Mamdani: There Is Enough Money for a Life of Dignity for All People

RITTER: “You call yourself a Democratic Socialist. The word ‘socialist,’ of course, has been vilified and used to attack you specifically. How do you define being a Democratic Socialist?”
MAMDANI: “I think of the words of Dr. King, who decades ago said, call it democracy or call it democratic socialism, there must be a better distribution of wealth for all of God’s children in this country. And it gets to the heart of the matter, which is inequality. And my belief that every New Yorker should have what they need to live a dignified life. It shouldn’t be something that they can be priced out of. And that’s why at the heart of our campaign is this focus on freezing the rent for more than 2 million rent-stabilized tenants, making the slowest buses in the country fast and free.”
RITTER: “There are in the country about 1,200 people who are just wealthy beyond anything, right? And 25 years ago, there were only about 40 of them. Now there are 1,200 people who are worth more than a billion dollars and much more than that. That has to be addressed at some point, because they’re not paying the taxes that the rest of us are paying.”
MAMDANI: “Absolutely. And I think it gets to the heart of the matter, which is that there is enough money for a life of dignity for all people. It’s just a question of whether we have the political will to ensure that that money is being spent on delivering that dignity.”