On New Year’s day, Zohran Mamdani took office as the New York City Mayor and will now run America’s most populous and prosperous metropolis. Being the Financial Capital of the world, I never would’ve expected New York to be led by socialism, at least not before the primaries.

It was for this reason that despite not being a New Yorker myself, this November I paid more attention to the mayoral race than I did to even my own state’s races. Because whether it takes the infamous authoritarian form of Stalin and Mao, or the less understood democratic form of France’s Mitterrand presidency and post-World War II Britain, the economic system of socialism is one of the most damaging ideologies on the planet, and one that took nearly everything from my grandparents.

My grandparents were born in Cuba. They were relatively well off, but that all changed when the socialist “revolution” happened. The government took over my grandfather’s business and threatened their lives, leaving them with the only choice to flee socialism and seek refuge in the United States, building a life from nothing.

I am not the only Cuban-American with an exiled family who is critical of socialism. While there is some evidence that younger Cuban-Americans might support Mamdani, many non-New Yorker Cuban-Americans, especially exiles, have a generational opposition to the economic system of socialism. 

But Zohran Mamdani is a Democratic Socialist. Unlike the inherently malevolent ideology of Authoritarian Socialism, found in nations like Cuba, and commonly associated with Communism, Democratic Socialism seeks to create socialism within a Democratic framework, having the intent of Egalitarianism. But that doesn’t mean that it’s any less economically damaging than other forms of socialism.

A reporter from Fox Business interviewed a Cuban-American Miami resident: “When I hear some of the plans that [Mamdani] has for New York City, again, it’s that,  copy, paste, […] It’s just very triggering because it doesn’t work … You have Cubans, they make it here to the United States, and they go into a grocery store, and they cry … When was the last time you cried in a grocery store? Never, right? Because it’s so normal, and we take it for granted.”

To put things into perspective, Florida’s Miami-Dade County is home to 52% of all Cuban Americans, many of whom are exiles. A Florida International University poll for the 2024 US Presidential election shows that a whopping 68% of Cuban-Americans living in the county were in favor of President Trump. And of those remaining 32% Independents and Democrats, not everyone would support a progressive Democratic Socialist like Mamdani, especially considering he’s a divisive, controversial figure in his party.

Cuba was not the first, or last, socialist nation in Latin America. Venezuela, like Cuba, is also currently a “Democratic” socialist (on paper democratic, but authoritarian in reality) nation, with price controls, government-run grocery stores, and massive welfare programs that the country cannot support. 

What was once the fourth-wealthiest nation before socialism has turned into impoverished, hyperinflated, corrupt, and authoritarian chaos. While I doubt New York will acquire Venezuela’s institutionally authoritarian characteristics, history shows that socialist policies won’t work well for New York. Socialism did not fail in Venezuela because of the government structure; it failed because the economic policies didn’t work. 

As I watched the polls close on election night, shortly after the media called the race for Mamdani, it appeared to me that the more than 100 years the United States had spent understanding, fighting, and ultimately rejecting Socialism had been undone in minutes.

And the controversy of this election was not that mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani had missed one third of sessions in the New York state assembly, and it’s not even because he refused to take key positions on New York-specific issues during the debate stage. The real controversy is in his actual proposed policies.

In order to pay for his radical socialist policies, Mamdani plans to hike New York City’s current corporate tax of 7.25% (maximum) to 11.5% (maximum), the level currently in New Jersey. But New York City is unique in that it is home to thousands of corporations, most of which tend to be much larger than the ones in New Jersey. New Jersey isn’t exactly the global financial center, and by the time corporate tax is increased by 50% more than the $7.5 billion already being taken from corporations, New York won’t be either.

Rent stabilization would practically remove any remaining life in New York’s housing market, leaving everyone with fewer agents, architects, or apartments. In fact, the only way to actually lower the price of housing is by building more or solving the actual problems that led to the shortage. While not perfect, both Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa, the two opposing candidates, had concrete plans that could at least reduce the city’s housing crisis. Cuomo planned to “build or preserve 500,000 units of housing” across the city, which would quite literally have the exact opposite effect of Mamdani’s plan by simply increasing supply. While slightly more conservative, Sliwa’s approach sought to cut red tape by properly zoning areas to account for affordability. The populist solution of magically making “affordable housing” is going to cost everyone more.

Mamdani said that instead of hiring more police officers, he’s going to focus on “solving the mental health crisis” by sending mental health teams to respond to specific types of emergency calls. But knowing when to send these teams to deal with a 911 emergency in place of a police officer requires an operator who can make the right call 100% of the time, which is naturally impossible. Not to mention the conventional, moderate, and rational solutions of both Cuomo and Sliwa, who would address the issue of crime by hiring thousands more officers to bolster one of the world’s most professional police forces.

Mamdani’s policy of creating various city-run grocery stores across New York may sound rational, but city-run grocery stores have not only been tried in Venezuela. In Kansas City, Missouri, one city-run grocery store couldn’t even stay open due to the rampant shoplifting and empty shelves. While shoplifting may or may not be due to the fact that it’s city-run, those are still taxpayer dollars being thrown in the trash. Mamdani’s grocery store plan is not a progressive way to lift people out of poverty—it’s a radical, socialist solution that leads to empty shelves and takes resources away from private corporations who could provide a more affordable and larger variety of groceries.

Finally, the promise of free buses also sounds benevolent, but they have already been implemented, again in Kansas City. Unsurprisingly, ridership declined, and assaults increased. Without any sort of countermeasure, there would be nothing to stop the homeless from using them as a moving shelter.

And Kansas City has about 500,000 residents. New York City has 8.5 million. While Kansas City can perhaps afford its little socialist experiments of free buses and government-run grocery stores, it would lead to a nightmare 17 times larger in New York.

If Mamdani puts these policies in America’s financial center, home to Donald Trump before the high taxes may have incentivized him to move to Florida, many others in Wall Street could follow suit.

It cannot be stressed enough how damaging this will be not only for the New Yorker, but also for the Californian or Iowan. With the amount of goods that flow out of or through New York, and the amount of services the city offers, the economic pitfalls will inevitably affect you. Unlike what many politicians would say, the effects of Wall Street will be felt on Main Street.

Capitalism is not a perfect economic system. It has plenty of flaws, and many different interpretations that intellectuals, commentators, and politicians on both sides of the political aisle continue to debate. But between Capitalism and Socialism, Capitalism has been the system that has gotten progressively more efficient and moral over time. 

But I’m not going to tell you that Mamdani is some sort of existential threat to our democracy, as Democrats would like to tell you Trump is. I also won’t tell you he is a “Communist” as Trump himself did. In fact, fear mongering is exactly what led to his election. Writing off Mamdani’s terrible policies by not addressing them and simply labeling him as a Communist is not going to help anyone. 

The political ramifications of this election will eventually reach the mainstream Democratic Party. It will have to decide which path becomes the new mainstream. It is unclear whether Democrats will continue in the footsteps of John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and Obama, or if they decide to tread a new path, committing political suicide by running their party into the ground, and the economy with it.

So, as someone who is not a Democrat, and also not a Republican, I urge Democrats to pick the former. Reject the radical leftist, ultra-populist, inherently socialist ideas of “Democratic Socialism,” and maintain your goal to be the party of justice and equality, not through Socialism, but Capitalism.