New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Tuesday that, thanks to his bold embrace of socialism, his administration has corrected years of capitalist mismanagement, a supposed victory for the working people of New York City. There’s just one problem: the self-described socialist has yet to deliver anything beyond higher taxes on the wealthy.
In other words, the real achievement he seems eager to celebrate is punishing the successful class, the very group he targets as he climbs toward greater political power.
Communist Mayor Zohran Mamdani: “If these past months have shown us anything, we can solve years of mismanagement through an embrace of [socialist] principles.”
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 30, 2026
Mamdani has not delivered on any of his utopian campaign promises. pic.twitter.com/qkqMyvWDIK
"And we raised taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers, instead of taking more from those with the least," Mamdani said. "Throughout this process, I have been reminded of the words of the Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek. 'If socialists understood economics, they wouldn't be socialists.' If these past months have shown us anything, it is that socialists not only understand economics, just as well as the capitalists who came before, but that we can solve their years of mismanagement through an embrace of our principles."
Not only is the only accomplishment he touts higher taxes on the wealthy and other successful people like landlords, but he has the audacity to attack Friedrich Hayek, the author of "The Road to Serfdom," a seminal work that argued economic and political freedom are inseparable, and that collectivism and central planning inevitably concentrate power in the name of equality.
Mamdani is no different from what Hayek warned about: the leader of a socialist movement that seeks to do just that: concentrate power, infringe on political and economic freedom, and drive American society down the road to serfdom.
The New York City mayor has yet to deliver on a single promise beyond taxation. He has fulfilled nothing for the working class, only laid the groundwork through which he might eventually make good on his campaign promises. Rent hasn't dropped. The city isn't cleaner. Wages haven't risen. His speech is little more than the self-congratulation of a man who has accomplished nothing.
Hayek and the socialists have waged this war of ideas for a century, and the socialists have always been certain that history, and, of course, the future, are on their side. They never were. They never will be. In the great battle of ideologies, economic freedom will emerge victorious.