Zohran Mamdani is the likely candidate to win the New York City Mayoral race and its time to take his actions into consideration. There has been a bit of fear mongering of hurting the rich and wealthy in NYC if he wins the election with many high earners worried they would be singled out. But, there’s something more sinister that could be at play for the poor. Is the allowance of his rise in politics to herd the classes in manageable categories?
Wealth Tax
Zohran plans to apply a a 2% flat tax for those making over $1 million in the city, raising the combined marginal rate for the city’s wealthiest. While some speculate a Wealth Flight, there may be a more wealth leaning culture that could surprisingly create the opposite, a Poverty Flight, with a weird servant class being the only non wealth residents of the city. Current cities with this format are Emirati Countries, US Las Vegas, Rural Texas, Rural Colorado and San Francisco, where the resident majority all work for the top earning resident minority. Manhattan could inadvertently become a wealth hub that enriches Mamdani to the Billionaire status he refutes if the taxes imposes upgrades city infrastructure and corporate gains. Due to resident tax requirements, could its potentially wealthier city council change policy decisions and city development allowances? Its easier to say no, when there is no money but this is the very accusation Mayor Adams and prior Mayors fought before leaving office.
Read – https://fortune.com/2025/10/21/zohran-mamdani-millionaire-tax-massachusetts-5-7-billion/
Read – https://www.santafe.edu/news-center/news/new-study-prosperity-cities-benefits-few
Servant City
While the idea of having rent controlled and affordable housing seems lofty, its not really a ridiculous concept if the workforce finds itself solely serving its millionaire citizens. Adding micro councils to oversee the $70,000 income or less residents with resources such as child care, free transit and city run groceries, this idea of everything being handled by the city has many seeing hope for NYC finally being affordable. The question is what are the goals and professional advancements, available for these low earning residents? Most cities that have this same infrastructure usually work in a monarchy and more dystopi, Delta City in Robocop. Even with this leniency on maintaining a sanctuary city status, what employment other than servitude comes with being a resident in this new millionaire driven city? Would “sanctuary” slowly morph into an indentured servant system?
Read – https://www.ilo.org/regions-and-countries/arab-states/domestic-workers-arab-states
Read – https://www.ktvu.com/news/silicon-valley-pain-index-shows-growing-gap-between-wealthy-everyone-else
Read – https://www.wiego.org/blog/domestic-workers-worldwide-5-key-facts/
Crime Kabuki
Zohran’s plans of a Department of Community Safety, creating equitable policing of its citizens is solely based on no prior discrimination occurring within the protected $70,000 and under class. Based on an honor system, using civilian led safety oversight, can either be naivety or negligence that places those who practice color-ism, religious discrimination, or sexual harassment in charge of civic duty and overall ethics of these specific citizens. Knowing the city dynamics, would a hyper-evangelical Jamaican allow a LGBTQ resident to exist in their building? Would a White liberal leaning woman not weaponize a Black man jogging in an area that they feel isn’t permissible? What about a darker skinned Puerto Rican heading to work in an elevator that a lighter skinned Peruvian feels shouldn’t be allowed in a building that expensive? Racism in NYC isn’t Black and White. It’s not even rich or poor, and the question of how would Zohran’s baseline for what is constitutes as crime, factor in such a varied policing environment? How will crime be fairly quantified, not stripping away everyone’s identity other than to serve, if to not embarrass the outcome of his social experiment within American borders? What will be socially acceptable enough to prevent constant false-reports of criminal concern that would otherwise be seen a benign in a non controlled society?
Under His Eye
And that leads to this massive Public Health approach for the mentally ill using his age-friendly, crisis response teams. If it becomes overwhelming what is he wiling to do to make a difficult issue, a simple solution? Will he become like El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele and go from seemingly emphatic to the disappearance of NYC’s mentally ill? Would a blind caste systems create larger criminal underground careers such as prostitution, trafficking, or fight clubs for the wealthy, hardly nullifying the superposed crime?
America’s Economic Dystopia
With plans to create better protections for gig workers, will many residents see stagnate career trajectory if the path towards higher wages become a financial burden? Seriously what gig worker makes over a $1 million? And will these changes push those making above $70,000 and under $1 million to the other cheaper boroughs of New York? There are many questions that come with positive changes for low income earners and the seemingly early stages of every sci fi movie we see that has many asking, “how did the Blade Runner or Weyland Yutani societies even get this bad?” Zohran could the first model for many American cities en-mass with no real future for economic growth and providing the experiment of what to do with the many American citizens that didn’t think about life beyond a paycheck. His arrival isn’t a threat it could potentially be an economic solution.
Read – https://ca.news.yahoo.com/gig-workers-arent-self-employed-193914486.html
Zohran’s plans sound good on the surface for the poor but, it screams of Cyberpunk or an Alien: Earth story-line, where those caught in the middle have the choice of cut throat ambition, servitude or mediocre living all played out in every corporate dystopian show or movie. Far from the scare tactics of hurting the rich and wealthy and more a false savior narrative to herd those deemed unworthy into a controlled workforce played out as altruistic. The reality, Zohran’s might strategy to maintain the growing cries of economic disparity within the changing US workforce system, sugaring the pill. They simply don’t have a future for American’s not ready to evolve, other than towards servitude. An issue that isn’t new but not apart of the over $70,000-under $1 million’s stability concerns. And that’s the part that is concerning.
Read – https://better-cities.org/economic-prosperity/a-fiscal-crisis-is-looming-for-many-us-cities/