New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the American Dream should be a guarantee and not a vague hope, lamenting that it’s now viewed as being less attainable than winning a lottery jackpot.
In an interview on Theo Von’s podcast This Past Weekend, Mamdani warned that if the American Dream is just an ideal that’s out of within reach, then people may start to give up.
The democratic socialist compared it to legendary NYC Mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s observation during the rise of fascism in Europe, saying people turned away from democracy not because they were tired of liberty, but because they were tired of being hungry.
“So if democracy doesn’t mean the better life that it has to, it’ll lose its worth. And the same thing with the American Dream: if it’s something you can only see when you turn on your TV or you hear about that one guy you grew up with who made it, that doesn’t mean enough,” Mamdani said.
That’s why his administration has focused on making housing, child care, and groceries more affordable, he added, calling them the “basic aspects of a good, dignified life.”
Smaller efforts also make a big difference, Mamdani explained, pointing to free child care for a night to give parents a chance to go out or providing free tickets to the opera.
When asked later if he thinks the American Dream is still alive, he replied, “It feels like you have to luck out in some big way. In many ways, I feel like it’s why a lot of people play the lottery. For many, it feels like their only chance. People think that they have better odds playing the lottery than making it in their own life. What does that say about the country that we live in?”
New York City has the added dimension of having plenty of wealth while many others grapple with wages that haven’t kept up with the soaring cost of living, Mamdani noted.
That’s not due to a lack of opportunity. Instead, that opportunity is “being consolidated,” he argued.
While Mamdani has sought to tap some of the city’s wealth with an annual surcharge on luxury, non-primary residential properties, it’s run into some legal setbacks.
Last month, a judge threw out New York’s rollout of its pied-à-terre tax, ordering the city to cancel the notices it sent to property owners and restart the process of deciding who owes the surcharge.
Harnessing some of the city’s wealth is key to making New York more affordable, Mamdani insisted during the podcast interview.
“Because right now it feels like the city is becoming a museum—something a middle-class family can afford to visit once a month, maybe on the weekends. We want people to live here, and there’s more than enough money for everyone to be able to,” he said.
For his part, Mamdani has acknowledged that he is one of the lucky few. When asked on the Fourth of July if he was living the American Dream, he told CNN the “I’m living one of them.”
“I think the beautiful thing about today is it’s a chance to celebrate that the promise of our nation is still true—that promise of opportunity, of freedom, of self determination,” he added. “And to be the mayor of our city today, it’s something more than i could ever ask for.”
Mamdani’s comments come as the affordability crisis has threatened some of the key hallmarks of the American Dream, such as homeownership, a car or two, and kids.
While U.S. households still, on average, believe it can be achieved, their hopes are fading fast while some economists see a “Great Postponement.”
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has also warned the American Dream is in trouble, and has committed the New York-based banking giant to a sweeping multiyear effort to expand economic opportunity across the country.
“The American Dream is alive, but it’s slipping out of reach for too many people—and for future generations,” he said in March. “This slows economic growth, hurts communities, and prevents many people from getting ahead.”
More recently, Dimon has teamed up with Ford CEO Jim Farley, who said America’s skilled-trades shortfall has become too large and too varied by region and occupation.
“Skilled trades are the backbone of our country and American manufacturing, and the backbone of the American Dream,” Farley said last month.