Socialism has always enriched the political class at the expense of the people. One might even say that it does so by design.
Normally, however, the socialists at least try to make their plunder less obvious.
According to the New York Post, Democratic Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani of New York City will receive a gargantuan pay raise if the City Council has its way.
A new bill, introduced on Tuesday by Councilwoman Nantasha Williams of Queens, and unsurprisingly co-sponsored by 32 Council members, would increase Mamdani’s salary from $258,750 to $300,500 before the new mayor has established a single state-run grocery store or purged a single enemy of the revolution.
In fairness, Mamdani might prefer not to have the political headache.
After all, as the son of two Harvard-educated parents, he enjoys plenty of privilege already. He hardly needs the extra $40,000-plus annually.
Worse yet, the bill would give hefty sixteen-percent raises to members of the City Council. Others, too, including the city comptroller, public advocate, and borough presidents, would enjoy sixteen-percent increases from their already six-figure salaries.
City councillors have not seen a pay raise since 2016.
Of course, in the real world, people who do lousy jobs tend not to receive raises. Here in the private sector, we certainly cannot increase our own salaries by a simple vote.
Moreover, as Democratic state Assemblyman and former council member Kalman Yeger noted, the current council members tried to bring the bill to a speedy vote this month so as to spare the incoming mayor a potentially difficult veto decision. But they ran into a problem when they remembered that the law prohibits them from voting themselves a raise during a lame-duck period after an election.
“The only thing is I think they are worried that the mayor-elect won’t do it,” Yeger said. “They are afraid if they pass it in January and he’d have to veto. How does the mayor-elect justify it, saying the working man can’t afford milk? He can’t sign off to give them a $20,000 raise.”
In short, Mamdani will have to decide whether to further enrich himself and his cronies or to preserve his pro-worker facade.
Like all socialists, of course, he will eventually do the former. But, for appearances’ sake, he might choose to wait.
Meanwhile, on the social media platform X, users predicted that the mayor-elect would follow the historical pattern.
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