{"id":591765,"date":"2026-04-26T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=591765"},"modified":"2026-04-26T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T18:00:00","slug":"mamdani-is-destroying-the-tax-base-his-stupid-ideas-desperately-need-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=591765","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani Is Destroying The Tax Base His Stupid Ideas Desperately Need"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mamdani Is Destroying The Tax Base His Stupid Ideas Desperately Need<\/span><\/p>\n

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Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

When the\u00a0Fischer-Price\u00a0My First Mayor\u2122 of New York Zohran Mamdani chose to film a \u201ctax the rich\u201d video in front of a Manhattan penthouse owned by Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, he wasn\u2019t just celebrating \u201ctax day\u201d, he was making a policy argument.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mamdani was making a choice about his tone (dickish), about targets (\u201cpeople with more money than me are bad\u201d), and about how the city signals to the very people it depends on to fund its ambitions (\u201cgo f*ck yourself and live somewhere else\u201d).<\/p>\n

In a city where a relatively small number of taxpayers account for an outsized share of revenue, that kind of signaling is not trivial theater. It\u2019s reckless, petulant, counterintuitive, childish and has consequences. But what else would you expect from a thirtysomething who has zero private sector or real world experience?<\/p>\n

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Sure, Ken Griffin is an easy symbol. He has extraordinary wealth, a record-setting $238 million apartment at 220 Central Park South, and a business empire that spans global finance. But symbols have a way of flattening reality. The firms he built, Citadel and Citadel Securities, are not abstractions; they are employers, taxpayers, and investors.<\/p>\n

Citadel\u2019s principals and employees \u201chave paid nearly $2.3 billion in city and state taxes over the past five years,\u201d according to COO Gerald Beeson, Reuters wrote days ago. And Griffin himself has directed hundreds of millions of dollars in charitable giving tied to New York institutions, according to various reports citing about $650 million in donations highlighted by Citadel executives.<\/p>\n

And then there is the forward-looking piece\u2026the part that tends to disappear in political messaging. A proposed $6 billion redevelopment at 350 Park Avenue, tied to Griffin\u2019s firm, carries the promise of thousands of construction jobs and many more permanent positions. Those are the kinds of projects cities compete fiercely to attract. But now that project appears at risk now after Mamdani\u2019s choice to act like the spoiled Upper East Side brats he claims to loathe,\u00a0according to the Wall Street Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s pushing $10 billion in tax revenue and investment from Citadel and Griffin.\u00a0That is a\u00a0<\/strong>metric f*ck ton\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>of money<\/strong>\u00a0(NYC brings in about $80 billion a year total in tax revenue) that Mamdani desperately needs to fund his $30 million state owned grocery stores, among other communist sleight of hand tricks in his bottle of political snake oil.<\/p>\n

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Mamdani\u2019s policy argument is not without precedent. The idea of taxing underused luxury property, often described as a pied-\u00e0-terre tax, is rooted in a broader push to capture revenue from assets that sit largely idle in a city with acute housing pressures. Supporters see it as a corrective, a way to align tax policy with inequality that is both visible and politically salient. But there is a difference between arguing for a policy and personalizing it. Once a debate becomes about individuals rather than structures, it slides easily from persuasion into provocation.<\/p>\n

That distinction matters because New York\u2019s fiscal reality is not ideological; it is mathematical. The city requires\u00a0enormous<\/em>\u00a0revenue to sustain its services, infrastructure, and social programs. Much of that revenue ultimately traces back to high earners, large firms, and the ecosystem that supports them. At the same time, those taxpayers are unusually mobile. Griffin has already moved his primary residence to Miami, part of a broader pattern of high-income migration that policymakers across the country are grappling with.<\/p>\n

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\ud83d\udd25\u00a050% OFF FOR LIFE:<\/strong>\u00a0Using this coupon entitles you to 50% off an annual subscription to\u00a0Fringe Finance\u00a0<\/em>for life:\u00a0Get 50% off forever<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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There is also a subtler risk in turning success into a kind of public spectacle. Cities thrive on ambition. They depend on people who are willing to build companies, take risks, and, yes, accumulate outsized rewards along the way. When political rhetoric begins to frame that success primarily as a problem to be highlighted, rather than a resource to be harnessed, it can send an unintended message. Not just to billionaires with penthouses, but to the broader class of entrepreneurs, investors, and professionals who decide where to build their careers.<\/p>\n

The debate over fairness in taxation is both legitimate and necessary. But there is a difference between designing policy that asks more of those who have more, and staging moments that seem to cast them as villains by default. The former is governance. The latter is\u2026well exactly how you\u2019d expect a sociopath to govern.<\/p>\n

New York does not have the luxury of shortcuts. It is a city that depends on scale of talent, of capital and of confidence. Undermining any one of those pillars, even rhetorically, carries risks that may not be immediately visible but are rarely insignificant. The challenge for leaders is not simply to raise revenue, but to do so in a way that keeps the engine of that revenue running. That requires precision, not performance, and an understanding that in a city built on success, how you talk about success matters almost as much as how you tax it.<\/p>\n

If Mamdani wants to raise more revenue, he will eventually have to decide whether he is in the business of governing a fragile economic ecosystem or narrating one. This isn\u2019t SimCity, or the lunch table with the drama club. Playtime in the sandbox is over. New York City is a global icon and the uncomfortable truth is this: the people Mamdani is turning into political props are the same ones writing the checks. And they have options. So, Mamdani, I mean this nicely but if you\u2019re angry at the world, maybe start by looking inward\u2026and at the very least just try to grow the f*ck up.<\/em><\/p>\n

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—<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

QTR\u2019s Disclaimer<\/strong><\/em>:<\/strong>\u00a0Please read my full legal disclaimer\u00a0on my About page here<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0This post represents my opinions only.<\/em>\u00a0In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a\u00a0Creative Commons license<\/a>\u00a0with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade\/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. I may or may not own names I write about and are watching. Sometimes I\u2019m bullish without owning things, sometimes I\u2019m bearish and do own things. Just assume my positions could be exactly the opposite of what you think they are just in case. If I\u2019m long I could quickly be short and vice versa. I won\u2019t update my positions. All positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice and at any point I can be long, short or neutral on any position. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. If you see numbers and calculations of any sort, assume they are wrong and double check them. I failed Algebra in 8th grade and topped off my high school math accolades by getting a D- in remedial Calculus my senior year, before becoming an English major in college so I could bullshit my way through things easier.<\/em><\/p>\n

The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can\u2019t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I\u2019m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it\u2019s that important.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nSun, 04\/26\/2026 – 14:00<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mamdani Is Destroying The Tax Base His Stupid Ideas Desperately Need Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance\u00a0 When the\u00a0Fischer-Price\u00a0My First Mayor\u2122 of New York Zohran Mamdani chose to film a \u201ctax the rich\u201d video in front of a Manhattan penthouse owned by Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, he wasn\u2019t just celebrating \u201ctax day\u201d, he was making a… Continue reading Mamdani Is Destroying The Tax Base His Stupid Ideas Desperately Need<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":591758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,10,21,12,11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-591765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cancel-culture","category-censorship","category-civil-liberties","category-election-integrity","category-equal-justice","category-free-speech","category-religious-freedom","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=591765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/591758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=591765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=591765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=591765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}