New York’s Tax Plan Under Mayor Mamdani: Can the City Afford It?

New York’s Tax Plan Under Mayor Mamdani: Can the City Afford It?

This week, editors Peter Suderman, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Matt Welch discuss the growing push on the left to "tax the rich," highlighted by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Tax Day message. They examine whether America’s tax system is already highly progressive, why wealth taxes and similar proposals have repeatedly disappointed abroad and in blue states, and whether New York risks copying California’s mistakes. The panel also asks a broader question: With some of the nation’s highest tax burdens, what are taxpayers actually getting in return?

Key Discussion Points

• Do wealth taxes ever work? (0:00)
• Drug legalization and psychedelics research (19:18)
• Palantir’s call for national service (31:25)
• Listener question: Is today’s political divide a clash within progressivism? (42:38)
• Iran’s Strait of Hormuz: Mixed signals and escalating tensions (48:46)
• Weekly cultural recommendations (53:24)

Drug Legalization and Psychedelics Research

The editors mark 4/20 with a conversation about marijuana legalization, the libertarian case for drug freedom, and whether concerns about public disorder are being wrongly blamed on legalization itself. They also discuss President Donald Trump’s executive order expanding psychedelic drug research.

Palantir’s Call for National Service

The conversation then shifts to Palantir’s proposal for national service and why so many tech leaders suddenly have grand plans for remaking public policy.

Iran’s Strait of Hormuz: A Looming Crisis?

The panel returns to Iran, where mixed signals over the Strait of Hormuz and uncertain negotiations raise fears of another drifting conflict.

Listener Question: Progressivism’s Internal Divide

A listener asks whether today’s political divide is best understood as two wings of a broader progressive movement rather than a clash between left and right.

Notable Mentions

• "Can This Psychedelic Help Cure Opioid Addiction?" by Rachel Nuwer

• "Much about this @PalantirTech list outlining the requirement of 'the technological republic' is risible, none more than the call for 'national service,' a form of indentured servitude that always goes easy on the rich and politically connected."

  — Nick Gillespie on X

• "NYC Schools Are Losing Students and Burning Cash. Mamdani Could Make the Situation Worse," by Danyela Souza Egorov
• "Will Donald Trump and RFK, Jr. Psychedelicize America?" by Nick Gillespie
• "Kat Rosenfield: Why It's Important for Novelists To Speak Freely," by Nick Gillespie
• "Stan Lee Co-author Kat Rosenfield on Rise of Cancel Culture in the Literary World," by Nick Gillespie

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