If you really want to drive down the cost of housing figure out cheap windows or start convincing people they don’t need nearly as many of them.
Don’t believe me? Compare the cost of a large 2 story prefab shed ~10-20$/sf without amenities like plumbing vs a house of similar size.
Become communist (or communist lite) and reserve land ownership to the state, lock land price to its productive capacity (as assessed by the state), mediate sales and usage taxes based on the same. Prevent resale/sublet between individuals. Allow transfer of control only from individual -> state -> individual.
Or use a regulatory approach where only the state can set the price of land, and the price is based on well-defined factory (productivity, proximity to population centers, population density, etc).
All value in an economy arises from real estate. Real estate (and the related businesses, including banking and lending) drive all economic activity in the world.
However it's not politically viable to advocate that as a policy solution without a stopgap policy to make progress in the interim.
There's obviously the failure mode of California where no town wants to have new homes and all of them want jobs, so perhaps the state is the right level for this.
But I think they are "normal" left wing policies in Europe in the sense that parties in various countries/cities/regions have campaigned on them or implemented them.
But my understanding of some US media is these are depicted as borderline communism.
Also shows you they had to search far and wide to find examples.
Free transport? Tallin, Estonia (presumably the only capital city), population: 450k
Government-run grocery stores? Turkey (barely even Europe), only accessible to the poor
Free childcare? Portugal, introduced in 2022, and hardly universal: while the program is open to all, places are limited and can be tough to access
Rent freeze? Established in Berlin in 2020, ruled unconstitutional in 2021.
In other words, garbage article and extremely clickbaity (and lying) title.
Its also conveniently leaving out the policy ideas on reducing policing, and introducing mental health crisis workers which have been tried in the US (SF) and worked disastrously.
But "state run" is where most of the objection is? Coops get nowhere near the pushback (if any) state run businesses (ie. "communism") from Americans.
I find it almost quaint that we are still concerned about whether buses should be free. (No, for the record I don't think buses should be free, but honestly, who cares? In today's America, any elected representative willing to give a middle finger to Trump is a step in the right direction. We can fix buses later.)
That being said, I like all the named policies in this story, and of course we could have them if we have a moral country. Mamdani says a lot of random, stupid (other than these policies), trendy stuff though: the proof will be in what is done. Free public transportation would have a positive ripple effect across the entire country, along with city run groceries for food deserts.
NYC has subsidized world-class transit, rent-stabilization, high taxes and free-childcare. Pretty European.
Zohran is classic of case of 'the dose makes the poison'. Instead of subsidized buses, he wants free buses. Instead of rent-stabilization, he wants rent freezes. He wants to increase an already high tax rate in a city that's bleeding billionaires to Florida. NYC spends an eye-watering billion dollars on child-care subsidies, and Zohran's intended expansion will add billions more in costs.
NYC has European public services with American over-regulation. It would be untenable unless it were the world's richest city. Thankfully, it is the world's richest city. But, that doesn't mean that NYC's systems are efficient. It means that the city hopes to get away with policies (some forcefully imposed on it by the state) that no other place would because it assumes the money train will never end.
NYC is better run than American suburbia and California. But, NYC doesn't have California's infinite money glitch or the ruthless demographic segregation of suburbs. So, efficiencies must be found in policy making.
I think Abundance does a good job of summarizing the problems (over-regulation) and suggesting solutions (de-regulation). But for some reason, democratic socialists refuse to engage with the book earnestly.
mytailorisrich•1h ago
afavour•1h ago
The general pitch is “raise taxes to make life more affordable for all”. That’s an idea Europeans can identify with.
LtdJorge•1h ago
dekken_•1h ago
To a point, when we stop seeing a social benefit from our taxes, it starts to look more like theft.
afavour•1h ago
dekken_•1h ago
afavour•1h ago
It’s not like Mamdani snuck into power. Voters chose him specifically on the agenda he proposed. Why would they revolt?
dekken_•1h ago
Seems you completely missed the point.
afavour•1h ago
Which New Yorkers do, because they just voted.
I guess I did miss the point because from where I’m standing this is all a big non sequitur.
“Mamdani seeks to raise taxes and spend the revenue on subsidizing services used by all. This is similar to an approach seen often in Europe”
“Did you know that if you tax people too much they revolt”
…okay?
dekken_•1h ago
afavour•1h ago
Do you not have elections?
dekken_•1h ago
come on
afavour•1h ago
That doesn’t mean democracy is a failure, it just means your opinion is in the minority.
dekken_•1h ago
My point was about the degree of taxation.
mattmcal•1h ago
dekken_•1h ago
throwaway173738•51m ago
dekken_•50m ago
greggoB•1h ago
dekken_•56m ago
gibbitz•1h ago
dekken_•59m ago
ryandrake•1h ago
afavour•1h ago
toomuchtodo•1h ago
Kentucky voters were wondering why polls weren’t open Tuesday to vote in these elections, for example, so someone being wildly misinformed about policy proposals or their mechanics would come as no surprise.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/kentucky-politician-had-...
https://x.com/KYSecState/status/1985734353515671601
> We’re getting calls about polls being closed. They are closed because we do not have elections today. Kentucky votes next year. You cannot vote today in Kentucky for the mayor of New York City or the Governor of Virginia. Sorry. — Michael Adams, KY Secretary of State
ZeroGravitas•1h ago
https://www.mta.info/guides/riding-the-bus/fare-free-bus-pil...
> From September 24, 2023 to August 31, 2024, five MTA bus routes — Bx18A/B, B60, M116, Q4, and S46/96 — were fare-free. Passengers on these routes were able to ride without paying the fare.
> The purpose of the pilot was to study how fare-free service affects ridership, access, equity, and fare evasion. It was made possible thanks to funding from the New York State FY2024 budge
mytailorisrich•1h ago
Europeans are not a single opinion entity that is left wing, don't work past 5pm and read Sartre at night, after the union meeting.
epolanski•1h ago
Moreover, modern rights are often economically more to the left than modern lefts are (see Meloni, PiS in Poland, etc).
akavi•1h ago
The article in general takes the approach of listing a small handful of (usually very small) polities that have one of Mamdani's proposed policies, and then claim that the full suite is therefore "normal" across Europe.
mytailorisrich•1h ago
1. Europe is not socialist (Eastern Europe and the USSR were). And, no, social-democracy is NOT socialism.
2. The welfare state is essentially bankrupt in many European countries.
3. Socialism cannot, ultimately be democratic.
My only sane interpretation for an election of a socialist candidate in 2025 is that this is a protest vote not an adhesion to socialism...
margalabargala•1h ago
Norwegians self identify as socialist for example.
noselasd•1h ago
Er.. that's not even remotely true
margalabargala•47m ago
If they call themselves "socialist" then I will too.
TheOtherHobbes•1h ago
2. The US government is essentially bankrupt, and has been spending far beyond its means for decades.
But countries are not households. Sovereign countries cannot run of money. But they can run out of confidence.
For a nation state, bankruptcy happens when its currency is no longer respected and essential imports become so expensive they cause hyperinflation.
By any objective measure, the US today is closer to that today than Europe. (It's mostly the fault of tariffs, but the cause doesn't matter.)
It's true the influence of neoliberal lobbying and opportunism by US corporates has reduced the effectiveness of welfare in the EU. But health and benefits are still higher, and the only country where insured health costs bankrupt 500,000 people a year is the US.
greekrich92•1h ago
epolanski•1h ago
All of those things _tend_ to be free only if you can't afford them, are a single mother/father. Average childcare in my area is 900 euros per month, which is a lot in Italy where average salary is twice than that.
Public one exists, getting in is hard.
As for him claiming to being a socialist I don't find anything wrong/strange with it. US really needs this kind of politicians too.
SequoiaHope•1h ago
defrost•1h ago
The point is that most of his policies are part of the normal churn of debate in a great many countries and are not seen as extreme, even if not implemented.
eg: "Free" public transport is a thing in Queensland, Australia.
( Okay, it's actually 50 cent flat rate fares: https://translink.com.au/tickets-and-fares/50-cent-fares .. so lets call that 'nominal' )
ignoramous•50m ago
NYC has time and again resisted calls to dismantle the current child care program, which costs the exchequer around $3b [0]. Mamdani's plan is to take the current child care program and make it "universal" at $6b.
> we need to buy tickets to ride the bus
Again, not without a precedent as MTA has ran some routes for free for many months. Besides, MTA sees 40%+ fare evasion, but MTA needs to pay the bills somehow, and Mamdani's proposal, which may go no where, is that rises in corporate tax will fill this ~$800m hole.
> rent freezes don't work
Depends on what the sought / desired outcome from rent regulation is. In Mamdani's case, it apparently is a stop-gap to control cost of living for the working class, until enough newer housing units can be built despite NIMBYs [1].
[0] https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/spotlight-nycs-publicly-...
[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/economy/archive/2025/11/mamdani-...