Have you noticed how much we as a society rely on the internet when making purchases?
This was reinforced over Labor Day weekend when Connie and I were in Madison, Wisc., to help move our daughter, Abigail, into a new apartment. She had just moved back from Geneva, Switzerland, where she worked at CERN on her Doctorate in Physics through the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
As a result, Abby had no furniture. In fact, the only items she had were those brought back from Switzerland on the plane or a couple of boxes shipped by UPS. That was mostly clothing and other personal items.
The Warden minivan, bound for Madison, contained a lamp, desk, office chair, dishes, cookware, linens, a card table and chairs to eat on.
Immediately after moving in, Abby ordered a mattress, bed frame, dresser, and entertainment center from IKEA, the younger generation’s favorite store.
As boomers, Connie and I had been to IKEA once before with our kids. If you are new to this phenomenon, you may not be aware, but all the furniture comes in pieces with step-by-step instructions similar to Lego toys.
One of my jobs was to help assemble the bed. It took Abby and me over three hours.
The main piece of furniture her small apartment lacked was a couch.
In the three days we were in Madison, Abby spent a great deal of time online looking for just the right couch. It had to be the correct size for a small room. In addition, she ordered material samples to make sure the color would match her decor. With the samples in hand, she tested them by pouring water and coffee on them.
Next, Abby checked reviews on the company and the couch. Making her father proud, she made the purchase only after careful research.
If only Millennials and Gen Zs would take this same approach to socialism.
The frontrunner in the upcoming election for mayor of New York City is democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani. His socialist agenda includes city-run grocery stores, free bus fare, a freeze on rents for the two million-plus city residents who live in rent-stabilized apartments, universal free childcare for children from the age of 6 weeks to 5 years, and raising the minimum wage to $30 an hour by 2030.
As a socialist, he has called for the abolishment of capitalism.
How many New York voters have researched what his socialist policies will do to New York City?
Close to home, Kansas City implemented city-run grocery stores called Sun Fresh Market in 2018. The city lost more than $18 million of taxpayer money on this socialist policy before shutting the program down. This was one store. Mamdani proposes spending $65 million on a network of city-funded stores to open them.
KC also tried eliminating bus fares. This socialist experiment also failed and was stopped after costing the city millions of dollars.
Of course Mamdani plans to pay for this with tax increases on the rich and corporations.
Most economists acknowledge that a rent freeze will destroy the housing market in New York. In the end, the poor will suffer the most, as owners of rent-stabilized apartments will have no money for upkeep and repair, forcing many into bankruptcy and reducing the housing market.
As Abby demonstrated by checking reviews of those who had purchased the same couch she wanted, it’s easy to listen to stories from survivors of socialist countries who escaped.
Almost universally, those who have escaped socialist/communist countries are shocked that anyone in America or Canada has positive views of socialism.
Aaron Tao writes for Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). He writes, “As a young, first-generation Chinese-American immigrant, I have a message for my peers and fellow American citizens: socialism is not the answer. Despite its lofty promises to deliver freedom from want, perfect man (and even transform human nature itself), and ultimately usher in heaven on earth, socialism has instead resulted in hell in every place it has been tried. The gruesome historical evidence is well documented in sobering books such as Robert Conquest’s The Harvest of Sorrow and Frank Dikötter’s Mao’s Great Famine. Today, the ongoing collapse of socialist Venezuela continues to bring untold suffering to its people.”
Any thought of socialism should scare the hell out of freedom-loving Americans.
The next time someone you know brings up a desire for socialism, ask them to do their research.
If you would like to learn more, please click on the links below.
https://nypost.com/2025/07/01/opinion/why-mamdanis-rent-freeze-means-disaster-for-nyc-tenants/
https://secondstreet.org/socialism/
https://fee.org/articles/listen-to-immigrants-whove-actually-lived-under-socialism/
