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Zohran Mamdani And America's Future

Portfolio Armor's Photo
by Portfolio Armor
Friday, Jun 27, 2025 - 22:42
Cartoon of Zohran Mamdani getting deported

Demographics Is Destiny 

Lee Kwan Yew, the founder of modern Singapore, famously highlighted one problem of multiracial democracy: people voting based on race and religion: 

In multiracial societies, you don't vote in accordance with your economic interests and social interests, you vote in accordance with race and religion.

It's actually worse than that: in multiracial democracies, a majority with lower levels of human capital can vote to take money from the minority with higher human capital. In the end, of course, they kill the golden goose, and end up worse off. Zimbabwe is an obvious past example. 

New York might be a future one, as the Democratic nominee for mayor, Zohran Mamdani, plans to target New York's golden geese. 

One of the best accounts on X, Drukpa Kunley, made this point in a humorous collage on Friday. 

Here's a bigger version of that collage. 

The Two Possible Solutions To This 

Broadly speaking, there are only two possible ways to prevent a descent into third world-style, multiracial democracy:

  1. Change the demos, or
  2. Throttle back on democracy. 

Rep. Andy Ogles, suggested an example of changing the demos yesterday, starting with Mr. Mamdani himself: denaturalize immigrant citizens who may have lied on their paperwork. 

Other ways of changing the demos include mass deportations of illegal aliens before they become voting citizens, deportations of legal immigrants who are public charges, and paying immigrants from third world countries to leave. 

The other approach is throttling back on democracy. One way to do that would be to add restrictions on who can vote, though this would likely require changes to federal law. For example, a law limiting voting to those who are net federal income tax payers would help ameliorate the problem of poorer people voting themselves a larger share of more productive citizens' incomes. Similarly, requiring voters to pass a test to indicate some basic understanding of economic and other issues. 

Another way to throttle back on democracy would be to put more power in the hands of unelected technocrats. For example, New York City's City Council could appoint a competent city manager to actually run the city, and the people could vote for someone like Mamdani as a largely ceremonial mayor. Picture Zohran Mamdani cutting ribbons with a giant pair of scissors while and giving speeches. someone like Michael Bloomberg actually runs the city. 

Thanks to decades of mass immigration from the third world, these are the choices we are left with. 

Is There A Way To Profit From This? 

Is it too late to bet against REITs exposed to cities like New York? Are there other trades that can profit from Zohranization if it happens--or the reverse, if he's defeated? Those are a couple of the questions I'm researching now. If you'd like a heads up if I find a promising trade related to this, feel free to subscribe to the Portfolio Armor trading Substack/occasional email list below. 

And if you want to limit your downside risk, in the event we're headed for Zimbabwe, you can download the Portfolio Armor iPhone app or subscribe to the website. Both will help you scan for the optimal hedge given your risk tolerance and time frame.

Contributor posts published on Zero Hedge do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Zero Hedge, and are not selected, edited or screened by Zero Hedge editors.
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