Other critics said it was reckless and foolish for Mamdani to call out a wealthy job creator like Griffin by name outside his residence, which he purchased legitimately and on which he already pays a king’s ransom in taxes. Casting Griffin and others as villains may be unfair and stupid, but it is very much on brand for Mamdani’s toxic strain of politics.

Many also warned that while a right-leaning billionaire might be a convenient rhetorical punching bag for the communists and socialists running New York City, their plans would inevitably exploit many people who are not among the uber-rich. As Margaret Thatcher once said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”

This endless chase leads rapacious statists to expand their search for other people’s wealth to confiscate and repurpose. Not coincidentally, Mamdani has explicitly and unpersuasively attacked this very Thatcher quote. Sure enough, it appears that it is not “just” the Ken Griffins of the world who stand to be affected by this proposed governmental money grab.

Bloomberg reports that an initial roster of more than 31,000 affected residences “far exceeds” previous estimates. How and why? Well, the criteria ensnare condo and co-op units “valued by [the city] at $1 million or more.”

One observer called this a breathtaking “rug pull,” with Heritage Foundation economist Dr. Peter St. Onge noting that it “turns out Mamdani’s wealth tax applies to any home over a million — in a city where the average home costs $823,251.” He added, “Taxing billionaires comes at ya fast.”

City Hall has taken this a step further, publishing a searchable list of roughly 960,000 names and addresses that could be subject to the mayor’s new tax, “effectively doxxing thousands of wealthy New Yorkers,” according to the New York Post. “The city’s Department of Finance uploaded the comprehensive list – which purports to cover all unoccupied, non-primary residences in the five boroughs worth north of $1 million – including the full names and addresses of every property owner.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), whose state has welcomed residents and wealth fleeing New York, called the move “definitely intentional” and a maneuver designed to “weaponize the mob against [Mamdani’s] targets.”

Longtime Democratic strategist and pollster Mark Penn also blasted the move, reminding his social media followers that “persecutions frequently begin with a list — a list that can be used by the authorities, and that is where Mamdani started — and he published it to boot. And smiled about it as though those high-value owners deserve what’s coming to them.”

Indeed, this particular communist often grins through his demagoguery, reserving his scowl for the Jewish state, with which he is obsessed.

Penn’s post continued, “But with a million people on his tax hit list, welcome to the lie of socialism — it starts with the idea that only ‘they’ are going to get it — a small group of 30,000 homeowners — and before you know it, you are on the list.”

Other people’s money, etc.

The planned taxation regime will reportedly require targets to prove that they are not part-time residents, infuriating a range of New Yorkers who received what a local outlet described as “ominously worded letters” from Mamdani’s Department of Finance.

“A wave of anxiety swept owners of residential properties and co-op units who received warning letters demanding proof of primary residency,” the City Reporter explained. “Some homeowners erupted after the administration published its roster of potentially eligible properties, accusing the Mamdani administration of performing zero due diligence before putting them on the list.”

Welcome to sloppy, unaccountable, greedy, entitled socialism. This is what many of these people voted for.

But hey, if a homeowner thinks he has been inaccurately added to Mamdani’s tax-and-shame list, he can always jump through bureaucratic hoops to try to make things right.

“Good luck fighting City Hall, especially a socialist one,” former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said in response. “How do you prove you live somewhere? The bureaucrats decide. This is how socialism starts to take control.”

Incidentally, Mamdani insists that he needs all this new revenue to pay for various projects and experiments, such as “free” buses — a major campaign pledge he has already punted on — and government-operated grocery stores, which have failed spectacularly elsewhere.

On the latter misadventure, the mayor’s administration is already scaling back expectations, warning that the wildly expensive, taxpayer-funded government grocers “may not have all the items” people typically expect to find.

GUY BENSON: TIM WALZ’S ‘WORST DAY’ DISGRACE

Experts from across the ideological spectrum have panned the plan as unworkable, but improving people’s lives is not the actual point of this ideology. Failure is seen as an irrelevancy, if not a virtue. It is the ideology itself, and the control it arrogates, that is the ultimate end.

Full speed ahead.