Critics of New York City’s mayor-elect have said his pledges of free bus service and universal childcare are unrealistic, but in Europe it’s a given

After New York City’s race for mayor catapulted Zohran Mamdani from state assembly member into one of the world’s most prominent progressive voices, intense debate swirled over the ideas at the heart of his campaign.

His critics and opponents painted pledges such as free bus service, universal child care and rent freezes as unworkable, unrealistic and exorbitantly expensive.

But some have hit back, highlighting the quirk of geography that underpins some of this view. “He promised things that Europeans take for granted, but Americans are told are impossible,” said Dutch environmentalist and former government advisor Alexander Verbeek in the wake of Tuesday’s election.

Verbeek backed this with a comment he had overheard in an Oslo café, in which Mamdani was described as an American politician who “finally” sounded normal.

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    8 months ago

    From a unitedstatesian:

    Genuinely, thank you, European politicians and public figures, for pointing out that reasonably socialized public services are considered de rigueur by the vast majority of the rest of the developed world.

    • atomicbocks@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      8 months ago

      It felt so weird when Tim Walz was lauded as a “gift to progressives” when he was running on a platform of “kids deserve food”.

  • SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world
    1·
    8 months ago

    “Europeans recognize his vision about free public transit and universal childcare. We expect our governments to make these kinds of services accessible to all of us,” said Verbeek. “We pay higher taxes and get civilized societies in return. The debate here isn’t whether to have these programs, but how to improve them.”

    Yes.

    • volvoxvsmarla@sopuli.xyz
      1·
      8 months ago

      Honestly I love taxes. I don’t love that billionaires don’t pay enough taxes and the unequal tax burden across different social groups but I love taxes and I love the idea of taxes. My dream would be a society where I work for basically pocket money and everything else - quality staple food and fresh food, education, healthcare, adequate housing, transportation, communication, childcare - is provided to me.

  • Seth Taylor@lemmy.world
    1·
    8 months ago

    Yes. Thank you.

    The fact that even r/democrats has banned posts about Mamdani is shocking to me. (I found out from Bluesky, went to Reddit and checked and it’s true)

    This dude is normal. Full stop.

    EDIT: And yea, I was literally thinking these days “It’s nice to see Europe influencing the US for a change”

  • HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world
    1·
    8 months ago

    There’s absolutely nothing radical about Mamdani.

    All of his proposed policies are favored by the vast majority of Americans and normal in actually developed nations.

    • darthinvidious@lemmy.world
      1·
      8 months ago

      Exactly. The real radical ones are like the US who don’t give their own people affordable health care of all things.

  • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    1·
    8 months ago

    Shout out to everyone who said his lofty impossible ideas are never going to happen in reality.

    Somehow every country can do the impossible goals of “maybe the rich don’t own every store” and “let’s make it so people are paid better” but America, but somehow they’re the impossibility, never the one county that refuses to try it.

  • elbiter@lemmy.world
    1·
    8 months ago

    Yes, it’s called Social Democracy and the countries that apply it always have the highest standards of life.

    Don’t let the billionaires bullshit you.

    • bstix@feddit.dk
      0·
      8 months ago

      Any day now… Any day… just wait. It will fall apart…

      It. Will. Fall. Apart.

      … cmmmmon, now.

      No: Now!

      Any time now just you wait and see goddammit.

      • Manmoth@lemmy.mlBanned
        01·
        8 months ago

        Europe will be majority foreign born and Muslim in a generation if they don’t do something now. They are not your friends and want to tear down your churches and instate shariah law. Look at crime and sexual assault stats in the most heavily affected countries.