Mamdani’s New York snake oil

Some things never change. Human nature and the laws of economics are two of them.Observe what is happening in the political world today. Voters buy the snake oil some politician sells, drink it, get sick, and throw it away, realizing they were duped, again. The term “grasping at straws” comes to mind. If we do not like what is going on, we look for solutions, any solution, to change it. That is human nature at work.Sometimes we look in all the wrong places because we do not know where to look or what is the best solution. And sometimes the best solution is hard to find, often hidden in plain sight. That is exactly what I see happening in Zohran Mamdani’s New York today. We have a very slick snake oil salesman making a case for painlessly fixing all of today’s problems. And you won’t have to pay a dime.Really? If you believe there is a painless panacea to all our problems, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I would like to sell you.This snake oil is the promise of all these things we want and can have if you only elect me. So, we buy snake oil and try for magic, again. It did not work before, and it will not work now. Sorry to burst your bubble, but the fairy godmother is not coming. The straws you are grasping for are an illusion. So, let’s get real.The laws of economics are immutable. We know what works and what doesn’t. How do we know? Because the biggest lab in the world has proven them, time and again. What is that lab? It is the real world.Various forms of socialism and communism have been tried repeatedly. Where has it worked for the benefit of ordinary citizens or constituents of a country or community? Nowhere. In its pure state, it has a 100% failure rate. It always evolves into a strongman and his chosen henchmen doing well, while the rest suffer. Yes, they achieve equality, all equally poor.Venezuela is a good current-day example. It was a rich country in the late 1990s that elected a socialist with charisma who sold the snake oil. The citizens bought the stuff and, for a while, things seemed OK, until it failed. It turned into a military dictatorship, with sham elections and poverty throughout the land.Why does it fail? Because it runs counter to the immutable laws of human nature. Incentives are what drive our actions. We do what we perceive to be in our best interest. When the incentives are removed, the system collapses.Are we really going to have free childcare, free transportation, cheap rent-controlled apartments, cheap groceries, and all the other promised benefits in New York? No. There is no money to pay for all these freebies. Yes, we can try to tax the rich, as we drive them to vote with their feet and move, leaving even less money to fund these things. Or we can tax the hell out of all the citizens to pay for them. So maybe it isn’t free after all.The system that works best is a free enterprise market economy, also known as capitalism. It has proven to work time and again. No, everyone isn’t equal, nor should they be, but everyone is better off. Rich people get rich by providing goods and services that we want. They are better off when they do, but so are we. Our standard of living is unrivaled in the world.SOCIALISTS FAIL MATH: EVERYONE CAN’T RIDE FOR FREE — SO NO ONE SHOULDIf you want all the “free” services, you are going to have to pay for them. The Scandinavian countries are often cited as examples of “democratic socialism.” Nonsense. They are more capitalistic than we are. Yes, they have many social programs, but they pay dearly for these “free” services. The middle-income and lower-income citizens pay enormous taxes compared to what we pay here. Income and pension taxes are very high on everyone, plus they pay high VAT taxes on most consumption, very high gas taxes, and more. All of this is on everyone, not just the rich.There is no free lunch. Stop looking for it. The snake oil doesn’t taste so good and will just make you sick again. We have tried the easy answers before. We know where they lead. Human nature has not changed, and neither will the laws of economics. Maybe it is time we stopped buying the snake oil and started paying attention to what the real world has been telling us all along.Les Rubin is the founder and president of Main Street Economics.