Mamdani's price policy in New York
By K. W. Clark
web posted September 29, 2025
Zohran Mamdani is a relatively new face to politics, and is running for mayor of New York City as the Democratic nominee. Having beat former governor Andrew Cuomo for that spot, a major upset, all eyes are now turned to the result of the 2025 election. Surprisingly, Mandani has only been politically active since 2021, before which he was a housing counselor and a hip-hop musician. Now part of the Democratic Socialists of America, he is making bold promises which promise, or rather threaten, to shape the future of NYC.
One of his big-ticket items is the proposed rent freeze. Ignorant of countless historical examples, and ignoring every economist predicting disastrous results, he will, if elected, try to enact blatantly unconstitutional policy forcing landlords to maintain unsustainable prices. Despite the fact that every model of the economy predicts a massive shortage, he still pushes this as 'the solution' to a city-wide homelessness and poverty problem. However, whenever a rent freeze is enacted, the result is often less housing for the poor and homeless. Landlords, unable to afford to rent because of price ceilings, simply close shop and find a different job, leaving entire apartment blocks uninhabited.
Another popular policy he wishes to enact is a tax on high-income workers. Once more, ignoring all cries to the contrary, he proposes to increase taxation on anyone earning more than $1,000,000 a year. This is, firstly, difficult to measure, because large incomes are generally not entirely cash, and have shares, futures, and benefits including insurance, wrapped up into them. Secondly, even if he were to somehow figure out who to tax, the rich would simply leave, as they have done before in other 'tax the rich' regions. After all, they are rich, and can afford to move! The result will be less tax revenue, since the people who already pay the most in taxes will stop paying in NYC. This could, in turn, lead to a higher tax on the poor, in an attempt to regain the lost revenue.
The last point I will cover is his proposal to increase minimum wage to $30.00. The best argument to the contrary is an example: When the state of California raised the minimum wage to $16.50, many minimum wage-earners found themselves out of a job, their employers being unable to pay them. They were shortly replaced by cheap robots, which do not require an hourly wage, health insurance, or are burdened by silly laws regulating the maximum amount of hours worked in a week. Robots do not need sleep. If NYC were to increase the minimum wage to $30.00, almost twice that of California, the result would be widespread unemployment, but it would affect almost exclusively the poor workers in minimum wage jobs. Perhaps the only upside to this policy would be an improvement in AI drive-through technology.
The verdict is clear: if Mamdani is elected and enacts these policies, New York will not be better for it. The poor, the class he proposes to help the most, will suffer the most. It also goes to show that people with no background in economics should not make economic policy, or even run for office. He will single-handedly destroy the city's economy. 
K. W. Clark is a high school student studying AP Macroeconomics. This is his second contribution to Enter Stage Right. (c) 2025 K. W. Clark
