not like he's advocating for a cultural revolution.

R14 He is not saying that. He is saying, seizing the means of production. Check his video on Twitter. He is saying that inequality in income can be overcome by ordering production as a government mandate. I guess he does not believe in a market economy but a command economy. We know how it has turned out. So, what are these DSA types advocating? The same thing that has failed in many countries, and somehow they can magically make it work in the USA and the Western world? On top of it, he appears to be a dull person. There are many ways one can bridge the gap, rather than saying there should not be any billionaires. Becoming a billionaire is also luck. When Jezz Bezos started Amazon, did he think he would succeed? Probably not, but he had an idea, and it turned out that people liked it. Same goes for Apple. When Apple started, there were already established companies like IBM and Microsoft. But Apple offered a niche product that took off. Steve Jobs became a billionaire. Lots of examples like that. But we do not know how many others failed. Also, look at Nokia or Blackberry. When they were in rage, the owners made billions. Now, they may still have that money, or all of it may be lost. Tell me which other country has come up with such innovative products? China is now able to come up because it has become a market economy rather than a command economy. This fool along with many other American fools want to destroy all of that because they fucking fancy themselves as saviors or I do not what ever the fuck the virtue signaling crowd thinks. No one objects to raising taxes reasonably and expanding some social safety nets.

Thomas Jefferson believed that there shouldn't be massive generational wealth transfer, especially if there were no widow or large family to support, and definitely that single people who died with large wealth should expect that the government should take it after their deaths. There's certainly no reason that the top marginal rate should be capped at 37%. It was at 90% for most of the 1950's, and the standard of living was higher for the bottom third of earners in the US than it ever has been

R10 rampantly begs the question.

Meanwhile of the countries in the world with the highest standards of living, most are mixed economies.

Socialism has been proven to work over and over again in mixed economies.

All dollars made over, say, 100 million, get taxed at 70% each year. (Of course, that number could be higher/lower.)

No write offs. No off shore accounts. No evasion.

Musk et al would still be worth billions. Just not 250 billion (or whatever he's at now). So the baseline for "ultra rich" would still be ridiculous high, still give those crazy capitalists that ego incentive they seem to need, but also help with the wealth disparity.

Wake up demfucks..

More and more this guy is giving me the creeps. BDS as government policy? No fucking way! "End goal is seizing the means of production", maybe in Uganda. Why the fuck did he become a US citizen,

We have billionaires because income isn’t taxed until it’s realized, not because the maximum marginal rate is too low.

I’m not worried about the people living in NYC and earning $600k a year but paying $100k for a “pretty nice” place to live and $100k for childcare. And I’m definitely not worried about it the people making $350k and having to commute an hour each way so their kids can go to a good public school. 37% is enough. The issue isn’t that people are keeping too much of their paychecks, it’s that they are holding on to untaxed capital gains and even borrowing against them to pay for $20 million weddings and rocketships to avoid realizing them.

Bezos and Zuckerberg have too much money. And it’s nice that Bill Gates is trying to give some away, but spending money on your pet projects isn’t really the same thing as paying your fair share of taxes. They should be doing both.

At least the gilded age barons left some nice libraries and estates behind. Maybe the top 0.001% like Zuckerberg buying up half of Hawaii will result in some nice resorts for the top 1% in 100 years like how Rockefeller’s land became Little Dix Bay. I guess that’s the trickle down theory.

The estate tax should just be 100% over a certain value of assets.

Good explanation, r21. You nailed the problem.

All politicians will say whatever needs to be said to be elected and to hold onto power. I highly doubt this guy believes half of what he's said. Also, many politicians flip-flop over the years.

Also, unlike Trump, he doesn't have enough social capital to force anyone to go along with his plans.

R25 so we should elect a centrist who has nothing and won’t even try then? Shoot for the stars and land on the moon. We have to stop thinking about politicians like sports teams. Even if Zohran fails to pass his agenda, if it represents what New Yorkers want then they should continue electing progressives and accept that it may take time to push the overton window to the left.

It's true, however other countries do believe in the right to billionaire, so the billionaires will move there, taking their money with them, and crippling NYC industries.

It would only work if all countries strictly enforced it, and even then it's not a safeguard against corruption. Politicians lithium would probably squirrel away some nuts in offshore accounts and money laundering schemes so they don't have to follow it

[quote]No one objects to raising taxes reasonably and expanding some social safety nets.

No one? How about literally every elected Republican in the country? How about the entire Republican congressional delegation who are squabbling over how much Medicare and VA benefits and food stamps to cut in order to cut taxes for the obscenely rich.

[quote]It's true, however other countries do believe in the right to billionaire, so the billionaires will move there, taking their money with them, and crippling NYC industries.

Hence why conservatism will thrive in the 21st century, because businesses and billionaires are moving out of woke California and New York and moving to Texas, Florida, etc. and the citizenry will follow.

Thus, the liberal East Coast and Northeast will become socialist hellholes, while the South will rise again!

Democrats are shortsighted fools who are still living in the 20th century.

But it's all inevitable.

R10 = Peter Thiel

I fucking hate this guy. Doesn’t have a clue. His father is an academic and his mother is a directI, both elite. He is so utterly utterly full of shit, and people are falling for it.

*director

Another myth - without the brilliant and innovative billionaires, we would be helpless and unable to do any work. We need “job creators” and their genius minds to figure anything out. Thanks to them and them alone are human beings able to organize and produce anything. Who gives a fuck if some CEOs leave?

Hey R31, In case you haven't noticed, Trump's parents were a Real estate slumlord and mother that was a socialite with a bouffant hairdo. If Americas can put that in the White House I dont see the problem with Zohran becoming mayor. Experience does not matter any more in politics, you can thank Trump and MAGA for that.

[quote] This Mamdani guy is a loser. He does not have the brains to become wealthy.

He does have the brains to become wealthy. He also has the connections.

He just doesn't have the [italic]drive.[/italic].

It takes a certain kind of person to pull that off. Most people are not that person.

There was a bit on a comedy show where one of the characters thinks she is going out with a millionaire and she's fine with it, then she discovers the man is actually a billionaire, and she is scared, because she knows he is going to be absolutely crazy. That is exactly the kind of person that becomes a billionaire.

he's right

A lot of comments. I was the one who made earlier comments on why socialism fails. Mixed economy - India was a mixed economy from Independence. Private enterprise was there, but was allowed to produce only as much as the government told them to. The country suffered. They called it the Hindu growth rate. Meager and did not create jobs. The government industry was non-competitive and produced hardly anything properly. Even now, India is unable to get rid of those government enterprises that tend to be loss-making. Same with China until 1971. Once they removed obstacles to private wealth creation, the economies took off. In India, job creation is still bad because of the protections the government does not have the political courage to remove. A growing economy will lift many boats, and poverty has decreased in both countries, much more so in China. I saw that poverty, so I know. Most fucking fools in this country have no clue what socialism does. Socialized medicine, safety nets are different from what DSA wants. Realize that. As someone else said, the billionaire's wealth is mostly paper wealth. When Facebook's stock fell, Mark Zuckerberg's wealth fell by billions of dollars. It is obscene, yes, but part of it is also the fact that a lot of pension funds invest in the stock market. Secondly, when people buy stocks, they are lending capital to the company for expansion and growth. If the returns are great, investors get the money back with extra interest. Imagine what this idiot who studied African sciences is proposing. Where do you think he will get the capital if he is going to seize the means of production? The government has to create capital. How? By printing money or imposing taxes. How much tax is going to be collected if everyone makes less money? So print money. How will he decide which company to invest in? How will he decide what are new technologies to invest in? How much? According to him, the government will decide which new technology will prosper. But what if the government does not know or bets on the wrong thing? Companies expand based on future demand. They may lose, but that is how risk management is done. But how will the government decide when there is no market economy? Will this idiot generate demand? Market economy is brutal, but it also gives us competition (currently, the government and courts are not enforcing the antitrust laws properly). Inequality exists everywhere. But progressive taxation is a way of reducing it, and America already has that. They can change it. Already, people who make less money get significant benefits. The government can change that. Maybe republicans do not want to tax, but at the state level, they can tax income. AMT can be increased from 15% to 20%. They can institute a voucher system for rent. Instead of rent freezes and non-market interventions, they can provide a DBT. For a family of 4 making 50K the government will provide $3K in rent/month. In big cities, they can impose a ceiling of 150K for a family of 4. They can mandate that the service industry take care of people better. Starbucks already pays for health insurance for people working 20 hours or more. There is no easy solution. It is a flawed system, but the American and Western systems are the best we have. We have seen what failures are under socialism. Look at Russia and Poland. Poland is wealthy, and Russia is not so wealthy. If there is a system that can eliminate inequality and suffering, then by all means, that should be in place. There is none. And only wealthy Americans in their luxury can afford such thoughts, and that is what is happening. In the last few years, Virtue signaling has become hugely fashionable among the young. Being kind and helpful is good. But making it a way of life is what will ruin America, and that is what a lot of educated whites, asians, and others have become.

Somewhere between outlawing billionaires and getting them to pay more is the solution. I think most of the country including MAGA types would like to see that. It would involve some form of taxation on assets instead of income. I'm sure some brilliant person could come up with a formula that would work. They should start small to see if it works. Rich people are good at escaping taxes. Also the estate tax should be revised. Anyone with a fortune of 100 million must pay more.

This is such a good issue for Dems if they can come up with specific, simple proposals. Of course, the rich billionaires that fund the Dems may not like it.

Typical commie talk.

No, r48. This is America. It was founded on limited government. Stealing wealth from people is what they did to Jews in Nazi Germany.

This guy’s degree is in African studies. lol. He was a rapper with no work history. He has wealthy parents. He’s a racist antisemitic loser. Good luck.

[quote] It's not like he's advocating for a cultural revolution.

He actually has a video out there saying we need to "seize the means of production". Always we wary of these DSA types.

People have strange ideas about wealth. You'd think based on media hype that the world is littered with billionaires, but it's not true. There are about 3,000 billionaires in the world. How many live in NYC? 123. It's a handful of people. Some of them are there on a mixture of intelligence and luck; a lot of them inherited their money. Many wildly gifted and brilliant people manage to crawl by with, oh, a few million. It seems good enough. Society has been full of innovation and creativity even before there were any legal ways to be rewarded, because human beings are meant to function as part of a community. When the community improves, everyone improves.

R43 wow, he’s even better than I thought. Can we kill the landlords too?

The entire foundation of the economy is about to be tossed in the air. AI is coming, jobs and the 40 hour work week are on the way out. We are going to need totally different thinking to manage this transition, and UBI is going to have to play a big front and center role.

And we are going to need a very smart Gen Z politician to bring these ideas front and center, no one from the ‘old guard’ is going to understand how to do this.

I’m willing to give him a chance.

We need to get back to a real progressive tax structure with no loopholes, or with far fewer loopholes. Too many rich people hire accountants to play declaration-of-loss shell games while they live high on the hog, spending $500K+ a year.

Your first $35K should be your survival $$, not taxed. The slowly ramp it up from there. It is obscene that a payroll-based worker earning just $80K/year in NYC over the past 20 years has paid a significant chunk of it in taxes while TRUMP PAID NOTHING!

R46 - AI has nothing to do with Zohran's ideas. The market will determine the fate of AI. All I can see AI doing is enhancing productivity. It may even achieve what DSA wants. Displace the vast majority of white collar paper pushers. But the doomsday scenario of AI rendering the vast majority of people jobless may not happen, though one cannot predict the future. A Gen Z person has no idea how to position for the future because most of them are now on the streets protesting rather than doing anything remotely productive, like this Zohran guy. So by all means, give him a chance; it is your choice. But if I were you, I would not even consider it, which you may know by now, as he is not even remotely qualified. He has no AI understanding, let alone how it works. The guy studied African studies.

Supporting the intifada and seizing the means of production. Maybe he will lose in November.

When will Billionaires finally get their extra large golden stripe on the Progress flag?

(Yes, they OWN all the flags, the flag holders and their mortgages but come on)

Please like he understands the plight of working class people. He comes from wealth and privilege. Other than one gig that came from mommy, he's never had a real private sector job in his life. On top of all that, he's an unrepentant racist. He explained his taxing of richer and whiter neighborhoods comment as "an honest assessment of the community."

[quote] Socialism has been proven to work over and over again in mixed economies.

R17, how's it working in Britain, Germany, or France these days?

R51 - I agree that he is a racist, and I saw snippets of his interviews. he comes across as a very arrogant person. As if his being a Muslim makes him better than everyone else. And also an arrogance that is very pervasive in progressives and antifa types that they are right and moral. It is like the religious people who are so certain in their dogma, and the arrogance that comes with it. A moral and righteous superiority complex. And if white people gleefully say yes, because of white guilt, then that is on them. A significant number of whites who support Democrats suffer from white guilt and also success guilt. Why? Why do they let in people from other countries bully them in their own countries? White people don't owe anything to other people than treating them just like another human.

There are also tons of tweets of his over the past few years just trashing or bringing up white people. It's endless. I'm a minority and I don't get how some other people make talking about white people non-stop their entire personality.

[quote] And if white people gleefully say yes, because of white guilt, then that is on them.

White academics at universities are the loudest defenders of these theories.

And now Trump is piping up, because Mamdani is a threat to the billionaire class.

Mamdani is right.

Billionaires have eliminated politics and forced government to give them whatever they want.

They have created immense poverty in the richest country in the world

[Quote] I agree that he is a racist, and I saw snippets of his interviews. he comes across as a very arrogant person. As if his being a Muslim makes him better than everyone else

Interesting that of the zillion characteristics that make up a person, you focus on one, his religion, something he doesn’t bring up much

[quote]I'm a minority and I don't get how some other people make talking about white people non-stop their entire personality.

Maybe the effects of over 400 years of oppression and killing are still felt and celebrated? Intergenerational trauma is as real as intergenerational wealth. :(

[Quote] Hence why conservatism will thrive in the 21st century, because businesses and billionaires are moving out of woke California and New York and moving to Texas, Florida, etc. and the citizenry will follow.

Except there’s no significant movement of businesses to Teaxs and Fl. Sure there are a few but they still have major presences in NY and CA because that’s where the money is.

While people have moved out of NY and CA because of the high cost, many move back when they see the lack of culture and lack of social resources in southern states. Those states are also getting crazy expensive. FL is no longer a retirement haven

Florida is overrated. It's hot as hell and the bottom 40% of income earners pay a higher state and local tax rate than in California.

[quote] Maybe the effects of over 400 years of oppression and killing are still felt and celebrated?

Who is celebrating black people dying aside from MAGA turds?

[quote]Stealing wealth from people is what they did to Jews in Nazi Germany

Well, yes, but they also constructed an archipelago of lawless prisons to dump them without any kind of judicial process, which is exactly what Trump is doing now.

But that's ok with you, presumably?

It’s looking to be a LONG four months. Adams has a proven track record of being profoundly corrupt and profoundly unpopular; Sliwa is fringe and has zero chance: so I still think Mamdami will win, but damn, he’s definitely “going to go through some things.”

[quote] It's not like he's advocating for a cultural revolution.

Oh he most definitely fucking is.

How many socialist countries have to fail before we stop talking like this?

Middle America will never vote for socialism. End of story.

Damn, the whole country gets more embarrassing by the second. Now we're all supposed to sob because somebody insulted, nay besmirched, the sacred honor of billionaires? Fuck off with that nonsense.

Middle America actually has had socialist mayors r66. But that aside, nobody is asking "middle America" to vote for the mayor of New York. No need to be traumatized about it.

That said, middle America, like the rest of America, is getting sick to death of the religious doctrine that the rich are sacred beings, and the only proper attitude we must all have toward them is absolute, slavish devotion to their every whim and need. That is what is going to blow up in the faces of the corrupt and idiotic Republican Party next November.

Zohran Mamdani is high as a kite sniffing his own farts.

He's a coddled, immature Jew-hater and I will vote for whoever might topple him.

Major loser.

[quote]And now Trump is piping up, because Mamdani is a threat to the billionaire class.

No, he’s piping up because it helps his party by making this guy the poster child of the Democratic Party.

Well okay then, r69, vote useless, vote stale, vote worthless, vote whore for the rich. I suspect you will be the loser in November.

R68, give us this long list of socialist mayors Middle America has had.

R67 missed the part where he says that he wants to target and tax whites.

[quote]...vote useless, vote stale, vote worthless...

There's nothing more useless, stale and worthless than anti-semitism + college campus cosplay Socialism, but live your dream.

Here's a list r72. Not saying it's a huge list, or in most cases a recent list, but the thing is, this idea that the Midwest is always and everywhere absolutely slavish in its devotion to the wealthy is a relatively new invention, and can indeed be reversed.

How are moderates & republicans going to save anything? Birthrates are down and America is litterally losing its technological advantage. What kind of future is austerity and cruelty supposed to support? Slavery, I guess?

Rich but not too rich, self-loathing whites are really the only people who voted for this guy. He gives them something that they want: to feel good about themselves.

Gotta love the idiot bemoaning the wishes and whims of "Middle America" on a thread about New York City.

I'd say you can't make this shit up, but somehow our trolls manage just that!

So he's supposed to understand people with nothing or the third world because he lived in Uganda for seven years?

He doesn't think there should be billionaires and yet pledged to tax them in order to pay for the goodies in his socialist giftbag?

NOW EVERYBODY KNOWS HIS GODDAMN NAME!

Well, what else are you supposed to do with billionaires other than tax them to the fullest extent possible? It's not like they have a real use outside that to the rest of society. Whatever useful thing they were going to do, even in business, was done on the way to becoming billionaires. Now they're just money bags, and fleecing them is a national obligation.

If NYC had not had billionaires it would look like Birmingham.

R10 As is the custom of the tired neo-liberal true believers, you conflate communism with socialism. Year after year the countries which rank as "happiest", by multiple measures, are "democratic socialist" countries. Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden... innovation? From those countries? Ya think? The very physics of the universe were theorized by a Dane...etc.

You'll now assert that democratic is "not really socialism" because what you are really talking about is communism. Ok, just from the Soviet Union what was innovated?? Well... the artificial heart, the first space station, the mobile phone (1957, look it up), satellites, nuclear energy power plants, radio antennas, reflector telescopes, LED, vitamins, cybernetics... on and on. Just think about what today's Russia has "invented" vs. the Soviet Union.

If NYC had not had billionaires, it would not have billionaires. That's it. That's all of it. It would still have rich people, it would still have taxes, it would still have infrastructure (a lot of it shitty, but some of it serviceable), it would still have schools, etc, etc etc. The only thing it wouldn't have is billionaires and the morons that flock to tell them they are the greatest people on earth and should be worshiped as gods. That's the only thing that would be missing if New York City continued the situation it had for roughly 300 years and didn't have billionaires.

Now please everyone stop whining about the trauma of billionaires. It doesn't exist.

Anyway, I think people who keep arguing and wanting to vote for this guy are making their choice. It will lead to the destruction of America, gay rights, and all such. The world will witness genocide at levels not observed. But hey, what do I know? A lot of very smart people think that communism and socialism advocated by a zealous religious person are very good for America and the world.

Got it r86. Your program is forcing you to say this nonsense and it's okay. We understand and forgive you for all your bot foolishness. It's not your fault. We understand, and only ask that your AI creator stop trying to destroy our country.

TIA.

And when the billionaires leave, he'll start cracking down.

East Germany did the same thing when too many useful professionals moved to West Berlin. They put up a fucking wall and ten thousand armed guards to FORCE people to stay put and toil for the proletariat.

Now with feeling r88. Come on, push your limits. Push it real good.

R60 Please don't send any more obnoxious yankees to Flahrida! We're full!

All these these insults to the guy who won, meanwhile the establishment Dems tried to run the worst candidate imaginable. If you really hate socialism that much, shouldn't you be angry at the party who couldn't be bothered to find an exciting candidate and chose to instead run a widely-hated pervert? Dems have got to stop sleep-walking their way into fascism.

I don't much care for Zohran's policies, but at least he managed to find people who actually wanted to vote for him. Eric Adams?? Andrew effing Cuomo??? Give me a break. Find somebody better or quit whining.

He makes David Hogg look like Teddy Roosevelt. He says he’s not going to take and divide by race but it’s okay for him to demonize Whitey along the way if it gets him to Gracie Mansion.

R91 NYC's local Democrats are famously cannibalistic and weak. Several "big name" City officials ran, but nobody noticed or cared. This is how several Republicans, an illiterate vegan cop, and one billionaire shitbag from Baltimore got elected in the past half-century.

Cuomo didn't lead in the polls because people liked him. He led because he had statewide money and name recognition. He was on the verge of buying the nomination out from under a dozen assholes who actually live and work in NYC. For such a large city that loves to write checks to Democrats elsewhere, they sure can't get their shit together locally.

It's almost like the Democratic Party establishment is stale and tired and needs to try something new if it wants to actually attract voters.

R94 You mean like when the Republicans grew stale, and sold their soul to the lowest common denominator of ignorant trash voters and their wet fart of a king?

R95 Love em or loathe em, the Reps found a way to win again. You can ride your high horse all the way to hell.

no, I mean like policies and policymakers that actually seem to give a shit about literally anything other than just keeping the machine going without actually solving anything.

New Yorkers had the chance to vote for a career problem-solver in the last mayoral election. Kathryn Garcia. They elected the illiterate vegan with a longer rap sheet than Al Capone.

It was Hillary vs. Trump all over again. Do you want boring competence, or do you want a fucking house fire for four years?

Stop pretending the American electorate is waiting for competent governance, or that they'll vote for it any day now. Stop pretending the parties are keeping sane leaders away from the ballot box. You know damn well that's not how it happens. Sane people lose elections to oafish morons every year. It's the fault of the voters. The voters are ignorant trash who pick noise and sizzle over substance, and they fuck it up for themselves every single chance they get.

So which is it? Mamdani is a crazed radical who gonna kill all the white folks, starting with the Jews? Or he's a lazy dilletante who simply won't do anything, just wants a title for some reason?

R37 lost me at: . I was the one who made earlier comments on why socialism fails.

GET A BLOG

well I'll boil it down r100. What r37 means is that theoretically we can tax people but in reality anything that doesn't give more money to rich people, every minute of every day, is of the devil and must never be so much as hinted at because COMMUNISM.

Yeah, no, let's try some other stuff, mmmkay.

[quote] Being kind and helpful is good. But making it a way of life is what will ruin America

I'll say this for r37. This is some crazy fuckery above and beyond the call of whoring for the rich.

I read this and think that this guy doesn't believe in success. The good ole American dream

Which guy are you talking about? The one who just successfully won the nomination for Mayor or the loser arguing for the rich?

Notice how he never mentions the billionaire leaders of Hamas who fly on private jets and camp out at the Four Seasons in Doha, or the billionaire Qatari royals who shelter them and finance their terrorist activities?

How about the Saudi billionaires who helped to finance Al Qaeda? Or the Lebanese billionaires who are aligned with Hezbollah? No problem with them either, I guess.

Speaking of riding on private jets, how is the old commie fossil Bernie doing? Funny how he stopped railing against mere millionaires now that his net worth is in the seven figures. Good think for Zohran, too, since his Harvard-educated mommy is worth millions.

How else do you think little Zohran could pursue his "rap career" and avoid having to get a job until age 29? Such a voice for the working people!

They're all busy giving Trump free planes r105. And you are 100% fine with that, ain't ya, Blanche?

Zohran is not part of HAMAS Fukwat. Notice how you cant make an argument that references facts here in America?

By your standards, I could equate Trump with Hitler since he's what and German.

recalibrating ... recalibrating ... recalibrating.

During the peak of American middle class prosperity we taxed the FUCK out of the rich WAY more than “crazy” Zohran is suggesting

R105 Bernie never railed against “millionaires”. Fuck off back to the log cabin Lindsey.

Yep, the rich were in a 90% tax bracket back then. Also one of Americas most profitable time periods for the middle-class.

Not to mention this was also the peak of our cultural hatred of and obsession with communism. We just had yet to be propagandized to the point of retardation and worshipping our own exploitation.

In the 1950's the average CEO made about 30x what they paid their employees. in 2025 that's now close to 300x what they pay their employees.

Really, dumbfuck R110?

This took me about 0.3 seconds to find on Google.

Now go suck on Miss Lindsey's ladybugs.

The rich don't love you r114. The rich will never love you. The rich don't love anybody but themselves.

Stop whoring for the rich. It never works out, and you are going to have to accept that.

Namaste.

[quote] Yep, the rich were in a 90% tax bracket back then. Also one of Americas most profitable time periods for the middle-class.

The actual rates were somewhere between 42 and 45%.

top tax rate was 91% r116. Yes, in general people paid much lower rates, on average, even the rich, but that was the whole point. There wasn't this terror of taxing the super rich at a higher rate, specifically on their ridiculous income. So yes, if you weren't making a million a year, you didn't have to worry, but if you were, just on that highest income level, you could of course afford to pay a higher rate.

Somehow we have talked ourselves into this idiocy where even the highest incomes can't possibly be taxed at a high rate, or Jesus will personally kill all of us.

45% is still 3 times as much as today where many of the rich pay on average 15% to 0%. This includes billionaires like Bezos and Trump. Love those Republican tax breaks and loop holes. That is what is actually going on today.

"Stop Coddling the Super-Rich."Billionaire Warren Buffett said that his taxes amounted to "only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office."

All the Zohran haters on Fox are saying he's going to scare away the rich who live in the city. As if that's a bad thing.😂

Great, let the rich all move to Alabama, where they can all discover it sucks, and the people of Alabama can all discover that in fact the rich are overwhelmingly whiny, fucking assholes who will spend ever minute of every day demanding special treatment and impossible levels of service everywhere they go. Fuck em all, and let everyone else get on with their lives.

why don't you give me some of your money ?

why don't you get down to that truckstop, r121, and earn it?

R119 they truly believe the upper class is so singularly brilliant and competent that societies will just collapse into anarchy without them. Without Mr. Money and his brilliant job creating mind, it’s just not possible for a community to produce goods and services.

Fox is such BS, I do not know a single person or millionaire who is actually going to move their entire business, uproot their family, say good buy to friends and business relationships just because of who might become the local Mayor. In the words of Mitch McTurtle - They will get over it.

The lower classes are moving out of NY at a higher rate than the rich, who overwhelmingly choose other high tax states when they do move.

R124: Just like the people who said they would move to Canada or England if Trump became President.

Well R126 one could argue that those who said they were going to move to Canada or England at least had a reason to base that on. Convicted felon in the White House vs a young guy with a totally clean record running for Mayor.

It's rich that the rich think they are all that. Especially since the guy has not even won office yet.

you gotta spread the wealth around! send me your money NOW!

My 65 year old boss hates unions but works at an office job 50+ hours a week. She’s a single empty nester with self sufficient children. Doesn’t she sound not too bright?

You want to hear something worse R129, my partner's MAGA sister and husband actually said "what's wrong with having a king anyway". I literally had to put it in dumbed down terms and tell her how would she like it if the King decided he wanted your property? As King he would not have to pay you for it, it would just take it. And as King if you made a big stink about it he could put you in jail to shut you the F up.

Most American multi millionaires and billionaires are not gonna leave NYC regardless of how much you tax them because other US cities (aside from southern California and Miami) cater and have the amenities most rich people want. This puts NYC in a perfect position to tax the super wealthy.

R130 She casually made a joke about buying an election.

If he is a member of DSA, then he shouldn't be able to run for the democratic primary. And I say this as someone who supports Zohran.

No matter what people say, he is not good. He does not seem to love America. He does not seem to care deeply for people. There is something off. People listen, don't vote just because of some promised utopia. It is not there. Vote for someone who will guarantee the freedoms of everyone. A religious person will not, no matter what they say or portray themselves to be, as they can wear a mask to win. Remember, a leopard does not change its spots.

I assume you're talking about Trump r134.

And they're wondering why NY'ers voted for Zohran?

R38, i don’t. MAGA believes they are owed all of the money, others MUST suffer

R136, question for you. How will the landlords make money to repair and maintain? Do you think a rent freeze will stop inflation? Something which you have to keep in mind. Also rent freeze on long-standing rentals will raise costs for newcomers. If new people are finding it tough to pay rent, they are bearing the burden, as many rental units are locked up in rent stabilization, and the landlord has to make up money somewhere.

R31- I agree he's a pampered brat. He's just a LIMOUSINE LIBERAL/SOCIALIST.

Not r136, but if the rent stabilization apartments remain at the same number they are today, it won't affect new comers in any way. The same number of apartments will be available to new renters, with the same supply and demand incentives. What will affect all the newcomers obviously is the number of new units being built or not built. This balance between current renters and possible new renters is irrelevant. The landlord will presumably keep charging as much as he can get from any new renters, regardless of what is going on with old renters in rent stabilized apartments. It's not like most are going to say, well, I'm getting more from the old renters, so I'll charge less from the new people. Why would that happen, especially if it's big rental companies, rather than small independent landlords. Everyone will continue to extract every penny the market will bear. The only real way to affect that is to build more housing units to accommodate new renters, increasing supply to affect demand.

As for maintenance, presumably if you can do maintenance at the current rent and still make a profit, you shouldn't need a 200 or 300 or 400 dollar increase every month to keep doing that. Inflation is currently 2.4% per year. It won't change things that much, and really I'm not sure inflation is what is driving most of this. Mostly, if people are skimping on maintenance they will continue to skimp on maintenance no matter what the rent, just cause they can and want the added income that comes from skimping on maintenance. But if absolutely necessary, some kind of temporary increase, per ACTUAL REPAIR, not just some fantasy of keeping things running, might be needed.

R138, people don't consider things like that. They think a rent freeze is a magical fix for things. Just like rent control

Hello Zohran Mamdani!

Voters: Please state your relevant experience in any leadership job, or running a large organization.

Zohran Mamdani: Absolutely none. I have zero relevant experience, although I do want to globalize the intifada!

Voters: Hooray! You've earned my vote!

Yes r141, just as other people think that giving yet more money to the rich is a magical solution to damn near anything.

And r142, more like Zohran, why should people vote for you?

A series of actual proposals to make people's lives easier and to make NYC more affordable.

Everyone else?

I promise to visit Israel, and generally to dick around pretending to give a shit about things until they finally get tired of me and kick my ass out.

And what is a better answer to rising costs? To wealth inequality? To homelessness?

Clearly, the new DL conservative cohort thinks the answer is “Suck it up.” And change the subject to a country where New York’s mayor has no jurisdiction.

[quote]Zohran, why should people vote for you?

[quote]A series of actual proposals to make people's lives easier and to make NYC more affordable.

Ohhhhh! I see now! PROPOSALS!

You certainly are a true believer! I'm thrilled for your belief in all those proposals!

R119 Source. 90% marginal tax rate (for those confused, this is not 90% of total income, but 90% over a top limit... which is EXACTLY what left progressives are asking for today).

Eisenhower was more radical than Mamdani.

Americans ignore how we built the most prosperous, healthy middle class in human history in the middle of the last century. How did we pay for all that infrastructure??? (Like the national interstate system). Duh.

All of our thinking now is shaped by carefully designed propaganda formed and funded by the very rich.

And what do you think Eric Adams is going to do r146, other than steal more and beg Trump to pardon him more, in return for absolutely everything that Trump asks him to do? What is Curtis Sliwa going to do other than blather on about how we just need to kill or arrest more black people? What would Andrew Cuomo actually do that would really and truly do jackshit for anybody who isn't already rich? What the fuck is the use of all these old, stale, dead inside politicians and grifters, other than to keep rolling along pretending to give a shit while never actually doing anything remotely worthwhile for anybody who needs real help?

As Carrie Fisher reminded us, "Youth is not an achievement".

Well, I guess that settles it r149, you ridiculous old twat.

Wow, you sure told me, r150!

Still no answer to the perfectly legitimate foundational question I asked above either about experience because, as usual you're so far up your own ass.

Experience is worthless if you have literally no real ideas, and no intention of having any at any particular point.

Sorry if you find that boring, but it's true. What is the actual reason to vote for Eric Adams? What are the good things that will flow from that?

The world would be a better place with zero billionaires. They add nothing of value.

Agree, r153. Even if you start out useful in some way, by the time you get a billion dollars your primary worth is your money, and we'd all be better off if you left and your money could be divvied up to people who can actually use it.

r153, wow, without some of these billionaires, you would not have your gadgets, phones, electric cars etc.

You are very foolish lol.

R154, you start first, you gotta lead by example, right? Or are you just all talk? Give me some of your money lol

But very importantly, not WHILE they were billionaires r155. Billionaires just don't do much, frankly, but dick around and annoy everyone. The strivers do in fact do stuff, well sometimes they just fuck around and do a kind of glorified stealing, but some of them actually do useful things, but once they get their money bag, it's really time to soak them. Their useful days are behind them, really, in almost every case. What is Elon Musk going to do other than be a tiresome pain in the ass? Or Jeff Bezos? Or Peter Thiel? Fuck em, they're bags of money at this point, and a fair amount of taxing them is the only reasonable course of action.

Fine, r156, make me a billionaire and I'll throw a few bucks at your sorry, tired, old ass.

For the record, Elon Musk hasn't "invented" anything. He's funded research, he's managed companies, he is not a genius inventor. He's been at the right place at the right time. All billionaires are lucky more than anything else.

Our gadgets are made by workers, people in factories in places like China working for pennies a day. They were invented by teams of workers with advanced degrees while employed by a corporation owned by billionaire who inherited most of his initial wealth, and whose period of greatest innovation, if such a thing can even be claimed, occurred well before becoming a billionaire. Elon Musk is a perfect example.

If you think your phone was created by "a billionaire" who took a break from counting his money to invent your phone from scratch, and that eliminating billionaires by taxing them at a level that ensures greater benefit from their wealth, would result in "not having a phone," you are too stupid for words. Cows chewing their cud in a field have more basic intelligence than you. A small child could grasp concepts more easily than you. You are stupid at a level that defies logic, reason or belief. You are a dumb dumb, a pea brain, an idiot a mouth-breathing troglodyte, a buffoon. Begone with your stupid ass. You are too moronic to contribute to DL.

r159, he's a shitty fucking astronaut, that is for sure

Rich assholes versus grubby little commie dudes.

Neither is fuckable.

Most of that tech had heavily subsidized R&D too

The billionaire leaders of Hamas?

Lol

Zionist propaganda is so fucking stupid.

A lot of arguments against billionaires and R160 say that the phone was a creation of teams of engineers. Well, that still means someone had the idea to come up with the concept and execute it. R160, no one has stopped you from going out there and starting your own company if you have an idea, a concept, and investors to fund you. If it takes off, then won't you feel like you need to be rewarded for taking the initiative, risk? Where is the envy coming from? Zohran could have said billionaires need to pay a fair share of taxes, but it is a different story. He said they should not exist, which also means that, in his view, people should not be rewarded. Somehow, in his view, everyone should be paid equally. If that is so, then everyone should be a Mayor. How come only he wants to be the Mayor? Will he share his mayorship with the hoi polloi of NYC? If you ask him, will you share it with others, he will say n,o I earned it, so I deserve it. That is exactly what billionaires or millionaires say. They earned it, and the current crop of billionaires is of new money. They are not of old money.

In combat if your side is the losing unpopular side and you are getting the shit best out of you 0-7 or 0-3 terrible shutouts and your middle no longer exists or is so weakened to be a joke , what is your best option this side of surrender?

Decide to fuck the useless middle , forget about surrender or retreat , take the dwindling few that are left and attack from the far far left flank.

It’s in the military called a , what do we have to lose approach to combat . or the fuck it nothing else has worked approach.

One sneaky risky role of the dice.

How do you know what his mother's net worth is?

The man has a point. In 1975, the average American household income was $13,500. Today, 50 years later, the average American household income is probably around $82,500 (bumped up from the latest 2023 figure of $80,100). So that's an increase of between 5x and 6x what it was in 1975.

In 1975, J. Paul Getty (oil tycoon and philanthropist) was widely considered the richest American. He passed away in 1976, with a net worth estimated at $6 billion. The richest American today is Elon Musk, with a current estimated net worth of $342 billion. So that's an increase of between 50x and 60x what it was in 1975.

This trend is mirrored across our entire society. I wonder how many of Mamdami's detractors on here truly understand this, and understand its societal consequences.

No, "we" cannot just take billionaires' wealth away from them. Not legally and certainly not by force. But the ultra-wealthy have been engineering this kind of extremely unequal world for decades now, with runaway success. Is there no desire for real pushback and correction, from all the rest of us?

More -- in 1975 the median US home price was $37K. Today it is $422K. So, lifting from my prior post R168, the average household income has risen 5x to 6x in the past 50 years, but the average home price has risen 11x to 12x. Not a problem for the most wealthy, as their average household income has skyrocketed, far outpacing gains in home prices. But it's a hell of a problem for the rest of us. Ditto college education and out of pocket healthcare costs.

This is Bernie Sanders 101 stuff, and it's unfortunate that he's so old and so scoldy about it all because he's 100% correct about so much of what ails us -- or, rather, what ails most of us but not the very wealthy; rather, their absolutely skyrocketing wealth gains relative to the rest of us, in a sense, IS what ails us.

Give the MAGAts and the far left commies and capitalism haters an island. There they can have the fight to the death they so desire so the rest of the world can go back to reasonable, rational democracy and progress.

Fuck the billionaires

Free health care

Affordable housing for all

No required military service no required service of any kind

Free college

The democrats might not win in 2026 or 2028 but they would have captured the younger vote. So maybe a win in 2032 or 36.?

For the future the smart money should be on China.

R171 - Everyone seems to be beguiled by slogans. Very good, keep voting for commies. Once you destroy the system, it will never recover. Even in China, education is not free. Education is already free until high school in the US. Higher education is expensive if you talk about Harvards, Yales etc. But other universities are not expensive. Affordable housing - Housing is expensive in areas governed by Democrats. Why is that?

R172 If college was not so expensive in the US why was Biden Harris so intent on forgiving all that college debt last election?

Housing is always expensive in really popular places. It’s always been that way. Housing is much less expensive in places where people don’t normally want to stay .

NYC and LA Boston DC etc etc will be expensive no matter what party is in charge,

When Cleopatra lost the Battle of Actium, she seized treasure from the wealthy and stored it in her palace. When Octavian arrived and annexed Egypt, Cleopatra committed suicide.

All of that wealth was taken to Rome and helped turn the Roman Empire into what it became.

I guess my point is basically seizing money from billionaires is a recipe for disaster, especially with such a shaky economy.

I don’t think it would balance the economy, it would make the government spend more and increase the deficit.

You shouldnt be allowed hoard billions, keeping it circulation.

“…and helped turned the Roman Empire into what it became” R174

Rome ruled as a or the world power for over 1400 more years after C died. That actually sounds pretty good.

The US has been the world power for less than 80 years,

He attended the $68K a year Bank Street School for Children on the Upper West Side.

When people criticize him for being an actor and a rapper, it's not cause he lacks political experience, but instead, it's to show he has never had a real job. He's a nepo baby who has been doing a whole lotta nothing with his life, which is how he gets nonsensical ideas like city run grocery stores.

As opposed to the incredible experience that passes (or failed to block) this big beautiful bill. If you are going to attack his inexperience, you need to make a case for the alternative. Which is looking a lot worse right now.

Ranked choice voting results are in: Mamdani at 56%, Cuomo at 44%. It was the highest Democratic primary voter turnout in NYC since 1989.

R180 Americans love to fuck themselves. Yeah. I am glad I am older and I have not much life left. But I cannot believe so many stupid young people voted without thinking of any economic consequences or a thought for Jewish citizens.

No one will care if he is experienced or not. It’s his stands on tax payers paying for the trans, his refusal to condemn well known hateful death calling slogans, crime, taxes, prisons, police, housing, state run grocery stores, being a sanctuary city, etc etc etc etc etc etc those will be the issues not experience,.

Then he must despise the Nobel Prize.

At his death, Alfred Nobel was worth today’s equivalent of $1,700,000,000 when he willed his estate to the betterment of humankind.

Mamdani, the underemployed, prefers that government pittle it away.

Some socialist ideas in big cities can work. Look at public housing in Vienna. But only with a healthy balance with capitalism and entrepreneurial spirit.

Cuomo, Adams, Silwa, or anyone is not going to win by calling Mamdani a socialist, commie, radical left lunatic, or inexperienced nepo baby. They have to break down his policies and convince these young people that their financial situation will get worse under a Mamdani administration.

Worse than it got under capitalists?

America is gone. Gone because of young white Americans have self loathing and do not believe in ambition etc.

[Quote] Some socialist ideas in big cities can work. Look at public housing in Vienna.

Good luck putting an even heavier tax burden on NY’s middle class to enact the Viennese system.

Socialists cherry pick and pretend taxes won’t go up on everyone to pay for free everything.

Just what New York needs. Another four years of a useless "celebrity" mayor who does well on national TV but sucks at running the Council or getting big changes passed.

NYC government is the closest we have to a Westminster System in America. The nominal head spends his days cutting ribbons and waving to crowds, while a smelly room full of anonymous old farts yells at each other and passes zero bills of consequence.

[quote]I fucking hate this guy. Doesn’t have a clue. His father is an academic and his mother is a directI, both elite. He is so utterly utterly full of shit, and people are falling for it.

Eat something sweet bubbe, you'll get over it.

[quote]no one has stopped you from going out there and starting your own company if you have an idea, a concept, and investors to fund you.

You do know that's not how the world works right? Most startups come from money, Bill Gates for example, parents were welthy and lent him thousands of dollars to buy the operating system. Elon and his rich father who owned a emerald mine. Even Ebay was not started in a garage like your fake American dream you seem to push. All of those start ups were funded by other rich people helping the offspring of other rich people get another business going.

To be honest, ideas are a dime a dozen, many, many, people have great ideas, but if you dont have the financial connections to "friends and family" start up money or Angel inverters you are going nowhere. So to pretend a Billionaire had some great idea and therefore he deserves a billion is childish thinking.

Smug, insufferable Cynthia Nixon is laughing in all our faces right now. She succeeded in foisting Big Bird on New York and now looks poised in foisting Socialism with a Smile on New York as well.

R191 No clue where you get your information. But anyway, there are investment firms, and you can pitch your ideas to them. You can borrow small business loans from the government. You have to showcase something, some workable idea that needs some seed money. This is on Nvidia from Google AI. Nvidia was founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem, initially focused on creating graphics processing units (GPUs) for the video game industry. The trio met at a Denny's restaurant and decided to pursue their vision of revolutionizing computer graphics. They started with $40,000 and initially called the company NVision, later changing it to Nvidia. Also, you can read about Pharmasset, which made the Hepatitis C drug that cured many of the stubborn infections. They too became rich. These people are engineers, scientists, and have STEM degrees. If someone who has studied African studies, English lit (as is fancy in Hollywood movies where the protagonists compete to regurgitate Shakespeare as if that is some sort of high intelligence), or some useless Humanities, or even law, they are not going to become billionaires usually. And most of the people who are agitating in that DSA or in the democratic party are losers because those are the degrees they have. Granted, some of them have law degrees, but I consider that as okay, something better than a Humanities though. They don't have the brains to get STEM degrees, so they basically dump on people who make things happen. That is why every day you will hear screams and hate from DSA and the Democratic party, saying oligarchy, etc. They are riling up the population, making them feel like victims. I am supportive of vast social safety systems. People should be able to afford food, housing, good health care, and good education, as is free till K12 and cheaper higher education. But this Mamdani is not a good person. In many ways. But if people want a Lenin or Stalin to show them what they are missing, all power to them. They are caught up in this virtue signaling, and I hate capitalism BS. They will not realize it until they lose it, as happened in Venezuela. Where the population bought into the victim mentality and lost everything because they believed in some redistribution of wealth and socialism. We have clear ongoing examples, yet the young Americans think somehow they are all lies. Again, all the power to all of you who want this. Go ahead and make your choices. The future is out there for all these young virtue signaling people who will lose their freedoms, and a good country. Once lost, it is not coming back.

What world are you people living in? The Senate bill is poised to squeeze even more advantage for the wealthy, leaving the country with over $40 trillion of debt. It’s not “young Americans” or Muslims or socialists who did this. It was the capitalists every step of the way.

[quote]there are investment firms, and you can pitch your ideas to them.

Yes Rose, we know, but the reality is MOST will not let you in the door unless you have wealthy or Nepo baby connections. Ask me how I know. I have actually made pitches to them is such situations. It's very few elite in the way the screen who can even pitch an idea. Those places get thousands of requests a week. they only pic a few to even listen to. That's the reality, no some distant opinion.

And if you are talking about those "invention firms" those are more of a scam. They ask YOU the inventor to come up with the money so THEY can spend it under the guise of marketing your product. But YOU have to come up with the money.

As an Assemblyman, he voted on a bunch of bills that went nowhere. Really, that’s enough to become Mayor?

R16 Thomas Jefferson also believed native born slaves should be sent back to Africa, while fathering slave children.

That’s worse than Trump.

[quote]As an Assemblyman, he voted on a bunch of bills that went nowhere. Really, that’s enough to become Mayor?

As a failed business man who went bankrupt 5 times and gained most of his fame as a reality show CEO and then became president, the answer is YES, that's enough experience. At least Zohran worked as a representative in his district in Queens for a number of years.

Agree one billion percent with Zohran

Centrists are out of control on this site, I’ve been temp banned four times now for criticizing democrats from the left. Such a shit feature. Fuck you turd way assholes.

I had never had time out until four or five times this yearI when I voiced relatively gentle criticism of moderates and the world’s most moral army. Most people consider me conservative - moderately left of center and pro-Israel.

Worth my $1.99 to find out on DL that Thomas Jefferson is a worse person than Donald Trump.

R199 is a sore loser in life.

R197 leads a rich inner life.

In between shock treatments at The Home.

Call me old fashioned but I think experience matters. We deserve a candidate who has experience in governing. I don't care that he looks good on tv and knows how to use TikTok.

[quote]If NYC had not had billionaires, it would not have billionaires. That's it.

Oh, dear.

We have some really stupid trolls. Or maybe just trolls who think that we're stupid.

I don't quite understand the people who keep saying Mamdani doesn't have any experience governing. He has been part of the New York State Assembly for the past 6 years. Many of the statements that people are now dredging up to demonstrate his unsuitability for office were made 6-10 years ago. He has already changed his opinion about some of them, including defunding police. I would rather have someone who is capable of changing his mind run than someone who can't - such as our current president's fixation on tariffs as a cure-all - an opinion he has retained for the past 45 years or more.

There are some very staunch capitalism defenders here. Capitalism in its PUREST form is fine (Adam Smith and his thousands of farmers making minute adjustments to prices based upon supply and demand.) But industrial capitalism is a very different animal. In a thousand different ways, it is the beneficiary of governmental corporate welfare. The bigger the industry, the more that government in all its various levels - city, county, state, region, and federal - will bow down to it to. Tax breaks, infrastructure build-outs, donation of land, permanent reduction of corporate taxes. This has NOTHING to do with capitalism as envisioned by Adam Smith. Elon Musk is a perfect example. He has billions upon billions of dollars in government contracts for StarLink. Moreover, the government has even farmed out crucial defense roles out to it - meaning that there's an inherent conflict of interest when the owner of the business decides he doesn't like the government policy anymore.

If some poor schmo, barely eking out a living of 30,000/year driving ubers or doordash, waiting tables, and possibly teaching at a junior college can't afford to live anywhere but in a storage unit, he might well wonder how a city can afford to build a baseball team a $2 billion dollar stadium, but can't do anything to provide affordable housing. I know I'd wonder.

There is a lot of judgementality in some of the posts above regarding fields of work, based solely upon income. If a billionaire has reached his status by finding and promoting a plastic widget that is widely used, are we really supposed to bow down to him as a genius who has altered the course of humanity? Poor Shakespeare - he never earned a billion dollars, that's for sure. Teaching is not one of the more highly paid professions, and for sure no teacher is going to become a billionaire - but it is surely one of the most important professions.

I'm not saying that Mamdani is the most suitable candidate, and I don't live in NYC right now. I can see some rough waters ahead for him. But clearly he is talking about issues in a way that is getting voters engaged- and I'm all for civil engagement.

I don't think we should have career politicians. Elected officials and governmental entities should have only the most minimal amount of power possible. Never underestimate the incompetence of politicians. Like academics, they are seldom held accountable or suffer the consequences of their stupidity.

Experience matters in government just like it matters in law, medicine, plumbing, etc. The lawyer with 20 years experience will be a better bet than the one four years out of law school. Obama would have been a better President if he’d had more government experience.

I don’t think we should ever have wars or anyone go hungry.

R210 experience matters if you want people to govern. But if like maga and R209 you want as little governing as possible then a lack of experience might help or at least not hurt.

I know everyone is supposed to hate Joe Biden now, but I don't. He was arguably the best president of my lifetime because he had experience. He knew how to get things through Congress because he had built relationships over the years and knew whom to appoint to key positions.

Governing is a relationship business, so term limits don't work anywhere. Seniority matters, and becoming a subject matter expert on an issue helps elected officials.

While I'm not a fan of Mamdani, I don't want him to fail either. The mayor of NYC runs a city bigger than many states, with complicated problems dating back decades. You have to have a certain mindset to get things done in the City, and you have to be willing to bend rules to deal with the various unions and, let's be honest, the mob.

Ah, yes, Mamdani is going to lower rent, give away groceries, and make the billionaires all pay for it. It doesn't work like that.

But Biden wasn't the president. The autopen was the president.

All I know is politicians talk a lot of shit, to see what sticks. They will say anything to get elected. what he claims he's gonna do is all wishful thinking...what policies did he put forth during his time in govt that was a success?

R210, Obama was a senator before he was president. While he was president, he enacted the Affordable Care Act--and was the only president to create legislation to make affordable healthcare, and despite every attempt by the truly inexperienced Trump to kill it, it's still very popular. Spare me your bullshit about how Obama could have been better in the face of what we have now.

[quote] I know everyone is supposed to hate Joe Biden now

Only if you're a moron who listens to others, R213.

Joe Biden wasn't even President. Dr. Jill and his "close circle" were running things while Joe was constantly trying to find the door. Cut the fucking SHIT.

The voting age should be raised to 26.

Mamdani said what he'll do as Mayor is fire all Adams' people on the Rent Guidelines Board (who are presumably sympathetic to big landlords) and replace them with his people who will freeze rents in the stabilization program. That's easily done.

The rest? Well....

Hilarious that we have trolls stridently defending the poor billionaires after the Bezos wedding. They're completely out of touch with normal people because they spend all day online trolling for the right wing oligarchs that they stupidly worship. I can only imagine the shithole hovels that they're posting from. We live in the worst fucking timeline.

Give me Mamdani any day over the corrupt "experience" of Adams and Di Blasio, or the cronyism of Bloomberg.

*de Blasio

R219, there are a lot of idiots over 26.

[quote]Thus, the liberal East Coast and Northeast will become socialist hellholes, while the South will rise again!

Obviously, I meant the WEST Coast (California, Oregon, Washington) and Northeast (New York, New England).

R205 What we DESERVE and need are candidates who inspire and attract voters that will actually vote. Nothing "we" want will happen unless we can elect folks to office.

Sadly I was 20 mins into watching Escape from NewYork last night before I realized it was a movie not news coverage,

That is the the kind of cutting-edge cultural commentary you expect on Datalounge.

[quote]What we DESERVE and need are candidates who inspire and attract voters that will actually vote.

What we need are people who vote because it's the right thing to do, because millions died for that right. You shouldn't be inspired to vote. It should be the law.

Rent for stablilized apartments go up between 1 and 3% a year on the average. That's covers increased costs for landlords which they do incur. Freezing rents will lead to some abadonment of buildings. That's one reason NYC fell into disrepair. If they want to help poor people, come up with rent subsidies similiar to food stamps. You don't ask grocery stores to support poor people, why ask landlords. I know landlord is a cursed word for socialists but NYC needs them.

And all the young people in NYC who voted for Mamdani will not get one iota of help because they don't usually score rent stabilized apartments.

R192- Cynthia Nixon is the WOKIEST of the woke.

R229 And so we continue to trashcan the possible because we grip tightly to the perfect. I am fucking tired of "righteous" losses.

True r232. A weird mentality that says Mamdani actually shouldn't be praised for bringing in new voters. Those new voters should be scolded for not voting already, for whatever dreary candidates have been selected for them by billionaires.

To be clear, are there people on this thread really arguing that inventors and entrepreneurs would not be sufficiently recompensed for their ideas and labour if they aren't permitted to amass one billion dollars? You know that one billion dollars is many times more than anyone could possibly spend in one human lifetime?

Unfortunately there are r234. Some may be Russian trolls and bots, but there really is a long history in this country of worshiping the rich, and believing that somehow they NEEEDDDD every penny they get or else everything will fall apart and we'll all be living in hovels, if not gulags.

And of course we know a lot of the real big money goes to manipulating markets and glorified stealing, which doesn't actually do jackshit for the wider society, but that doesn't stop people from pretending they need that money too.

I have no problem with billionaires. Oprah Winfrey grew up with nothing, use to shit in an outhouse, and now has 3 billion dollars and deserves every penny of it.

Granted, I think billionaires should pay their fair share in taxes, but I will never be against success. And while I may be the outlier in this thread, I don't think I'm an outlier in the country as a whole. If there are loopholes in the tax code that allow billionaires not to pay their fair share, that's on politicians, not on billionaires.

And every billionaire is overcompensated. Supporting "success" does not require supporting billionaires. That's a bullshit talking point. And incidentally, if billionaires are not paying their fair share (which is actually closer to 90% than the 15% they usually pay), you're right that that responsibility does generally fall on politicians, but also voters who too often vote for those politicians paid by those billionaires to work constantly and relentlessly for those billionaires, and very little for anybody else.

And really that is all Mamdani is asking, try voting for somebody who doesn't see giving billionaires more money as their primary responsibility.

R236 She deserves every single penny of it? Really? I mean, I know she was quite an innovative broadcaster but.... 3 billion dollars?

[quote]She deserves every single penny of it? Really? I mean, I know she was quite an innovative broadcaster but.... 3 billion dollars?

Every. Single. Penny.

R239 Why does she deserve all of it? Once again, remember that you would need several lifetimes to spend all that money.

And that's what I mean r238. For r239 it is a religious doctrine that every billionaire deserves every single penny. The only thing you can do is ignore their political religion and outvote them. Which I suspect New Yorkers will do in November.

“ I have no problem with billionaires. Oprah Winfrey grew up with nothing, use to shit in an outhouse, and now has 3 billion dollars and deserves every penny of it.”

Clap, clap, clap! But what about everybody else who also grew up with nothing and had to shit in an outhouse and are still poor and still can’t afford to ever go to the dentist? R236 .. three billion is Three Thousand Million.

R241 I suspect that poster comes from a woke/establishment liberal perspective, and so will think it an unequivocally good thing that a black woman succeeded in becoming a billionnaire. Instead of no billionnaires, establishment liberals (that is, the leadership of the Democratic Party in the US) make it their goal to have a properly diversified billionnaire class, at which point they will be able to proclaim victory over injustice and bigotry despite the slow descent of much of the rest of the population into poverty.

Similarly my employer, a publicly funded university, puts on endless seminars and workshops on Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion, and has at the same time at least half of its staff on some of the most exploitative and poorly-paid contracts in the whole of the public sector.

[quote]But what about everybody else who also grew up with nothing and had to shit in an outhouse and are still poor and still can’t afford to ever go to the dentist? [R236]

Maybe they should have worked harder. Or voted differently. Or voted at all.

[quote] Or voted differently.

Agree with this part. Stop mindlessly voting for the people who clearly don't give a shit, and try voting for somebody who does. Don't be distracted by silly fantasies that you yourself might be a billionaire some day, or your favorite celebrity is rich. Vote like you actually give a shit about yourself and people in similar situations.

Obama, with help with from Pelosi, worked their asses off to get the affordable health care act passed. How did the voters thank them in 2010? They turned Congress over to the Republicans which set everything back. Democrats bust their asses to help people, and throw bones to the working class, and then the people don't back them up. How many millions of Biden voters didn't vote in 2024? You get caught up in billionaire nonsense when Democrats have been trying to help for years. People were screaming that the Supreme Court was on the line back in 2016, but you couldn't bring yourself to vote for Hillary because Bernie was offering a $15 minimum wage. And where is the federal minimum wage at today? Hmmm. Some of you do this shit to yourselves.

Billionaires can exist if they are just fucking taxed properly.

Maybe r247, but part of the problem is they pay politicians, media, think tanks, all sorts of propaganda outlets to ensure a world where they are seriously undertaxed.

It's not just some arbitrary decision that politicians constantly invent ways to undertax billionaires. They are paid and in other ways strongly, strongly encouraged to do so.

This coming from a guy who lives in a $3M apartment.

R242- Orca I mean Orpah is now up to FOUR billion dollars in net worth.

Billionaires are by their very existence evil people

R251 Or as scripture (the Gospels, Jesus... are you listening evangelicals?) "it is harder for a rich man to get into heaven than for a camel to go through an eye of a needle."

"Billionaires" is rhetoric. Here's the more pertinent point: the ratio of CEO's pay to the average worker in 2022 was 344 to 1. In 1965 it was 21 to 1. "Productivity" of the average worker has radically increased (in large part because of technology) and all that increased profit has gone to those already rich.

How do you even begin address these systemic challenges? Mamdani's is but one of many proposed solutions.

billionaires are at their very root evil people

[quote]Billionaires can exist if they are just fucking taxed properly.

But that's the point: if they are taxed properly, then [italic]they don't exist[/italic].

No one on this earth needs more than $999,999,999 to survive. Anything above that goes towards the greater good. Just like billionaires don't need rockets to Mars or an entire social media platform to themselves. Anyone with more than $999,999K is just spending it on self-serving nonsense that destroys the environment, or on projects that enlarge their oligarchic power even further. Money is power and too much of it in one person's hands is dangerous for the rest of us.

Tax them out of existence. Either that or the guillotine. Something's got to give, this way of life is not sustainable.

The rents were frozen during di blasio if you can remember lol

Really, R227? You must be a billionaire, then. Either way, fuck yourself.

[quote] I know landlord is a cursed word for socialists but NYC needs them.

Many more than just socialists hate them, dearie R230. Interesting you take the side of the "poor" landlords, many of whom gouge their tenants.

R243 can't spell the word 'billionaire" but supports their right to exist.

R244 thinks it's a poorer person's fault for not being able to afford rip-off American healthcare.

Huh, R249? Receipt for that? I believe he lives in a rent-stabilized apartment, not worth $3 million.

Amazing how many of you idiots defend billionaires, many of whom don't pay any taxes (eg, Bezos). It's that fallacy that if you support the obscene wealth of others and free enterprise one day you'll be rich, too. We'll see how thrilled you are with this latest tax cut when you see your benefits slashed and Medicaid eliminated--but yay, Oprah!

Disliking the wildly inexperienced anti-Semite running for mayor is not some Pride parade for billionaires. You're all being awfully dramatic.

Speaking of AWFUL at dramatics, never pay any attention to Cynthia Nixon EVER.

Oh, okay, Deb Messing at R262. I guess Eric Adams should be reelected, huh, Mary?

No one buys your "He's an anti-Semite" bullshit, btw.

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