New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has warned that the American Dream increasingly feels like a lottery win, as rising living costs put home ownership, family life and other traditional markers of prosperity beyond the reach of many people.
Speaking on Theo Von’s podcast, This Past Weekend, Mr Mamdani said the American Dream needed to be a guarantee rather than an abstract hope. If people could no longer see a realistic path to a better life, he warned, they could lose faith in democracy itself.
He referred to former New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s observation about the rise of fascism in Europe: people did not turn away from democracy because they were tired of liberty, but because they were tired of being hungry.
“So if democracy doesn’t mean the better life that it has to, it’ll lose its worth. And the same thing with the American Dream: if it’s something you can only see when you turn on your TV or you hear about that one guy you grew up with who made it, that doesn’t mean enough,” Mr Mamdani said.
He said his administration was concentrating on the cost of housing, childcare and groceries, describing them as “basic aspects of a good, dignified life”. Smaller measures could also make a difference, he added, such as providing free childcare for an evening or offering free opera tickets.
Asked whether the American Dream was still alive, Mr Mamdani said: “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?”
New York affordability crisis
Mr Mamdani said New York had plenty of wealth, but that wages for many residents had failed to keep pace with the soaring cost of living. The problem, he argued, was not a shortage of opportunity but the fact that it was “being consolidated”.
His efforts to draw more money from the city’s wealthiest property owners have faced legal difficulties. A judge recently rejected New York’s rollout of a surcharge on luxury properties that are not used as primary homes, ordering the city to cancel notices sent to owners and restart the process of deciding who should pay.
Mr Mamdani said harnessing the city’s wealth was essential if New York was to become more affordable.
“Because right now it feels like the city is becoming a museum—something a middle-class family can afford to visit once a month, maybe on the weekends. We want people to live here, and there’s more than enough money for everyone to be able to,” he said.
The mayor has acknowledged that he is among the fortunate few. Asked on Independence Day whether he was living the American Dream, he told CNN: “I’m living one of them.”
He added: “I think the beautiful thing about today is it’s a chance to celebrate that the promise of our nation is still true—that promise of opportunity, of freedom, of self determination. And to be the mayor of our city today, it’s something more than i could ever ask for.”
His comments come as the affordability crisis threatens the prospect of home ownership, owning one or two cars and raising children. While US households still believe, on average, that the American Dream can be achieved, those hopes are fading rapidly, with some economists describing the trend as a “Great Postponement”.
Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan, has also warned that the American Dream is in trouble and pledged his bank to a multiyear effort to expand economic opportunity across the country.
“The American Dream is alive, but it’s slipping out of reach for too many people—and for future generations,” Mr Dimon said in March. “This slows economic growth, hurts communities, and prevents many people from getting ahead.”
Ford chief executive Jim Farley has since joined Mr Dimon in highlighting a shortage of skilled trades workers, describing skilled trades as “the backbone of our country and American manufacturing, and the backbone of the American Dream”.
