In the city where Wall Street stands as a global monument to enterprise and individual opportunity, nearly half of voters now say they prefer socialism – or at least aren’t opposed to it. A recent Fox News poll conducted in September found that only 48 percent of New Yorkers view capitalism favorably, while 41 percent have a favorable opinion of socialism. Even more alarming, a self-professed democratic socialist, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, holds a commanding 20-point lead in the city’s mayoral race, according to a Suffolk University/The Hill survey. It is a telling sign of our times: when people lose faith in God’s providence, they turn to government as their savior.

This revival of socialism in New York was born of a smoldering fire. It’s not something spontaneous. As a Princeton undergraduate, future Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan lamented in her 1981 senior thesis that the Socialist Party of New York had “exhausted itself forever,” leaving radicals “marginal and insignificant.” She warned that “in unity lies their only hope.” Decades later, her words sound prophetic. The movement she described as defeated has found new life – not through wisdom gained, but through discontent rekindled.

Many New Yorkers, especially younger ones, feel trapped by economic inequality and rising costs. Housing prices soar, student loans burden them, and wages fail to match the cost of living. Disillusioned with capitalism’s perceived failures, they see socialism as the promise of fairness and security. The influence of social media has magnified this appeal. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and X overflow with polished messaging that romanticizes “equality” and portrays capitalism as the root of all covetousness and greed. Hashtags and viral videos have replaced pamphlets and party meetings, spreading socialist ideology at lightning speed.

The COVID-19 pandemic intensified these trends. When jobs disappeared and health systems faltered, many questioned why the market economy couldn’t protect them. Socialism appeared compassionate – the kind of system that would put “people before profit.” Political figures like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders have helped make that vision mainstream, casting socialism not as radical but as a moral imperative. Their rhetoric about “justice” and “equality” resonates deeply with those who feel the system has left them behind.

But socialism’s promises come at a very high cost. It always demands greater government control, more regulation, higher taxes, and the redistribution of wealth. These may sound noble, but they actually sap incentive, stifle innovation, and erode personal responsibility. A government powerful enough to guarantee everyone’s needs is also powerful enough to dictate everyone’s choices, what jobs they take, what products they buy, and eventually what beliefs they hold. The result is not equality but dependence; not fairness but control – complete control.

New York doesn’t have to look far to see the results. In 2014, Bill De Blasio became the city’s first openly socialist mayor in generations. “Help me tax the wealthy,” he urged in a 2021 radio interview on WNYC. “Help me redistribute wealth.” His rhetoric echoed Karl Marx; his results reflected Venezuela. Businesses fled the city, the middle class was hollowed out, and crime surged. According to RedState (Dec. 23, 2020), moving companies reported that “people are fleeing the city in droves.” De Blasio’s experiment in redistribution ended in utter failure, as socialism always does. The result is inevitable.

Now, New York appears ready to double down. Mamdani’s platform calls for city-owned grocery stores, rent freezes, landlord restrictions, and free public transportation, all of which are classic socialist policies. It’s as if the lessons of history must be repeated until people painfully learn, and then some still won’t get it.

Why does socialism always fail? The answer is not merely economic. It’s theological. It’s religious. It defies one of God’s Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not steal.” That commandment affirms the sacred right to private property and the fruit of one’s labor. To confiscate wealth under the banner of fairness is to sanctify theft. Man’s dominion over his labor is part of being made in the image of God. When the state seizes what belongs to another, it commits legal robbery and desecrates human dignity.

French economist Frédéric Bastiat, in his classic 1850 work The Law, called this practice “legal plunder.” “When the law itself commits the act that it is supposed to suppress,” Bastiat wrote, “this aggression against rights is even worse.” When theft becomes policy, justice itself is corrupted. Socialists may claim compassion, but as theologian T. Robert Ingram observed in The World Under God’s Law (1978), it is merely “Robin Hood’s justice” – robbing one group to placate another. Punish productivity, and soon no one produces. Reward envy, and you destroy gratitude.

As Dinesh D’Souza quipped in United States of Socialism (2020), another attempt at socialism “feels like Elizabeth Taylor’s eighth marriage, a triumph of hope over experience.” Hope is noble, but hope misplaced becomes idolatry. When people look to government for salvation instead of God, they exchange liberty for bondage and abundance for scarcity.

Socialism is not simply a failed economic system. Let’s be clear: it is a false gospel. It preaches deliverance through the state instead of redemption through Christ. It replaces the Provider with the planner, faith with control, and grace with coercion. No society violating God’s moral law can prosper under His blessing.

The lesson of New York is the lesson of history itself: a nation that forgets “Thou shalt not steal” will soon forget freedom, too.

Sources Cited:

• Fox News Poll, Sept. 18–22, 2024 (New York City).

• Suffolk University/The Hill Poll, Sept. 2024 (New York City mayoral race).

• Elena Kagan, To the Final Conflict: Socialism in New York City, 1900–1933 (Princeton University Senior Thesis, 1981).

• Bill De Blasio, Interview on WNYC Radio, Dec. 18, 2021.

• RedState, “People Are Fleeing the Dystopian Nightmare De Blasio Created in Record Numbers,” Dec. 23, 2020.

• Frédéric Bastiat, The Law (1850).

• T. Robert Ingram, The World Under God’s Law (1978).

• Dinesh D’Souza, United States of Socialism (All Points Books, 2020).
  © Rev. Mark H. Creech