As the Mamdani candidacy seems to be cruising to victory, perhaps it’s time for the people of New York City to pause and reflect on the insanity they are about to unleash.

Mamdani -- like almost every politician -- has a plan to solve something. One might reasonably ask these wannabe planners what direct experience they have in these specific areas. 

From my observation I don’t see much Mamdani has accomplished anywhere, so why should anyone believe he has some glorious, workable plan to reduce the cost of living for millions of New Yorkers?

It seems he believes he alone has the personal power to repeal the laws of economics and prove wrong hundreds of years of actual experience across the globe. And of course, like many before him, the plans are always top-down, i.e. do what I say and everything will be great!

But someone please ask him, AOC, Bernie, Warren and others, how did they come by this expertise that forms the basis of their plans? Have you done similar things in the past? Years and areas of expertise? Success stories? Forecasting accuracy for both costs and outcomes for past similar plans? What happens if the plan doesn’t work out, i.e. what is Plan B and C? References?

You’d probably ask similar things of anyone who came to your home pitching this or that home improvement project. 

Yet in politics there seems to be an almost direct correlation between the planner’s lack of knowledge and experience and their certainty of the plan. History, and more than a few cemeteries, are littered with the calamities created by those of little knowledge and experience but great certainty. If given power, there might not be a more dangerous type of person on the planet.

In the private sector these types of folks can hurt only themselves and those foolish enough to voluntarily support them. In the for-profit world they don’t last very long. But politics is different. 

The plans these politicians are proposing are coercive by their very nature and like all government actions ultimately enforced at the barrel of a gun. Disagree? See what happens if you refuse to comply.

Why would any free person support this process? No one would do it in their real lives. 

“So let’s see… You don’t have any experience, have never done it before, in fact have never done anything like it before, if fact it’s not even remotely certain it can be accomplished by these means… but sure, here’s a good chunk of my income for you to operate on my child… or put a new roof on my house… or tune up my car.” 

No one lives like that. No one makes decisions like that. Only in politics. Does politics exist outside normal reality? If not, this is an insane process.

And we aren’t talking peanuts as regards these plans. These “planners” toss around numbers like trillions as if it were no big deal. I doubt if they have any true understanding of how large a number a trillion is. I doubt if most humans do.

The universe is “only” 13,800,000,000 years old. A single trillion, 1,000,000,000,000 is over 72 times larger than the age of the universe!

Only a foolish -- or power-hungry -- person would want to take blind risks of this nature which will directly impact the lives of hundreds of millions. And whose failures could put the freedoms and economic security of the entire nation, in fact the entire world, at risk.

But lack of knowledge and experience -- to say nothing of a terrible track record -- be damned! I’m a politician, I have a plan and I’m certain. God help us all.

John Conlin is an expert in organizational design and change. He also holds a BS in Earth Sciences and an MBA and is the founder and President of E.I.C. Enterprises. He has been published in American Greatness, The Federalist, The Daily Caller, American Thinker, the Houston Chronicle, the Denver Post, and Public Square Magazine among others.

Image AT via Magic Studio