Mamdani's tax database doxed wealthy New Yorkers | Hacker News Reader

Mamdani's tax database doxed wealthy New Yorkers

reason.com

9 pointsleephillips17 comments

I’m surprised how quickly these theatrics have taken a policy most New Yorkers agree with and cast it in a properly negative light, to the point that passage may now be getting jeopardized.

  > Such tax information is publicly available in New York

But look, he is doxxing!

completing the sentence from the article:

> but it's not often so neatly packaged.

If someone built an ETL data pipeline and made it public, would the same complaints apply? Or is it simply negative press against a policy unpopular with the wealthy? I believe the latter.

Wealthy NYC real estate owners weren’t doxxed, their public information is just more easily accessible. Their privilege has been challenged, which they do not like. Same reason Bill Ackman spent more on trying to defeat Mamdani then he would pay in increased taxes: it's about control and power.

> If someone

The mayor isn’t “someone.” He has a bully pulpit. If the President published a list of Americans who are e.g. foreign born, or who are registered Democrat in a particular city, that would still be problematic even if it’s something one could eventually assembly from public records.

> Same reason Bill Ackman

Ackman is a moron. Punishing a group because he’s corrupt is wrong.

(To be clear, I am not affected by this tax and pushed for its passage until now.)

The NYC Mayor’s Office publishing a list of real estate owners impacted by a publicly communicated and recently enacted tax is wrong? I find that incredibly hard to believe as a proponent of open and transparent government. My property valuations are public record, my property taxes due on those properties is public record, any exemptions are public record. This is a sql query, not a witch hunt. Should they hide the data instead? The data is already public.

I’m not in NYC, nor exposed to this tax, but I still support it, even if my name was in the dataset.

What do you think the purpose of introducing a new public tool to access the data is?

Immigration status and home address is "public information" for anyone involved in the criminal court system. How do you feel if Steven Miller or the Trump Administration created a new app to easily look up the home address of any immigrant Flagged in those systems.

One might even accuse them of doxing for political purposes

A bit of a stretch to compare an authoritarian enabling his white nationalist and supremacist supporters to harass and harm a vulnerable population vs property tax collection, no? No shared ground if you believe our examples are equivalent. Leftists aren’t going to round up the wealthy in concentration camps, pulled off the street with no recourse. The ask is simply to pay the slightly more taxes being asked, from the wealthiest who can absolutely afford it.

What do you think the point of the tool was?

To demonstrate who is funding the promises made, and that it could be done. What do you think the point was?

> What do you think the point was?

Vilification. Why was Mamdani TikToking in front of Griffin’s mansion before? It plays well with an angry base. Same goes for right-wing folks who will give you a tool to find likely DSA-voting neighbours.

The base should be angry about the current level of wealth inequality. If you think they shouldn't, perhaps you are not poor and disenfranchised enough, with no disrespect for the luck you've had achieving the level of wealth you have obtained. Griffin is a villain imho, so I see no problem with calling a spade a spade. To not be a villain is easy, it is a choice to remain one.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-wealth-gap-widest-in-three-d...

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-workers-just-took-home-2140...

https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distr...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_Unite...

(i realize this is a subjective, philosophical topic on "what is enough" and "how much unelected power should people have via incredible wealth" that we may simply disagree on)

> base should be angry about the current level of wealth inequality

Sure. This is the same argument MAGA makes. You can be angry without targeting innocent Americans. (And unless you’re solely playing to your base, this is how you turn anger into policy.)

> Griffin is a villain imho

So charge him. Tax him. Performative histrionics don’t do any of that.

I also think the Griffin stunt didn’t look great, but is fine because Griffin is a dick and can afford private security. I don’t think anyone looked at the list Mamdani just published, it’s just fodder. Again, analogous to how publishing names and addresses of likely DSA supporters would be. Legal. But also a thinly-veiled threat.

We need leaders to rise to the current anger at our political and economic system. I thought Mamdani might show that way. I was wrong.

You’re entitled to your opinion, which I can respect. It will take time to move the Overton window to get more DSA candidates elected to enact policy that more aggressively taxes the wealthy at the highest income and wealth levels. This is the process, if it doesn’t suit your tastes, that’s fine, but Mamdani hasn’t broken the law either in his “theatrics” as you call it. This is politics. Charge him if he has, otherwise they’re just complaints about speech you find distasteful (which, again, you are entitled to said opinion). "We are taxing these very wealthy people" is not the equivalent of calling for or aggressively supporting immediate physical harm of marginalized groups of fellow nation state residents.

> Sure. This is the same argument MAGA makes. You can be angry without targeting innocent Americans. (And unless you’re solely playing to your base, this is how you turn anger into policy.)

These are not MAGA arguments, which are broadly speaking, “Make the right people suffer and I’m willing to suffer as long as you’re also hurting people I don’t like.” [1] MAGA people hate, Democratic Socialists are seeking a more economically just world. I'm sure we'll continue to argue the methods long into the future as this plays out in the decades ahead.

[1] He's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

I dont get that... So that his base could send their thank you cards or what?

Jump covered my intuitions.

Edit. I would add it reads like an imitation reminder. Kind of like the mob stopping by your kids school for a friendly hello.

E.g. "Nothing gonna happen, but it sure would be a shame if you didnt play ball and someone got upset."

I'm confused how a mayor actually has the power to do these types of taxes.

Does your confusion concern the authority of the mayor, the type of tax, or both?

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