On Tuesday, Harlem voters advanced Zoran Mamdani to the Democratic nomination of New York City mayor. His general election victory is almost guaranteed, but there is a deeper story beyond the pleasant headline. Society is economically dislocated to the point of reaching the illusion of socialism’s comfort. Also.
Mamdani’s public housing expansion, free food and guaranteed revenue platforms are not innovative. It’s been recycled. America has walked this path before. From Chicago’s Robert Taylor Holmes and Kablini Green to relying on almost every urban pantry, we have sought to replace top-down mercy with organic opportunities. The outcome was tough: crime, stagnation, and life deprived of upward mobility.
What we are looking at now is not merely a slow left. It is a by-product of a deeper whole body collapse. The industrial economy that gave the power to the 20th century is falling apart. Jobs may be automated, outsourced or digitalized. Institutions that once promised stability, government, businesses, and even traditional universities have broken their faith with those built to serve. To that invalid step, politicians with utopian promises and government apps.
But socialism is not the solution. This is a control mechanism. This always promises equality, but consistently provides a hierarchy. Replace free enterprises with bureaucratic gatekeeping. Childhood the public by removing the results of the selection. Most dangerously, it is certain that people are safe. In fact, when they are in control.
There’s no need to guess how this works. We saw it. Public housing has been transformed into a vertical ghetto filled with crime. Government food support has grown into a entrenched, poverty industry. The same idea is currently being rebranded with the help of AI and digital surveillance. It is coded in the policy dashboard and distributed through the Blockchain Distribution app. What used to be a central plan is now an algorithm plan. The digital revolution was not a democratized opportunity, as some would have hoped. It branches out.
We are quickly approaching what I think is a very dystopian 10-10-80 society.
Ten percent of the population thrives in a decentralized digital economy, owns assets and operates across borders. 10% – Technocratic Elite – Manage platforms, policies, and monitoring systems. The remaining 80%? They are digitally connected, economically stagnant and politically irrelevant.
The convenience of “free food” today is the gateway to feudalism in tomorrow’s algorithm. They will eat what the system deems sustainable. It works if you think it’s efficient. It lives where it assigns you. Everything in the name of fairness.
There is another way, but it’s difficult to sell because it demands something from people. It’s not free. It’s free.
Decentralized Capitalism – The fusion of digital tools and entrepreneurial energy is the only true counterweight to future control regimes. Blockchain, tokenized ownership, peer-to-peer markets, and truly open digital platforms offer ways to come. It’s not a utopia. But a chance. A system in which prosperity is achieved without being distributed. If the opportunity is shared, it will not be published.
Candidates like Mamdani may be villains, but they are more than that, and they are symptoms. If you continue to select a dependency policy, the small agency will confiscate any remaining items. We move towards managed identity, not towards equality.
In an era of collapsed institutions, we face tough choices. Not on the right or left. But extreme freedom or extreme control.
Harlem has just voted. In November, the rest of us will also choose to build or accept, in the ballot box, market and system.
