Expect Trouble Ahead as Socialist Mayors, Going ‘Through the Looking-Glass,’ Defy Economic Reality

Two recent bicoastal political developments indicate just how unrealistic socialist mayors can be. One was at Seattle, and the other was at New York City. Both reflected a disconnect with reality. American socialism seems committed to believing in fantasies and ignoring the real world. In many ways, its forerunner could be Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass.” American socialists in many ways are living in a world they would like rather than the world that is real.In the real world, when money is frightened, it moves. This has been true throughout history and across the planet. If money decides you don’t like it, then it does not like you. And money can move instantly.As Stephen Moore has been documenting again and again in his newsletter Unleash Prosperity Hotline, there has been a steady flow of wealth and business out of high-tax, heavily unionized, and heavily regulated cities and states and toward the low-tax red states, which favor creating jobs, creating wealth, and encouraging entrepreneurs and businesses.New York City has seen a steady migration of successful people away from the Empire State toward Florida, Tennessee, Texas, and other more favorable environments. The socialist reaction has been to raise taxes and find ways to harass the successful.Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposal to impose a unique tax on the apartments of wealthy people who have moved their primary residence is a good example of this shortsighted, self-destructive thinking. If the tax were implemented, many current residents would simply sell their apartments and either return to their primary residence outside New York or use the proceeds to buy a low-tax equivalent in a friendly state.Mr. Mamdani has recently admitted that New York City faces a $5.4 billion budget gap. That level of deficit spending does not stop Mamdani from proposing to spend $4.6 million on the Commission on Racial Equity, the body responsible for holding reparations talks, and an additional $5.6 million on the Office of Racial Equity. The more than $10 million in combined funding for the two municipal bodies would represent a roughly $3 million increase from the prior year. Ideology trumps fiscal reality in socialist budgeting.As a further example of the Mamdani fantasy world, consider that when he had a chance to promote good feelings with King Charles III during the monarch’s visit to New York City, he said: “I would probably encourage him to return the Koh-I-Noor diamond.” Other than the fact that the diamond is not under the king’s control (it is owned by the British nation, not the monarchy), there is a genuine question of who has a legitimate claim beyond its current owner, as many people have held it in the past. Just another Mamdani opportunity to posture rather than do something practical.Meanwhile, on the other coast, Seattle’s socialist mayor, Katie Wilson, indicated just how out of touch with reality she is. Speaking at Seattle University, she said, “I think the claims that millionaires are going to leave our state are, like, super overblown. And if — the ones that leave, like, bye.” The University crowd loved it and laughed with her. To be sure, they don’t pay many taxes.Of course, the richest man in Washington state, Jeff Bezos, has already moved to Miami, taking his tax-paying potential with him. One study estimates that more than 220 millionaires have moved out of Washington state, with many of them going to low-tax and anti-socialist Idaho.When socialists are forced to leave their Wonderland and confront the reality that their jurisdictions are going broke, their answer will not be to learn the lessons of failure. Their answer will be to demand that the rest of us bail them out.They will want their insane unrealities to survive by taking money out of everyone realistic enough and sane enough to know that hard work and savings, if rewarded, lead to prosperity.It will be quite a fight.

Expect Trouble Ahead as Socialist Mayors, Going ‘Through the Looking-Glass,’ Defy Economic Reality

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