Mamdani & Hochul steal from tomorrow
by James A. Bridge III
Our, America’s, most famous politician, arguably is the face of a spoiled generation.
That politician is the Mayor of New York City.
Why? Because Mayor Zohran Mamdani, elevated by some 400,000 sleep-walkers to his municipal perch, is SPOILED. He has plans for New York that the city actually could not afford! A $12 billion budget, larger than the entire state of Florida! But, alas, our poor Socialist hero–notice we write ‘poor’–cannot make ends meet!
“Waaaa! Waaaa! Mommy Hochul! I need more money!”
“Don’t worry, Kwame honey. We can move stuff around up here in Albany. How much do you need?”
“I need $2.3 billion!”
“That’s all? Why, we can just delay payments into the future. Make sure you punish rich people when you can!”
“Yay! Yes, Mommy!” Mamdani laughs and claps his baby hands.
So the farce plays out. But, every public employee covered by these pension systems should understand what has happened. Money that could have been invested for future growth was instead diverted to provide immediate budget relief for Mamdani’s sand-blown wet dream. That new car. That family vacation. That addition to the retirement account. Those future gains are no longer available because the investments were never made.
Impact?
So it is fourth-dimensional, that is time-complicated, and therefore hard to pin down. What DIDN’T happen, but COULD have happened? Who gets stuck with the bill?
Roughly 610,000 New Yorkers depend upon these pension systems: 350,000 members of NYCERS, 200,000 members of TRS, and 60,000 members of BERS. Sanitation workers. Teachers. Housing employees. School staff. Ordinary people who expected the contractual contributions promised to them to be made on time.
The ultimate cost of these delayed contractual contributions remains unknown. What is known is that money not invested today cannot earn returns tomorrow. A $2.3 billion pension-payment deferral could ultimately cost billions more in lost growth, reduced investment income, and future repayment obligations. Spread across the approximately 610,000 members of NYCERS, TRS, and BERS, the long-term burden could become substantial indeed.
That loss of income through delayed CONTRACTUAL contributions could be actually $4 billion dollars, or approximately $6,000+ per member!
Younger people can laugh up their sleeves at the slick accounting ledgerbook legerdemain spun by Hochul and Mamdani with their Albany gambit. But you all young, who largely flock to the Democrat politics of socialism and Islamism, just remember. When politicians ‘borrow’ from the future, they are stealing from YOU.
What Gen Z will have to learn the hard way is the following, and I quote the great Milton Friedman: “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.” Politicians such as Mamdani and Hochul spend the money today and leave the bill for tomorrow. The benefit is immediate. The consequences arrive later.
They wear, my young friends, your tomorrow frowns Up Side Down today.