The election of Zohran Mamdani keeps yielding interesting points for conversation. The opposition to Mamdani is boiling over with denunciations of him as if he is some sort Soviet-style communist. Part of these opinions is based on a misunderstanding of economics most of us learned in High School–at least when I attended that level of education.
First of all, Mamdani’s economic orientation has absolutely no basis in Soviet-style Communism. He adopted the label “Democratic Socialist” which is precisely the label under which Bernie Sanders has won all of his various elections. I doubt many people associate Vermont with Soviet-style Communism.
But more importantly in my opinion, the people making these denunciations appear to be ignorant of the nature of the economies of the world’s western democracies, of which the USA is still included.. None of these democracies fits into the categories of “socialist” or “capitalist,” rather, every one of them is what economists call a “mixed economy,” which means they (we) adopt features from both categories as seem to work best for us.
‘Socialism” is the mechanism of funding something via the government. “Capitalism” is the mechanism of providing the service via private enterprise. One of the first socialist programs in American history was the provision of elementary education at taxpayer expense. No matter how little or how much tax a person might pay, from the early part of the nineteenth century, everyone could obtain an elementary education. Over the next few decades that was extended to High School, and state Universities were created to provide at least partially taxpayer funded education through the university level. Private education is available for those who can afford it, but many people don’t understand that even such loudly private institutions as Hillsdale College in Michigan benefit from taxpayer subsidies since they are free from paying the property taxes that are needed to provide them with such things as street lights, police and fire protection.
The US military is a socialist institution, as are the above mentioned police and fire departments. They are all funded via taxation, and everyone is protected by them regardless of how much or how little they pay in taxes. Notice that in many places there can be an intermixing of economic models. The military, for example, usually does not build it’s own vehicles, but purchases them from private industry. In Tennessee, where I live, all private homes are serviced by a socialist system for collecting garbage, but the city contracts with a private, i.e. capitalist, company to actually do the work..
In New York City, where I grew up, all the major transportation systems were initially private (capitalist), but they eventually succumbed to financial ruin and were bought out by the City which has ever since provided public transportation, partially funded by fares, and partially via public subsidy.
I could go on for a very long time with additional examples, but I think you get the idea. There is a constant dynamic of discussion as we try to figure out which mix of private and public will best get the job done.
The most hilarious part of this discussion are some of my Jewish friends who are lamenting Mamdani as the new Stalin. As I mentioned before, all western democracies fall along some part of the spectrum between socialist and capitalist, but Israel is among the most socialist. Indeed, it was founded by people who lauded socialism. Israel has universal national service, universal healthcare, a strong social welfare system which has reduced homelessness to a negligible level. Transportation in Israel is publicly subsidized, as are the foods most needed to sustain nutrition. Private education is available, but Israel offers excellent publicly funded education through graduate school.
Almost everything Mamdani has proposed is the reality in Israel.
I can’t guarantee that Mamdani will be able to accomplish any of his goals, but I think I can confidently predict that New York school children will not be singing the Soviet anthem nor saluting Joseph Stalin.