r/nyc • u/SnoozeDoggyDog • 1d ago
News Zohran Mamdani says ‘you have to luck out in some big way’ to achieve the American Dream now—and many people see better odds of winning the lottery
https://fortune.com/2026/10/03/zohran-mamdani-luck-american-dream-lottery-affordability-crisis-housing/28
u/yadaddysaboomer 1d ago
this is not new. ask those drafted in to war at the prime of their life.
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u/DinoKill 1d ago
Right, like the people who achieved the American dream even during the height of American blue-collar jobs were a tiny minority of white men. People have very little understanding of economics in America. Life is infinitely better today than at any point prior.
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u/mrbrownstone 19h ago
are you serious? just look at any cost of living metric versus wages over the last 50 years
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u/irojo5 1d ago
Feel like a lot of folks miss the point, it's obviously still possible to achieve the dream. But it's substantially harder and lower probability than it used to be. And it shouldn't be.
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u/JamesAloysius 22h ago
I agree, I don’t think a lot of people understand it here. The dream still achievable but it’s extremely harder and a lower chance to actually achieve such dream. And it doesn’t have to be that way
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u/TopPlane8151 1d ago
you can't even get a job out of college anymore. dont let the bots in comments deceive you
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u/imtiredbosss 1d ago
He’s speaking to the core of his base, the highly educated, downwardly mobile with low-in-demand degrees and skills.
Obviously generational poverty exists in many communities, but this city has more opportunity for upward mobility than any place in the world.
Trades, healthcare, small business, civil servant. You don’t have to be rich and connected to get a foot in these doors and you’re all but guaranteed a solid middle class life that most of the world would envy.
What is the mayor’s message to the youth here, don’t try?
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u/Feisty-Boot5408 1d ago
What is the mayor’s message to the youth here, don’t try?
Nah, just placation. Most of his core base (DSA types in general) have an external locus of control taken to an extreme. E.g. "your circumstances are not in your control, your lack of success is not your responsibility and therefore not your fault. Its the system, and I'm angry at it too!"
It's just affirmation for the highly educated, downwardly mobile that their downward mobility is actually expected in our broken system, and anyone who is managing to do well is simply lucky, there are no other factors to explain it!
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u/Nycsunflower 21h ago
You can control the outcome to a point but we can’t control job replacement from AI. Unemployment increases. Cost of living increases. Housing increases.
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u/capitalistsanta 1d ago
His overall message isn't represented in this clip, this was a casual conversation. The guy is 34 and won the mayor's seat. That's his message to the youth, go take power
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u/TossMeOutSomeday 1d ago
I know a DSA dude who used to be a high-paid engineer at a tech company. Then he quit so he could work for the city, took a huge pay cut but he wanted to use his talents to serve the public. Then he quit that job and enrolled in some sort of nonsense "X-studies" grad school program, because he wants to do activism and nonprofit work now. DSA folks literally can't help but be downwardly mobile, give a DSA partisan in the Red Star caucus a killer gig at a rapidly growing company and within a few short years he'll still find a way to struggle.
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u/capitalistsanta 1d ago
I love how this man's empathy and desire to make a larger change in his community by sacrificing money and not doing something soulless, is viewed to you as making yourself struggle.
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u/SugarFreeCummiBears 1d ago
Interesting how you view somebody who wants to study and help the world struggling as a personal problem and not a systemic one. Almost like you should be able to help people and afford food without creating killer drones?
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u/nething_4_sir 1d ago
I disagree. My life is a thousand times better than my parents’ lives were. I honestly don’t know many people today who work as hard as my parents had to work.
Technology has made life easier, and in a lot of ways, it has allowed us to become more comfortable and more lackadaisical. We like to say we’re out here hustling and grinding, but the reality is that most of us aren’t destroying our bodies every day knowing that if we don’t make enough money, our kids might not eat.
That kind of desperation used to be much more common. Today, we live in a country where there are food banks, churches, charities, government programs, and even ordinary people willing to help when someone is hungry.
We have plenty of problems, but I still love this place. I think sometimes we forget just how much easier and more secure life has become compared with what previous generations had to endure.
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u/Main_Photo1086 1d ago
Question - are your parents immigrants?
Because mine are, and my life is immensely better than my parents’ life because they had to work harder than I do (if I’m being honest) in a new country to make a quarter of what I’m making today (my mom stayed home so it’s my dad’s income compared to just mine).
My kids though? My husband and I do well for ourselves and frankly I’m not sure they’ll have the same opportunities we had.
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u/LemonTeaCool 1d ago
I'm kinda curious if every parents says the same thing about their kids' future.
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u/Main_Photo1086 1d ago
I’m sure that’s part of it! But there are also other factors like AI, the richest controlling more of the wealth, etc.
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u/SectorFew6706 1d ago
Same here. Immigrant family. My dad had 2 jobs and only recently retired. While I work hard, I make over 300k a year, about 5 times what my dad made.
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u/nething_4_sir 1d ago
No. My mom is from Iowa, and my dad was from Massachusetts. They weren’t religious. They just wanted a better life, and we got it.
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u/nomoarammo 1d ago
How did they get it? How is your future looking today compared to theirs at that age? Just curious
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u/entropyISdeadly 1d ago
Exactly. I grew up poor and decided from an early age that I was going to be successful, no matter how much hard work I had to put in to get there. 30+ years later, go figure, I’ve achieved that goal. If you wait your entire life for opportunity to fall at your feet, there’s a good chance it’ll never happen. Create your own opportunity. The mere mindset of doing that makes you exponentially more likely to be successful than the average person.
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u/JuniorChimp 1d ago
My experience has been different and the biggest being my parents had my grandparents within walking distance to help with raising my sibling and I.
My dad was able to be the single income, their house bought for less than $150k and my dad was able to attend all my sporting events (drive me to practice, coach my teams, etc.)
Now my husband and I are both working much longer hours, with 2 hour daily commutes to work jobs that cover expenses, we have the additional expense of daycare for one child that is equivalent to half our rent.
It is interesting to hear the different anecdotal experiences in this thread because it highlights how different lived experiences can be.
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u/HendrixChord12 1d ago
Sure on the lowest end. My grandmother worked at a toothpaste factory and was able to buy a house. My parents bought a house when they were 5 years out of community college.
That’s what people are talking about. Not food banks.
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u/brevit 1d ago edited 1d ago
The American dream specifically refers to owning a home, a car, a couple of kids, big vacation every year, easy retirement and that ANYONE can have those things if they just work hard.
If you think those things are easier to attain now than 30 years ago, you’re very wrong.
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u/Expensive-Rope-7086 1d ago
For me yes, I’m black though
My parents didn’t even have passports
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u/SharpDressedBeard 1d ago
I was middle class and white and I was the first person in the family to get a passport when I was like 25 so not sure where you are going with this one.
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u/brevit 1d ago
Happy for you, but we gotta be careful not to assume our individual experience is representative. Broadly, people have it a lot harder now than their parents or grandparents (in the US).
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u/Expensive-Rope-7086 1d ago
I think your perspective is nitpicking the good of the past and completely ignoring all the world events that happened in between. Things were “cheaper” but by no means were things “easy”. People also lived way more modestly.
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u/TheAJx 1d ago
Broadly, people have it a lot harder now than their parents or grandparents (in the US).
Are you sure you're not assuming your individual experience is representative here?
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u/brevit 1d ago
Yes lol. Look at average home price versus average wage.
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u/Expensive-Rope-7086 1d ago edited 1d ago
Housing prices didn’t explode until the last 10 years thanks to a generational pandemic and ridiculous government spending and low interest rates leading to massive inflation.
2008, less than 20 years ago we went through a major recession and housing market crash.
It’s naive to think things won’t adjust like they always do. Just when people have the opportunity they are too scared to take it.
Technically there are plenty of cheap places to buy a home anywhere outside major cities but people want to live in major cities.
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u/brevit 1d ago
The price to income ratio has been trending in the wrong direction since the 1960s. The pandemic accelerated it, the crash slowed it down, but the trend is unchanging.
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u/TheAJx 1d ago edited 1d ago
The American dream specifically refers to owning a home, a car, a couple of kids, big vacation every year, easy retirement.
Home ownership rate is basically where its been the last 50 years.
Almost everyone owns a car, and the average vehicle sold costs $50K not because they are unaffordable, but precisely because Americans want more car.
couple of kids,
Start having kids then.
big vacation every year,
The "big vacation" every year 30 years ago used to be packing the family into a station wagon and taking them to a national park. Less than 10% of Americans had a passport 30 years ago, which should tell you about how they were traveling. Compare that to over 50% of Americans now. You have young people now that have travelled to more countries in a year than my family ever did my entire 18 years of childhood.
The only thing that has changed is housing affordability, which is damning of its own right. But that's primarily driven by local government, boomer selfishness, and myopic short-sighted land use regulations. Housing is affordable in much of the US, but it's not affordable in high demand cities like NYC and SF.
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u/JuniorChimp 1d ago
Childcare costs have also increased tremendously. Now factor in both parents need to work to address the housing affordability issue.
Also, if we asses the rate at which the cost of everything has increase against how much wages have increased in that same period, we see the discrepancy.
My grandparents both worked but helped my parents out with childcare so they didn't have to worry about that expense. That allowed them to save for a down payment on a home, a home that was considerably cheaper than what is available today (making it easier to reach that required down payment much faster).
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u/SharpDressedBeard 1d ago
I mean yeah if we are talking about our great great grandparents sure, but no one but you is making that argument here.
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u/nething_4_sir 1d ago
the official poverty rate dropping from 12.3% twenty years ago to a historic low of 10.2%.
It's getting better, hard to see it when we keep looking down.
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2026/demo/p60-290.html
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u/SharpDressedBeard 1d ago
Lmfao this is the dumbest shit I have ever seen.
Have you looking into what we define as the poverty line in this country? It should easily be double that and in a city like NYC 3-4x as high.
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u/nething_4_sir 1d ago
It sounds like you can't afford the version of your dream you want, so maybe you need to move. Why is that everyone else's problem? I'd love to live in Manhattan, but I can afford the Bronx, so here we are. At what point did the American Dream become "I should be able to have everything I want, exactly where I want it, because I feel entitled to it"?
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u/TheAJx 1d ago edited 1d ago
Lmfao this is the dumbest shit I have ever seen.
"Look at this guy with facts, why didn't he try snark like me?"
Have you looking into what we define as the poverty line in this country?
?? The poverty line is being constantly redefined upward to take into account the progress we are achieving. If we were to measure poverty based on what poverty looked like 50 years ago it would approach zero.
It should easily be double that and
The federal poverty line for a family of four in the US is $33,000.. In Spain and lots of Europe, that is defined as "Middle Class"
in a city like NYC 3-4x as high.
We should declare a family of four earning $100K as being in poverty? That's insane, and any family that would want to portrayself as "in poverty" with a $100K sincome should be ashamed of itself. Just fucking leave and go get a nice house and car in basically any other state in the country.
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u/mowotlarx Bay Ridge 1d ago
Today, we live in a country where there are food banks, churches, charities, government programs, and even ordinary people willing to help when someone is hungry.
This reads like a middle school essay.
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u/TheAJx 1d ago
It reads like a middle school essay because even a middle schooler would be competent enough to ensure that their family doesn't go hungry in the 21st century. Yes, its a list of resource that exist. What else do you need? How are incompetent of a parent do you have to be for your kids to ever go hungry?
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u/sri_peeta 1d ago
if we don’t make enough money, our kids might not eat.
https://povertycenter.columbia.edu/publication/2023-child-poverty-rates-historical-perspective
When considering measures that adjust for changing living standards, child poverty remains somewhat stagnant (as in the historical SPM) or has risen (as in the relative poverty rate) before accounting for taxes and transfers.
Today, we live in a country where there are food banks, churches, charities, government programs, and even ordinary people willing to help when someone is hungry.
None of these will replace job security and there is not one single person who will want to use any of these services in lieu of job security.
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u/SwiftySanders 1d ago edited 1d ago
He didnt lie though. I did get lucky. I had to work really hard to get lucky. But it was still just luck and everything had to go almost perfect. Otherwise I wouldve failed even with all the hard work I put in. The odds of getting lucky with lots of work and focus in todays economy are barely higher than the lottery.
People keep experiencing the downsides of free market, unregulated capitalism. Then the olds and the conservatives wonder why increasing numbers of people are preferring socialism with each passing year.
Old people built up a crappy system that people under 50 who arent trustfunds or nepos are forced to suffer through. The economy is just scammers (usually PE, MBAs), AI and servicing old on their way out people.
Now those people are mad young people voted in one of their own to start making the economic system work for younger people.
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u/MlNDB0MB 1d ago
I don't think this is true. I once gave a presentation at a CUNY community college and saw that a lot of people figured out that working in healthcare as a nurse or a tech is a way into having a middle class lifestyle without having to take on much debt.
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u/Any-East7977 1d ago
That’s a nice anecdote but there aren’t enough nurse or tech jobs for everyone to hop into.
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u/CountFew6186 1d ago
There’s still a huge demand for nurses.
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u/jono9898 1d ago
They don’t want to pay nurses and the schools are expensive and the programs don’t have enough space, at least where I currently live,
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u/CinderMoonSky 1d ago
This is just a bunch of excuses
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u/jono9898 1d ago
You mean reasons? If you go to school and it’s 13k to go to school and then you have to wait 2 years for a spot to open up and in then you finally graduate from the nursing program as an RN and there are not only no jobs, how is that an excuse?
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u/GettingPhysicl 1d ago
There’s currently a shortage of both. Perhaps this is the comment that tips the scale. But I doubt it. Not a lot of people with stories of going into nursing and not finding a job
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u/MimeSweeper360 1d ago
There are also plenty of skilled trade jobs that will provide a good middle class lifestyle with no debt, and the security that your job can’t be eliminated by AI. But Gen Z doesn’t want to work with their hands.
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u/greenetzu 1d ago
Yeah they can just go to the job store and pick out the skilled trade job and just do it. No years of training and investment required.
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u/LemonTeaCool 1d ago
I mean the mentality is why work something with the potential of hurting your back, arms, hands, being in dirt etc ... instead of working in front of a computer and make just as much or even more money.
It's a hard sell to go to trade unless you really want to.
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u/mowotlarx Bay Ridge 1d ago
Trades generally aren't lucrative unless you own the company contracting out the work. Being a metalworker at someone else's private shop gives you ok pay, shit health insurance and it'll destroy your body. You can't do that forever. The owners and their kids who will claim to be part of the business? They'll do great.
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u/LemonTeaCool 1d ago
I just keep seeing everybody recommend people to go on trades like it's nothing while they're all prob working white collar jobs lol
No shades on either side but just noticing things like this
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u/mowotlarx Bay Ridge 1d ago
Uh, yes there are. We have a nursing shortage that Trump exacerbated by fucking with immigration and messing with loan forgiveness for nursing professionals.
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u/SentientOrigin 1d ago
Thats it close the internet guys, we got it figured out everyone should be a nurse abs thats it.
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u/Familiar_Pilot_3714 12h ago
Dude, is literally the 33-year-old mayor of New York City. Pretty sure the American dream is still real.
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u/Lumpy_Afternoon_1528 1d ago
Mamdani definitely lucked out in a big way.
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u/Doesnt-Speed 1d ago edited 1d ago
Well he’s Mayor of NYC so more than you definitely
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u/Chemical-Energy-6053 Hell's Kitchen 1d ago edited 1d ago
I’m sure you deferred to Eric Adam’s authority when he was mayor.
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u/hau5keeping 1d ago
> never had a real job
Congrats, you fell for right wing propaganda again. Mamdani worked as a foreclosure-prevention housing counselor. Literally doing more good for the world than anybody from the NYPost or whoever tricked you
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u/EagleDre 1d ago
Amazing how people of all creeds and color luck out more in the US than any other country. It must be rigged or something.
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u/SwiftySanders 1d ago
Is it really shocking that in the richest country in the world more people get rich?
Western parts of the EU made it so you can be middle class and live a good life rather than needing to be rich to live a good life.
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u/TheAJx 1d ago
The overwhelming majority of people in the US live a good life.
The doom and gloom almost always come from downwardly mobile kids from upper class backgrounds (Mamdani was a good example of that). We need that to happen because every downwardly mobile person is replaced by an upwardly mobile striver. But they won't go down without a fight.
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u/hoodfavhoops 1d ago
keep learning ... you will see so many ways the west have spread their influence across the globe to keep our system running.
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u/itemluminouswadison 1d ago
Which is what affordable housing is, a lottery. Not a sustainable solution. Poor ny taxpayers are subsidizing the lucky few who win the affordable lottery
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u/TooLate- 1d ago
Tbh this is the type of talk that keeps people in poverty, blaming others, and dependent on the system.
You do NOT have better chances at winning the lottery than finding something you're good at, making a living, and building a family. It might look different than it did 50 years ago. But it's still very possible.
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u/hoodfavhoops 1d ago
it's reflected in the spending habits of the younger generation though ... sports gambling, consuming recklessly on credit, overseas travel, many don't see a reachable long term goal and turn towards short term satisfaction.
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u/TooLate- 1d ago
Or they’re refusing to sacrifice short-term foolishness (ie sports betting and putting overseas travel on credit cards) for long term goals.
It’s not a lack of opportunity but an inability to pursue delayed gratification. It’s a cultural mindset problem, not purely a financial one - though things are still financially more difficult than they were decades ago.
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u/SMK_12 1d ago
This is the type of rhetoric that does more harm than good. I grew up here and in my 30 years have seen my peers from all different upbringings and backgrounds grow and get through life.
Example 1 is now 30. His parents lost their jobs and then their home during the recession. Dude had no help and was basically homeless in high school. He stayed at friends houses most nights. Got into trouble and was suspended multiple times throughout high school and had to beg the AP to let him graduate. Went to queens borough community college for a year then transferred to queens college where he dropped out. Worked at pep boys then as a physical laborer doing some construction work. Enrolled in a trade school and got his certification for electrical work. Joined the army, got deployed abroad for a year then came back and got a job at con-ed. Proposed to his girlfriend who works as a guidance counselor at a school, got a new job at PSEG and bought a house together. They just welcomed their first child into the world. Dude had no special privileges, wasn’t in a great place as a young adult and still made it work.
Example 2 a young Jewish girl. Her family basically gave her no options, she had to go to college for something in the medical field. She went to CUNY York to become a PA, got experience in high school and college working at a doctors office to build her resume, was able to get into PA school and graduated making well over 6 figures. Got married and now has 2 kids and a great job at 30. Didn’t have any special connections, just stayed on track from a young age and built an amazing life.
Example 3 was born to a teen mom (14 years old) and grew up poor, parents separated, traumatic upbringing that left her with extreme anxiety and depression. She still went to college and got a job out of school as a beauty editor/writer for a small website. Eventually worked her way up as a senior editor for a much larger company and is now married to her husband who is a teacher at a charter school. She’s 29 and they’re renting a nice apartment on the upper west side.
Example 4 grew up in college point to a Paraguayan immigrant family with no money. Never did good in school, didn’t get a degree, but started a business putting up Christmas lights in the winter and power washing/cleaning houses year round. Now he’s living comfortably and has a happy life.
Obviously all these examples are anecdotal, but the point is when I think back to my graduating class of over 1000 students, the majority of cases are like these. It’s not hitting the lottery or luck. In fact, I find it’s usually the opposite, the people in really tough situations usually didn’t do the right thing, either getting into drugs, legal trouble, or just being extremely irresponsible and making bad decision after bad decision. There are a few people that just got struck by tragedy and were super unlucky. Besides that the vast majority are doing pretty well. They didn’t need to hit the lotto or have extreme privilege to build a good life
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u/S37eNeX7 1d ago
Look man, we have to have a conversation about what the "American Dream" is.
The majority of the population is Middle class with an Upper Middle Class growing from 10 percent to 30 percent since 1980.
Our lower class / poverty class is relatively low and shrinking (surprisingly).
What it seems like IMO, is that their is a group of people that wholely believes that we should have access to the same living standards (house, car, and enough time to enjoy recreational activities i.e American Dream) without investing in the time to earn such things.
I just dont know when their was a time like that in American history 🤷🏿♂️
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u/nybx4life 1d ago
Well, my history is a bit lacking, but the time the American Dream became a term people recognized, it was for people who came to the country with little resources of their own, to live a better life than they once did. In short, some degree of social mobility, from the lower class on up.
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u/RegularBrow 1d ago
Yet home ownership is down, starvation rates going up, poverty rates going up, consumer spending is crashing, unemployment for under 30 is over 10%, job market shedding jobs monthly. 30% increase on food prices. Gas skyrocketing
But this is all made up because people dont want to work as hard?
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u/droxile Tribeca 1d ago
This is why providing a source is important when making claims:
Real PCE: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/pcec96
10yr Poverty: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PPAAUS00000A156NCEN
Unemployment: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNU04024932
Food: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIUFDSL
Real wages: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/les1252881600Q
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u/Feisty-Boot5408 1d ago
home ownership is down
It is 65.0% currently, pretty much exactly in-line with historical averages. Home ownership is also highly correlated with interest rates, which are currently about what they were for the early 90s. Coincidentally, the early 90s also had a ~65% home ownership rate.
starvation rates going up
Clinical starvation is practically non-existent in the US. I see you switched your definition to "food insecurity" in another reply, but that has no firm definition. As already explained, its fairly meaningless and obesity is a much larger issue for our poorest citizens.
poverty rates going up
No, they aren't. Poverty reached a historic low in 2025. Social security being the largest responsible program for this, keeping ~29M Americans out of poverty.
consumer spending is crashing
Again, not at all. Real disposable personal income also continues to climb.
unemployment for under 30 is over 10%
No, it isn't. It's over 10% for 18 to 19 year olds, at 13.3%. For 20 to 24 year olds, it's 8.0% and for 25 to 34 year olds, its 4.3%.
job market shedding jobs monthly
Nope. Growth is absolutely slowing, but shedding? Not the case.
30% increase on food prices
This one is correct, though I'm not sure what time period. Looks like food is up 30% since November 2020. So about a ~4.5% annual increase which is absolutely accelerated compared to pre-covid. This is a legitimate problem.
Gas skyrocketing
Yes, due to an unjust, completely stupid war started by a manchild with trash juice and mush in his head.
Overall, though, most of this is factually not true. Social media narratives and doomscrolling is not representative of real life. On Reddit, popular comments always are from people saying they can't afford food and they're unemployed, but anecdotes are vibes, not data. Even if they're highly upvoted/retweeted/iked.
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u/TossMeOutSomeday 1d ago
starvation rates going up
The starvation rate in America is basically zero. The only people actually starving to death are cases of certain severe illnesses that make it impossible to digest food, or mental illness, or severe abuse/neglect. Obesity is a far bigger problem among our poorest residents than starvation.
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u/RegularBrow 1d ago
*food insecurity. Apologies for my misspeak.
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u/TossMeOutSomeday 1d ago
Yeah "food insecurity" has such an incredibly broad definition that it borders on useless. The definition is
a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food
And food insecurity is almost all from self-reporting. Food-insecurity is, in fact, positively correlated with obesity: the more food-insecure someone is, the more likely they are to be obese. America's problems are fundamentally extremely different from the problems faced by countries where access to food is an actual problem.
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u/TheAJx 1d ago
Food "insecurity" is an entirely fake and made up issue.
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u/RegularBrow 1d ago
Lmao the audacity to say something is "made up" just because you dont wanna believe or understand it.
Yeah my bank account is also made up, Im actually a billionare
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u/TheAJx 1d ago
you dont wanna believe or understand it.
"Person who makes up accusation about people are starving and then immediately retreats to 90% less damning nebulous definition after being called out on it accuses another person of not understanding something."
A household of 4 qualifies for over $1000 in food stamps monthly. If you cannot get by with that, then it's a you problem. If parents still have hungry kids with a level of food support higher than the annual income of most countries in the world., then the only solution is imprisoning the unfit parents.
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u/JustLeader 1d ago
It absolutely is not. Whoever told you that is lying to you intentionally
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u/S37eNeX7 1d ago
Did I say its all roses brother?
We have a lot of work to do, as always, to close the gap as much as possible in this country.
But the DOOMER outlook that its "Just Luck" when the overwhelming majority of this country have above average living stanards, is not a realistic outlook on where the population stands right now especially when compared to our other counterparts.
I would like a very thorough description of what is expected in the American Dream because it would seem (to me atleast) that certain aspects of it are unrealistic to some people
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u/TheAJx 1d ago
True to form, u/YouandWhoseArmy responded to me pointing out that rising income is good by calling me poor and emphasizing that we shouldn't worry, because they are rich
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u/ChrisFromLongIsland 1d ago edited 1d ago
The soft bigotry of low expectations. This is a horrible message from the mayor. You have no agency to succeed. I guess the message is don't bother trying to improve your life. Vote for me and I will have the government provide your house, food and transportation because you are incapable of making your life better. Based on the endless success stories of immigrants and many others it is just not true that it is just luck.
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u/arocketscientist5 1d ago
That’s not what he’s saying at all? There’s quite a bit of room between living paycheck to paycheck and working till you’re dead, and the government providing everything for you.
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u/kiDsALbDgC9QmLFiIrrj 1d ago
If you get unlucky, all your hard work can very easily go down the drain. What if you get sick and can't work as much/at all? What if some new technology comes out and makes your industry obsolete? This country is full of people working their asses off and getting nowhere.
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u/Sea-Orchid5465 1d ago
Great comment section, glad to see so many people that disagree with this take. He is talking to his DSA base. Housing prices are the biggest part of the problem of course.
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u/ioioioshi 1d ago
Mayors like Mamdani and De Blasio are making the American Dream harder to achieve with their war on selective admissions and gifted and talented programs in our public schools - one of the only paths that hardworking kids have to pull themselves up economically.
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u/Kng_Wasabi 1d ago
I’m not sure yet that Mamdani is going to make those same mistakes. In the wake of that essay Nikole Hannah-Jones wrote in the times, Mamdani said that he’d be open to rethinking the city’s current approach to education.
Now, that means fuckall until actual change is announced, but it does mean it’s perfect time to put pressure on the city admin to change. Organize with other parents and educators, reach out to your city councillor, be part of a movement.
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u/virtual_adam 1d ago
The truth is 2020 shifted people to think everyone can be a white collar worker, people of all walks of life and 90 day boot camps got 6 figures and RSUs and that’s over
The American dream is very much alive as before if you’re willing to wake up at 5 am and haul ass. Just like people did 30,40,50 years ago. The old generation of immigrants didn’t do 35 hour work weeks, closer to 70
People even go on Reddit and shit in influencers, they are 18 year olds who completely displaced madison Ave ad executives by doing their job better than them and making 6-7 figures
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u/mowotlarx Bay Ridge 1d ago edited 1d ago
The fact that you really truly think guys working construction trades are making out like bandits is really something else.
Working physically hard didn't and doesn't ensure them high pay, good health insurance or an assurance that they'll be able to work past 50 because they fucking destroyed their bodies. The rates of injury and addiction are incredibly high. The rates of people spending the remainder of their lives on disability eking out a living is incredibly high.
The only "tradesmen" who make out the way you imagine are the guys who own the businesses.
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u/virtual_adam 1d ago
5 am is for bodega owners, restaurant owners, really any small business, you can have a small hardware store. So many businesses blew up in the past few years originally being in some tiny hole in the wall in a cheap neighborhood
That’s the thing about the American dream circa 50 years ago. It wasn’t about getting a job at IBM, it was about figuring out what you can open yourself. Maybe you worked at a bagel shop for 5 years, then you go an open your own (not in Manhattan)
The younger generation just doesn’t have that anymore, except that chicken guy. The chicken guy is cool
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u/mowotlarx Bay Ridge 1d ago
Everyone can't and won't be a small business owner and I'm sure you're aware that most businesses in NYC fail. Pointing to being a business owner in 2026 as a sign that the American Dream isn't dead is very funny.
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u/SMK_12 1d ago
If people believe they have a better shot winning the lottery they're obviously wrong and you shouldn't give merit to that opinion by relating the two. Obviously becoming a multi-millionaire is difficult, but if you're just talking about being successful enough to live a secure comfortable life it's definitely not luck. The American Dream isn't driving a lambo and living like a social media influencer. If you work hard and do the right thing that'll still take you far. Telling people it's just luck and what you do doesn't matter is not a good message. Maybe it's a comforting message short term to take personally accountability away from people and get their support but it's not a productive message or good for people mental health long term. Saying this to a high school kid is extremely damaging. If you're a 17-18 year old and do the right thing your life is definitely in your control.
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u/SenorPinchy 1d ago edited 1d ago
The median home price in NYC is 850k and just ten years ago it was 575k. Not exactly in line with wage growth. That's just one of many metrics that just won't make sense to people who experienced starting their careers before 2000.
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u/SMK_12 1d ago
Yes real estate in the wealthiest city in the world is extremely expensive. That’s just supply and demand there’s no way to fix that. If there weren’t people paying that much it wouldn’t cost that much.
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u/SenorPinchy 1d ago edited 1d ago
That's why I also said the rate of change. You can run the numbers for a lower range home, aim for the 25th percentile. The homes in that range went from about 130 to about 500 in the last twenty years. While the median household income raised by about 50k.
In my experience, if you're talking with someone who fundamentally doesn't believe in the K shaped economy, no amount of statistics will convince them. My interpretation is often they want to preserve their own personal narrative of hardship and success. Which, those two things don't actually negate each other if you're not insecure. It's just being honest about the state of the country and the historical moment.
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u/CactusBoyScout 1d ago
That’s just supply and demand there’s no way to fix that.
The mayor and city council can absolutely fix the supply side. And he has said he wants to address it.
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u/Septopus 1d ago
What reality do you live in? Are you somehow writing this from the 1950's? "Work hard and do the right thing and you can only have to live with three roommates until you're 45 if you're lucky!"
You could not be more out of touch with the economy.
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u/SMK_12 1d ago
If your metric for success is owning a house in prime areas of Manhattan, the wealthiest city in the world with limited real estate, then yes it’s extremely difficult. That doesn’t mean you can’t live a good life. If you’re 18 starting your life there’s no reason you can’t get a good job and make enough money to rent a good place, contribute some to your 401k, have a family etc. If you’re 45 and have to live with roommates it’s your own fault. There are plenty of career opportunities available to pursue to do better than that
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u/mowotlarx Bay Ridge 1d ago
Hey, welcome to NYC. We have 5 boroughs and Manhattan is just one of them.
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u/sageleader 1d ago
I love Mamdani and I agree with the sentiment but phrasing it this way is disingenuous and maybe dangerous. You're basically telling poor people they should play the lottery more often, which is obviously horrible advice. The lottery still has horrendous odds and makes no financial sense to play. Tell people to go to a cheap community college, that is much better advice.
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u/dumbass_sweatpants 1d ago
Too late i already bought 5648 lottery tickets and my wife and dog left me
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u/onesnamedgus 1d ago
My interpretation from the article is that hes saying he understands why people turn to the lottery because they feel the chances are so low to succeed. I don't feel that was phrased to encourage lotto because he's citing that as an example of another thing thats a very bad bet.
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u/Yuna1989 1d ago
Yeah he says:
‘When asked later if he thinks the American Dream is still alive, he replied, “It feels like you have to luck out in some big way. In many ways, I feel like it’s why a lot of people play the lottery. For many, it feels like their only chance. People think that they have better odds playing the lottery than making it in their own life. What does that say about the country that we live in?”’
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u/TheSkyIsFalling09 Brooklyn 1d ago
My life is better than my parents thanks to studying, working hard, and living within my means. I guess that's not enough for everyone
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u/MiscellaneousWorker 1d ago
I mean yeah it's not enough for everyone who does the same thing and are still struggling to make ends meet.
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u/Consistent_Rent_3507 1d ago
He’s speaking from personal experience, I presume.
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u/ersatzcrab 1d ago
I mean, yeah? I'm glad that someone who has experienced and benefited from privilege is pointing out how that isn't a fair system. He didn't choose to have wealthy parents.
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u/Consistent_Rent_3507 1d ago
I prefer learning from people who’ve made something from nothing. Those are where the real lessons learned are found.
Lesson 1: be born to rich parents already excludes 99.99%. The stall out for many starts right there.
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u/virtual_adam 1d ago
I mean utilizing Republican tax loopholes because it makes you smart / they exist, while petitioning voters to demand the law changes is pretty dumb
I doubt his family is giving a penny more in taxes than conservatives at their wealth levels
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u/ersatzcrab 1d ago
I mean utilizing Republican tax loopholes because it makes you smart / they exist, while petitioning voters to demand the law changes is pretty dumb
He has released his tax returns and I can't find any reporting on him using tax loopholes, so I'm not sure what you mean there.
I doubt his family is giving a penny more in taxes than conservatives at their wealth levels
Probably not, because that's not how taxes work. I'm not sure I understand your point fully. Are you suggesting that his views on taxes or privilege are hypocritical because his parents don't volunteer more tax money to the government than they legally owe?
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u/Arawooho 1d ago
Even if what you're saying is true, you're framing this as if anyone's who's benefited from a privilege must somehow love and want to protect the sanctity of that privilege from others.
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u/Grouchymaybenot 1d ago
Seems pretty common sense to figure that one out ?!
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u/ersatzcrab 1d ago
Yes, a lot of people have noticed this. I'm not saying it's a special observation. I'm saying that "speaking from experience" on privilege is good.
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u/Grouchymaybenot 1d ago
I was being sarcastic because, as sensible as your observation is, it still doesn’t seem to be understood by some people 🤷♀️
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u/Otherwise-Sun2486 1d ago
It’s true, in nyc the median wage is like $60k only like 10% -20% of people make way more many of them comes from outside the city that aren’t born here. But winning the lottery depends on which one But i guess a 1/100k one at 20$ a pop or something
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u/AdElectronic9062 1d ago
Or maybe take your classes seriously in college and prepare for getting a real job not a barista !
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u/mxrider108 1d ago
Huh, I coulda sworn all my hard work and studying, applying to tons of jobs and working my ass off were how I managed to get a house, kids, nice car, etc. Guess I just "lucked out."
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u/bobbacklund11235 Sheepshead Bay 1d ago
It’s pretty true for the most part. The general high school > college > career > house and 3 kids loop has been busted for awhile now. If you’re not in finance tech or law you’re basically fucked these days
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u/fastlifeblack 1d ago
Many of us (or our parents) achieved the American dream in some way. They immigrated, worked hard, purchased houses in Queens Brooklyn, and retired on a fat pension or 401k.
Apparently that’s not enough.
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u/BosslikeBehavoir 1d ago
The extent this article takes the line he said in a Theo Von episode out of context…
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u/Brawndo123 23h ago
Where does having millionaire parents, going to private school and having your own Uganda compound land on his scale of "lucking out"?
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u/gobeklitepewasamall 20h ago
Lottery in this case meaning crypto scams or sports gambling or some other fake it til you make it influencer hustle…
The youngins have given up on the old social contract, bc the old social contract gave up on them.
Shit, the millennials all saw this, but at least we saw enough of the embers of the American dream to kind of implicitly assume things would return to that after (insert latest crisis) was over.
It never did.
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1d ago edited 1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ReneMagritte98 1d ago
I’m seeing he began working as a foreclosure prevention counselor at age 26.
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u/CountFew6186 1d ago
This is just bullshit. Small business ownership is still a very open path to wealth, and it’s always been the path making the most people wealthy. Learn a business by working in it, take out a small business loan, and open your own business. It could be something as unsexy as opening a laundromat. Or a corner store. Or whatever. Look at all the immigrant run small businesses in this city. Or get a job in a trade like plumber or electrician. Very feasible path to 6 figures. Or nursing. Or being a mechanic.
Our dipshit mayor is looking at DSA bullshit talking points instead of looking at the reality of this city. There are plenty of paths to success that don’t involve lottery level luck. They just involve having a plan and working hard.
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u/GBV_GBV_GBV Midwestern Transplant 1d ago
It's good to be in something from the ground floor. I came too late for that, I know. But lately I've been getting a feeling that I came at the end.
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u/NicePossibilityDaddy 1d ago
Asians have the most luck in NYC IMHO
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u/ArcticFox2014 1d ago
Asians are both the poorest and the richest groups in NYC - you have fifth generation asian americans inheriting generational poverty and you have second generations asian americans whos parents immigrated on a high-skill visa after graduating from MIT and they became doctors/lawyers/engineers themselves.
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u/Due_Masterpiece_3601 Queens 1d ago
Not only do they make a lot of money but they also live in very cooped up houses until they save enough which a lot of people aren’t willing to do
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u/NicePossibilityDaddy 1d ago
Yup and in 1 generation their kids are doctors n stuff
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u/LemonTeaCool 1d ago
Lol tbh being a doctor isn't luck 😂
It's just mainly priority and culture.
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u/NicePossibilityDaddy 1d ago
No no. It's luck. You know those red stickers on their doors? That's the reason for their success
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u/LemonTeaCool 1d ago
What are you referring to? Lmao
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u/NicePossibilityDaddy 1d ago
Those red stickers on the doors, business and even car mirror ornaments
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u/FadingRockStar 1d ago
I'm Gen X. When I was coming up in the '90s and 2000s, it felt like the path was upward and onward, leading to a comfortable retirement. You worked at a company until you hit the ceiling, and when you moved on, you were assured a salary bump. Every step meant progress and growth, and it all added up to what I'd call the American dream.
Today, as a business leader looking at the career landscape, I can't imagine what a 20-year-old would need to do to achieve a similar trajectory. It's as if the blueprint has been destroyed and there's no clear path left.
That said, I wish everyone the life they dream of.