The June 25 NY City rank-choice Mayoral Primary victory of Democrat (and socialist) state Assembly member Zohran Mamdani has been receiving applause for his economic policies in pop media circles.
Take, for example, CBS News, NY, which heralded his “community” organization and cozy message that stressed “affordability” – which, of course, is code for government welfarism and subsidies, price controls, and outright market diktats that actually don’t make anything more “affordable,” they redirect wealth, crush competition, and force decisions on struggling business people, damaging the keys of market interaction that really DO lead to more for less.
Reason’s Joe Lancaster noticed this anti-market component of Mamdani’s rhetoric, and recently offered us reminders of how these collectivist ideas already have been tried – and failed – in the form of government-run supermarkets.