Lina Khan’s populist plan for New York: Cheaper hot dogs (and other things)
While Khan is already being tagged a socialist, and was seen during her tenure as specifically hostile to big American business, her policies are deeply capitalist. She wants more competition, not less, and to see companies duking it out on the merits of their goods and services, not their reach over consumers, some of whom — Yankees fans, for example — have no other options.
Mamdani has identified a problem — New York is way too expensive — but not a clear villain. While his campaign had some mild indictments of “corporate greed,” attempts by his allies to skewer big business clashed with Mamdani’s relentlessly positive smile-fest. It’s unclear whether that approach to solving the affordability problem can last with Khan in City Hall, but her legalistic approach gives it legs.
