Memo to Mayor Mamdani: Talk is Cheap; Free is Costly

Memo to Mamdani: Talk is Cheap; Free is Costly Mayor Mamdani ran on a deceptive, seductive platform of free; free busses, free daycare, cheap housing, and cheap groceries. Talk is cheap; promise whatever you want, as long as you don’t have to deliver. Appropriating other people’s money seems easy. Except when it’s not. Free? Someone has to pay the workers, unless you practice slavery, banned by the 13th Amendment. Free? Someone has to pay the utilities, insurance, maintenance, workers compensation, medical and pensions. Wealth individually may be assets, but collectively it’s the human capital - not the physical assets. Cubans permitted to leave Castro’s Cuba had to sign over their physical assets to the Cuban government The Castro regime was wealthier on paper, but poorer in fact. The real wealth was the human capital of the refugees. Free is expensive when those you look to for payment to subsidize free leave and take their physical assets with them. Did you know the Pilgrims tried collective farming; i.e. socialism, in Massachusetts, but it was an abject failure. Land was allocated to individuals and the harvest boomed the next year, leading to Thanksgiving. Those that pay little or no taxes are quite eager to impose and raise taxes on those that pay taxes. The United States has the right to travel. Have you noticed how middle class, rich, and business taxpayers have discovered the beauty of Florida, North Carolina, and Texas? Retirees, including politicians who believed in taxing the rich, used to be the ones moving to Florida. Free is costly to those who are taxed to pay “free,” but get little in return from the government. Mamdani wants a government grocery store in each of the five boroughs at a cost of $30 million. They would not have to pay rent, but still would have to "eat" shoplifting," or attrition as it is often labeled today. Ask CVS and Walgreens about attrition. Mayor Mandani, Do you know the old joke?: How do you make $10 million in Hollywood (or the airline industry)? Start with $100 million.