Socialists like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani rely on a tried-and-true political strategy: convincing people that government is never truly trying to address their problems. The narrative is essential to their political appeal because, if people believe nothing is being done, they become more willing to support expanding government power in the hope that figures like Mamdani will finally deliver results.
Daniel Di Martino, an economist and fellow at the Manhattan Institute, highlighted the dynamic, arguing that Mamdani is relying on New Yorkers' lack of awareness about the steps their government has already taken to address issues such as the housing affordability crisis. More importantly, many voters do not realize that the government itself played a major role in creating and exacerbating the problem in the first place.
"The mayor wants people to believe that there’s already nothing happening in the city, as if everybody was being taken advantage of by landlords, when the truth is most renters in NYC live in either rent stabilized apartments or in government housing...
— Manhattan Institute (@ManhattanInst) June 1, 2026
...who wants to live in… pic.twitter.com/f8rq2EPmyP
"Where are we headed in New York?" Fox News' Trey Gowdy asked.
"Well, I think New York is going to continue to decline, especially on the housing front, which is the most important part of cost of living, right?" Di Martino replied. "I think that the mayor wants people to believe that there's already nothing happening in the city, as if everybody was being taken advantage by landlords, when the truth is most renters in New York City live in either rent-stabilized apartments or in government housing."
"And his supposed capital investment is actually an idea to expand government housing. Who wants to live in public housing, Trey, really?" he asked. "Who wants to turn their apartment into government housing? That is what the Mamdani Plan is. And it does do some cosmetic improvements in, say, permitting. But the problem of building in Manhattan, in Brooklyn, in even Staten Island, is not this cosmetic thing."
"It's really basic things, that it's just illegal to build large buildings in many parts of the city," Di Martino said. "It's that the unions control the construction sector, and it's the most expensive place to build and for labor in the entire planet. And so that's why it's so expensive to build, and that's why it's so expensive to live in New York."
In other words, rather than address basic issues that could bring down housing costs, Mamdani would rather enact policies that make it seem as though he's the city's savior.
So instead of reforming zoning laws, repealing rent-control policies, or dramatically increasing the housing supply, Mamdani wants to impose new burdens on struggling landlords who already face the crushing weight of the city's regulatory structure. At the same time, he is pushing for additional rent-control measures that are set to further reduce the quality and availability of housing.
In an announcement last week, Mamdani even revealed plans to seize poorly managed properties from "bad landlords" and transfer them to nonprofits, community organizations, and even tenants themselves, a proposal that would only deepen New York City's housing problems.
The trick with socialists is often the same in the United States: when there is a problem in society, claim government is the only engine capable of solving it. When government exacerbates the problem with its solutions, shift the blame to corporations and “capitalism,” and then try the process over again.