Why socialism wins in New York
Sidney Hook figured it out in 1987: The argument is stacked against capitalism.
From the skyline to the stock exchange, New York has always embodied the creative power of capitalism. But Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani is running for mayor as a proud socialist. And he is winning.
Economically, the proposals he lists on zohranfornyc.com read as though they came from a “Saturday Night Live" skit. “Freeze the rent." “City-owned grocery stores." “Fast, fare free buses." “No cost childcare." And so on. Though I would like to see free cheeseburgers for the elderly.
Unfortunately, it’s working. If Mr. Mamdani wins Tuesday, his victory will be a rebuke to Democrats who argue that the party’s problem is that it is moving too left.
One response to the prospect of Mayor Mamdani is to point out the economic flaws with socialism and why it is doomed to fail. The critiques are all thoughtful and correct, but they don’t seem to be denting his popularity. Why? Sidney Hook knew the answer.
Hook (1902-89) was a philosopher at New York University who started out as a Marxist but later became a leading critic of communism. He alluded to that past in his 1987 autobiography, “Out of Step: An Unquiet Life in the 20th Century," and he noted the paradigm that today may deliver a socialist mayor for America’s richest city.
“I was guilty," he wrote, “of judging capitalism by its operations and socialism by its hopes and aspirations; capitalism by its works and socialism by its literature. To this day, this error and its disastrous consequences are observable in the judgment and behavior of some impassioned individuals, mostly young."
Almost 40 years later, those words help explain why Mr. Mamdani’s campaign holds such appeal, especially among young people who have no experience with how socialism actually works.
It starts with happy talk about free things. But that means taking wealth from those who have earned it and giving it to those who haven’t, or forcing people to spend their money in ways they don’t want.
Mr. Mamdani is all happy talk. An NBC poll released this weekend on capitalism and socialism perfectly illustrates the dynamic. The cover photo features a jubilant Mr. Mamdani raising his hands at a rally with fellow socialists Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The nationwide poll finds that an increasing number of registered voters have a negative view of capitalism, and the parties differ sharply. “Two-thirds of Republicans view capitalism positively, compared to 44% of independents and 25% of Democrats," NBC found. “Just 12% of Republicans view capitalism negatively, compared to 28% of independents and 45% of Democrats."
It would be more telling if NBC conducted a longitudinal study of New Yorkers—measuring their attitudes now and coming back in four years with this question: Mayor Mamdani promised to freeze your rent and make life affordable. How has that worked out for you?
The Hook paradigm means that no matter how much socialism fails in practice, socialists will blame greedy businessmen, never socialism itself. In the same way, socialists and people who don’t understand economics attribute the unaffordability of housing, medical care and education to market failure. Never does it occur to them that the culprit might be the perverse effects of government regulation.
Many problems in New York would be solved with a stiff dose of market capitalism. If Apple faced the same kind of government intervention the Big Apple has imposed on its housing market, those Mamdani voters would carry flip phones.
It’s also telling that in the political realm, the champions of socialism always are looking for new and mostly unknown candidates. That’s because the people who have put socialism into practice don’t have successful records to which they can point.
This isn’t good news for Republicans, whose nominee for mayor, Curtis Sliwa, trails not only Mr. Mamdani but independent Andrew Cuomo. But Democrats are in a no-win position.
On the one hand, in a tightening race if enough Sliwa voters decided they had to vote for the independent Mr. Cuomo to prevent Mr. Mamdani from winning, the Democratic Party would be repudiated at the polls. Likely that would mean a new civil war with the Democratic Socialists of America. On the other hand, if Mr. Mamdani does win, it will signal his successful hijacking of New York’s Democratic Party by the DSA.
Sounds about the way socialism works, with just about everyone except those at the top emerging worse off. Especially the voters.
Write to mcgurn@wsj.com.
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