Zohran Mamdani

[Gori the Grey]

8.25 million people live in New York.

The place is presumably doing something right.

 

[danjuno]

It's good by US standards, but as far the industrialized world is concerned, US standards are basically a limbo stick.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I don’t think you’re contradicting my core point: the city’s cost of living is unaffordable for many residents, yet taxpayer money meant to fix domestic crises gets funneled to fund superior welfare systems abroad (like Israel’s free healthcare and education) all bankrolled by struggling Americans.

US tax dollars go all kinds of places at the whim of Congress and the President. Trump and the GOP have just stripped billions of social welfare dollars from the poor to give them to the richest. There are many cities in the world where the cost of living is high and those not wealthy have a harder time.

The World’s 10 Most Expensive Cities To Live​

1. Singapore (tie)
1. Zurich, Switzerland (tie)

3. New York City (tie)
3. Geneva, Switzerland (tie)

5. Hong Kong

6. Los Angeles

7. Paris, France

8. Copenhagen, Denmark (tie)
8. Tel Aviv (tie)

10. San Francisco

What are the most expensive cities in the world to live? Singapore and Zurich, Switzerland have tied to secure the top spot, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Worldwide Cost of Living survey.
This marks Singapore’s ninth time in 11 years at the top of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) list as the world’s most expensive city, sharing it with Zurich this year, which climbed from sixth place in 2022.

The survey, conducted from August 14 to September 11 covered 173 cities, comparing over 400 prices for more than 200 products and services. Singapore’s ranking was a result of high costs in groceries, alcohol, clothing and private car ownership. Zurich’s ascent was fueled by elevated prices for household items and recreational activities.

Singapore has been named the world's most expensive city to live, a tie with Zurich, Switzerland.

The survey reveals a trend of cities facing higher prices due to inflation, with a 7.4% year-on-year increase in prices for over 200 goods and services—a decrease from the previous year but still significantly higher than the trend from 2017 to 2021.
New York City, which shared the top spot with Singapore last year, tied to share the third spot with Geneva, Switzerland. Two other U.S. cities made the top 10 list of the world’s most expensive cities to live: Los Angeles and San Francisco.

If you want to find sad stories, they can be found all across the world. Before you complain about the messes elsewhere, you should be complaining about the messes in your own country.

The Turkish economy was a success story of the 21st century, but now things aren't so rosy.​

Three months behind on the rent.
Water and electricity cut off.
Landlord hammering on the door.
This is the dire situation faced by one family with three young children, including a four-month-old baby in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city.

“You know my son has epilepsy. He has been in the hospital for 2 weeks,” the father of the family told Euronews, wishing to stay anonymous. “I'm dying of sickness too, my cupboard is empty.”
“I feel so victimised. I don't know what to say. I have 100 liras [€3.4] in my pocket. Should I buy nappies? Milk formula? Or do I get cooking oil," he added, alluding to an impossible choice between buying food or other essentials.

But the struggling family is far from alone. Nearly one-third of Turkey’s population is currently at risk of poverty or social exclusion, according to a recent report published by the Turkish Statistical Institute.

This worrying trend risks reversing the significant achievements the country has made in combating poverty since the early 2000s, with the Turkish economy growing rapidly over the last two decades.

“I have been working on poverty for 22 years, but I have never seen such a bad situation,” says Hacer Foggo, a Poverty Solidarity Office Coordinator for the Republican People's Party (CHP).
She lists the troubling symptoms of how this crisis is affecting ordinary Turks: Women unable to afford sanitary products, rising obesity as families switch to cheaper, low-quality food, students dropping out of university - the list goes on.
“People cannot meet their basic needs,” Foggo told Euronews. “This in turn is causing anxiety, depression and isolating families.”

And these troubled times are taking their toll.

Turkish medical professionals have sounded the alarm over rising levels of mental illness, pointing to a “serious increase” in the use of psychiatric drugs.
Meanwhile, two-thirds of respondents in a 2022 Yöneylem Social Research Center survey said they were depressed due to financial difficulties.

'No money to eat'​

A broad cross-section of Turkish society is currently struggling. But children are bearing the brunt of the poverty problem, according to Foggo.

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

You don't mess with the Zohran.

 

[r16]

the essential problem of Turkey [currently] is New Turkey and the latter's attacks on Democracy and customary economic theory was condoned and protected by the armed might of the Unitec States of America to facilitate Israel's designs in the Middle East . We will really starve as the Goverment banned the use of traditional seeds and whatnots and the planting stuff must be bought anew each year , naturally from Israeli companies . This is expected to be rejected outright .

and his wife's country , if ı remember correctly .

new Turkey will be rabidly anti-Zohran if he ever manages to get past the ever smart US Democrats .

 

[Hygro]

- it's just luck that so far, they have been so incompetents and repellent that they haven't entrenched even more in the electorate.

Their incompetence is a feature. It is indeed luck, but only because the rare “unlucky” dice roll is still domain: luck. Their team is inherently cancer to itself.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Oh, that is certainly true, Akka.

By saying what I said, I didn't mean to minimize the factors within the populace at large that have generated a rightward swing. But I think that here in the States, Trump marshals those factors in a way that's pretty unique to him. A big part of his success has been driving turnout from disaffected voters. When it's not his celebrity personality doing that any more, I think a lot of those people will go back to being non-voters, disaffected with the entire process of politics as such.

I remain skeptical of this. Even assuming that Trump steps down after the current term, which... we'll see, but I'm not even convinced that happens, at some point Trump will inevitably not be in office, aside from some bizzaro, Sci-Fi scenario where he is replaced by an AI consciousness version, which again... at this point, who knows?...

Anyway, my point is that Trump's movement doesn't necessarily die off when he exits the stage, in whatever capacity that occurs. Especially with the slogan, "Make America Great Again", he's created and the branding that goes along with it, the movement is ripe for someone else to step in to his mantle and take it over in his unholy name. I think the only way that a political movement can dislodge MAGA, or at least the spirit of MAGA, is to put forward some new charismatic leader.

Is Mamdani that guy?

 

[Klaus Hergersheimer]

Is Mamdani that guy?

I don't know: what has he done in any leadership/leading man capacity? (sincere question, btw)

If he or someone similar just has charisma and communism, I don't see that as unseating whatever the successor to MAGA may be.
Trump has forged a Richie Rich persona in the national psyche since the '80s (there were jokes in movies about him going back nearly to then). When he announced his candidacy, like, nearly everyone in general knew who this person already was...

 

[danjuno]

He's a state legislator, so it's not like anybody expects him to have already done anything flashy. Per wikipedia:

Mamdani had been the primary sponsor of 20 bills in the Assembly—three of which became law—and the co-sponsor of 238 bills as of May 2025. As of March 2025, he was the only state legislator in the mayoral race not to miss a session in Albany in 2025.

As a member of the Assembly, Mamdani helped to launch a successful fare-free bus pilot program and participated in a hunger strike alongside taxi drivers.

 

[H4run]

Before you complain about the messes elsewhere, you should be complaining about the messes in your own country.

You know what? You're right. Before I criticize a superpower that taxes its citizens to fund genocide instead of providing them healthcare, I should examine my beloved Turkiye. That's despite Turks are famously able to roast their own country harder than anyone, just look at R16. But whenever we see America's foreign policy burning the whole world... that's the right time we should look inward, just keep your eyes down, don't stare. Because if we stare long enough, who knows what abyss might stare back at us later? It could be the U.S. neocons "democratizing" our country abyss, or it could be forced displacement for US president real estate, abyss? So yes... excuse me.

 

[Birdjaguar]

@H4run r16 was complaining about the poorer people of NYC and their struggles. Those are the same struggles suffered by poorer people all over the world. US tax policy is not some zero sum game between healthcare and weapons. It is far more complicated than that.

"we see America's foreign policy burning the whole world..." US foreign policy has been a mixed bag for decades, but it is not solely responsible for the world's troubles. There are lots of players on every continent (-1) and they all do their damage in different ways.

If you want to complain about US foreign policy, please do so, but this is probably not the thread for that.

 

[r16]

r16 wasn't in the thread , he will definitely have no idea on the poor of New York City as foreigners plotting to steal the votes of "true patriots" is the bane of Democracy and disenfranchises hard working people who would see no problem in taking action and thus becoming patriots when the chips were really down . ı reject becoming part of some election campaign , this time in the US , where the main talking point will be "foreigner" to mud everything that would benefit that particular city or the US . Hate being part of election campaigns here already .

yes , there are those who are ready to claim ı or we have given them blank checks to fill to their hearts' content .

do not care for F-47 ; that's already trouble enough . Do not underestimate Trump by claiming r16 is supporting candidates against his team .

the liberty and power of r16 talking anything about anything no longer comes from whether we can hit the Continental United States effortlessly but the scale of it . New Turkey doesn't care for negative talking most of the time , being busy establishing Lese Majeste stuff , which in itself is an attack on Democratic institutions that gave power to those seeking to undermine and remove them .

but

that this argument is empty most clearly does not mean that the rest is empty rhetoric as well . Expecting fully this place being very nitpicky about the candidate if it transpired he had a shot in winning . New Turkey experience suggests he will lose and this will create disrepute for the grassroots campaigns that would weaken the political machinery of the American Opposition . The duty of which being always to lose to Trump and Musk and whatever rich man that comes after them .

 

[Birdjaguar]

@r16 oops.

 

[Lexicus]

If you want to find sad stories, they can be found all across the world. Before you complain about the messes elsewhere, you should be complaining about the messes in your own country.

Why do Americans respond to valid criticisms of their country like this, I don't understand it.

Zohran just beat Cuomo by running on lowering New Yorkers' cost of living, to dismiss it as essentially a non-issue is bizarre.

 

[Voidwalkin]

Is Mamdani that guy?

He's more impressive than the majority of the Dem field.

That said, no, I don't think so. He's...insufficient for the fight, and it will be a fight. Party orthodoxy cannot be broken without one. For all his faults, passivity cannot be associated with Trump. The belligerence is a core attraction.

Mamdani will have opportunities to prove me wrong on that call. He could, and frankly, should make Hochul the target of some vicious rhetoric, presuming he has grander ambitions than mayor. They're already freezing him out. He must fight it publicly and hope a wave of public support sufficient to overwhelm their resistance manifests. I don't see any other good options.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Why do Americans respond to valid criticisms of their country like this, I don't understand it.

Zohran just beat Cuomo by running on lowering New Yorkers' cost of living, to dismiss it as essentially a non-issue is bizarre.

Kudos to Zohran! My point was that the high cost of living in NYC in not connected to US US foreign policy. The US has had terrible foreign policies and continues them today. That topic is mostly unrelated to life in NYC.

 

[amadeus]

Bear in mind New York City uses RCV, and he cross-endorsed with Lander, who got another 11% in the first round. The final round is announced tomorrow, so we'll see the final tally then. That said, I can't see how running two equally hated lame ducks is really a winning strategy at this point.

I don’t think both Cuomo and Adams running is a winning strategy for either of them. I’d bet more on Cuomo than Adams at this point, but business and other action groups could put enough pressure on.

Looking it up on Wikipedia, the turnout for 2021 was less than 25% of the electorate. Now I have no idea which way it could go, but if you get the right districts to come out, I don’t think Mamdani is guaranteed a victory if he’s up against one or two challengers.

Just my idle speculation. Haven’t been to New York since Giuliani was mayor.

 

[Voidwalkin]

Most likely outcome is that he wins. He has too much momentum and his platform, tbh, resonates too well there to lose. Minus the IP stuff, it resonates well, uh, everywhere.

But...

If I'm being honest, I think his career trajectory will be most similar to Ohio's own Kucinich, I'm afraid. Locally respected, at least initially, honest, but ultimately, sidelined by structures his politics do not serve.

 

[Sommerswerd]

8.25 million people live in New York.

The place is presumably doing something right.

This is unavoidably circular... people want/need to be where there are other people... for various reasons. So the more people there are in a location, the more people there will tend to be in that location over time.

I'll offer you another, somewhat related bit of reasoning...

China has the most people, by country, of any nation on Earth and the Chinese culture has existed, in the same geographic area, for multiple thousands of years...

So the place is presumably doing something right.

 

[H4run]

Why do Americans respond to valid criticisms of their country like this, I don't understand it.

Exactly. To be honest, I never expected that coming from BJ. Maybe he mistook my criticism of the government's policy as an insult to Americans, it's crucial to separate the state from its people. When we start believing the state represents us, the governor always represents what their govern, that's when things get ugly and murky.

What I'm saying is: Mamdani just named the elephant in the room. The fact that refusing to kowtow to Israel's overlords is seen as a "radical brave act" that demonstrates how pathetically low the bar is, am I being rude for saying that? whom do I insult here for stating that truth? I’ve even seen public bigots, ones who’ve endorsed the most obnoxious neocon policies for decades, applauding to Mamdani. Hell, even they’re finally coming to their senses!

And let’s connect those dots: You’re spending taxpayer money to fund another nation’s welfare and their little genocide ventures abroad while cutting benefits at home. Depriving your own citizens of healthcare, education, dignity, not because you can’t afford it, but because you’d rather bankroll apartheid. That’s not an insult, BJ, even at the moment I write it I was thinking I actually stating something that's actually inline with your perspective and worldview. [snip]Moderator Action: Personal attacks against other posters have no place here. Birdjaguar.