Is 2026 going to be a good time to invest in a business in light of what just happened in New York City’s mayoral race?
Peter Thiel was the first outside investor in Facebook in 2004. His gain was over 4,000%.
If anybody understands capitalism, it is a guy like Peter Thiel.
He has observed capitalism becoming more and more out of favor with young people—the kind of folks who helped elect Zohran Mamdani mayor of New York City two weeks ago.
In 2020, Thiel wrote a prescient email to executives at Facebook predicting the coming rise in Socialism’s popularity among younger Americans.
The reasons that stood out to him were anger over staggering college debt and the high price of a home or apartment.
You can add many other factors that enabled Mamdani to win in New York.
Personal charisma. Two (originally three) tarnished, old, lazy candidates who opened a lane for him. The crazy cost of living, especially housing in New York City. White guilt that made a slightly brown-skinned Muslim attractive to kids who had imbibed “white colonial hatred” in elite colleges.
New York City was a juicy place for all of these factors to coalesce, but usually economic conditions decide elections. It also scares me that it may spread out of the five boroughs.
Older, richer folks who bought homes, paid off mortgages, have health insurance and IRAs probably do not understand the dream of Socialism. They know in their brains and guts that it always fails with time. But the dream continues to be attractive, and charismatic charlatans like Zohran Mamdani can sell it like a $92 million slugger in Canada hitting below the Mendoza line.
He’s a shrewd 34-year-old. Both old political parties are in disarray. Internet media gives him easy access to a vast audience.
Then throw in the problem of men who are lonely, don’t even know how to ask a woman out on a date, and live in their parents’ basement. You have a pretty ugly mess.
AI has begun to wipe out the entry level white collar jobs which were supposed to be the ramp to a well-paid career. These men do not know how to unplug a toilet. They are not going to fill the factories and drive a garbage truck to make 100 grand a year.
Peter Thiel saw this coming five years ago, but he had no easy fix to the lure of Socialism and the rise of Mamdanis.
The folly of Socialism will be revealed eventually. How long will it take? Who will be the next scapegoats?
We are celebrating 250 years of the great American experiment. There have always been fools and haters. Today Mamdani plays New York for the fool. How long will he last? Who will succeed him? Will it be worse?
Question: What do you think Trump and Mamdani will talk about when he goes to the White House today?
