New York City’s new mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, wasted no time signaling his priorities. Just days after his victory on November 4, he assembled a transition team featuring Lina Khan, the antitrust enforcer who built her reputation battling corporate giants during her time at the FTC. Khan’s role, alongside a photo op with Senator Elizabeth Warren, paints a clear picture of the administration ahead—one fixated on punishing success rather than fostering it.
Warren captioned that image with her trademark flair: “Tax the rich. Billionaire tears not included.” The trio’s meeting came as Mamdani pushes to hike the state’s corporate tax rate from 7.25% to 11.5%, a move Governor Kathy Hochul has shown openness to despite the potential fallout. This would be a tremendously glaring and disastrous direct assault on the engines of growth that keep the city alive.
Billionaires and big firms don’t accumulate wealth by accident. They earn it by creating products and services people want and need, generating jobs and opportunities along the way. Yet Mamdani views enterprise as little more than a “scam,” with successful people cast as “good thieves.” His approach ignores the reality that the wealthy have choices—and they’re already exercising them.
Look at the exodus underway. JP Morgan Chase, once a cornerstone of New York’s financial might, now employs more people in Texas than in its home state, with over 31,000 workers in the Lone Star State compared to fewer in New York. Florida, free from state income taxes, has become a magnet for hedge funds and private equity outfits fleeing high-cost environments. Citadel and Elliott Management are among those that have shifted operations southward, taking billions in assets and thousands of jobs with them. New York’s share of the nation’s top earners has shrunk dramatically over the past two decades, and entire sectors are slipping away.
Wall Street’s decline tells the story. What was once the unchallenged hub of global finance now competes with low-tax havens that roll out the red carpet for business. Mamdani’s plans only accelerate this trend. Raising corporate taxes to match New Jersey’s rate sounds innocuous, but combined with New York’s existing burdens, it would make the state even less competitive. Businesses aren’t charities; they go where they can thrive without constant raids on their profits.
Ordinary New Yorkers stand to lose the most. When firms pack up, they don’t just take executives—they eliminate roles for accountants, janitors, drivers, and suppliers. The ripple effects hit neighborhoods hard, from reduced tax revenues for schools and subways to fewer chances for upward mobility. Mamdani’s vision of funding “freebies” through these hikes promises short-term handouts at the expense of long-term stability. It’s a familiar playbook: promise equity, deliver stagnation.
Behind the smirks and slogans lies a deeper agenda. Figures like Khan have long targeted companies for being too effective, blocking mergers and innovations under the guise of fairness. Pair that with Mamdani’s democratic socialist roots, and you wonder if this isn’t part of a coordinated effort to reshape the economy from the ground up—centralizing power in government hands while private initiative withers. Warren’s glee at “billionaire tears” reveals the mindset: resentment over results.
Cities that chase away wealth don’t recover easily. Detroit and San Francisco offer cautionary tales of what happens when leaders prioritize ideology over pragmatism. New York has dodged that fate so far, but Mamdani’s path leads straight there. If he wants the city to prosper, he should court investment, not combat it. Otherwise, the only tears shed will be from the families left behind in a hollowed-out metropolis.
In short, New Yorkers appear to be doomed.
