In her magnificent 2023 book *Doppelganger*, Naomi Klein describes the "mirror world" of right wing causes that are weird, conspiratorial versions of the actual things that leftists care about:
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Congress has banned Medicare and Medicaid from bargaining for pharma prices, which is why the US government pays 178% more than other governments, for the same drugs, which are often developed at public expense:
https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/comparing-prescription-drugs
The Pentagon is a cesspit of waste. It's not just firing spies and rehiring them as contractors at a 300% markup - that's just for starters. The Pentagon receives $840b/year and has failed its last three audits:
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4992913-pentagon-fails-7th-audit-in-a-row-but-says-progress-made/
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The conservative version of "efficiency" cashes out to "efficient at extracting value from public institutions, workers and customers." Mamdani's (good) mirror world "efficiency" means providing great public service through investing in public excellence.
New York City is overdue for this kind of overhaul. Everywhere you look in the city, you find high price consultants making out like bandits and starving the city of the funds it needs to deliver.
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The conservative version of "efficiency" cashes out to "efficient at extracting value from public institutions, workers and customers." Mamdani's (good) mirror world "efficiency" means providing great public service through investing in public excellence.
New York City is overdue for this kind of overhaul. Everywhere you look in the city, you find high price consultants making out like bandits and starving the city of the funds it needs to deliver.
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The Second Avenue subway spent more on consultants than it spent on digging tunnels:
Mamdani has pledged to audit the Department of Education's 25 largest contracts (the DOE spends $10b/year on outside contractors). He's rolling out "fiscal training and certification" for any government employee involved in procurement.
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The Second Avenue subway spent more on consultants than it spent on digging tunnels:
Mamdani has pledged to audit the Department of Education's 25 largest contracts (the DOE spends $10b/year on outside contractors). He's rolling out "fiscal training and certification" for any government employee involved in procurement.
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Mamdani isn't pretending he can bridge the gap Adams left in city finances through efficiency alone: to make up the difference, he will tax NYC's millionaires, and ask the state to "rebalance" its relationship with NYC (NYC contributes 54.4% of the state budget, but only gets 40.5% in return).
As Lynch writes, NYC was the birthplace of austerity-driven outsourcing, following from the city's bankruptcy in 1975. 50 years later, Mamdani is bringing that age to a close.
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Mamdani isn't pretending he can bridge the gap Adams left in city finances through efficiency alone: to make up the difference, he will tax NYC's millionaires, and ask the state to "rebalance" its relationship with NYC (NYC contributes 54.4% of the state budget, but only gets 40.5% in return).
As Lynch writes, NYC was the birthplace of austerity-driven outsourcing, following from the city's bankruptcy in 1975. 50 years later, Mamdani is bringing that age to a close.
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Mamdani knows what the stakes are, too. He called efficiency "the most paramount left-wing concern, because it is either the fulfillment or the betrayal of that which motivates so much of our politics":
https://www.derekthompson.org/p/what-speaks-to-me-about-abundance
Mamdani is reviving the tradition of "sewer socialism," a governing philosophy based on "bringing people into your politics by improving their lives in obvious ways":
https://jacobin.com/2025/12/digital-sewer-socialism-public-ownership
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Mamdani knows what the stakes are, too. He called efficiency "the most paramount left-wing concern, because it is either the fulfillment or the betrayal of that which motivates so much of our politics":
https://www.derekthompson.org/p/what-speaks-to-me-about-abundance
Mamdani is reviving the tradition of "sewer socialism," a governing philosophy based on "bringing people into your politics by improving their lives in obvious ways":
https://jacobin.com/2025/12/digital-sewer-socialism-public-ownership
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Sewer socialism, public excellence, real efficiency: these are the (good) mirror world versions of the right's obsession with "government efficiency." On the conservative side of the mirror, "efficiency" is an excuse for hamstringing government employees and turning their budgets over to lazy, crooked contractors.
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Sewer socialism, public excellence, real efficiency: these are the (good) mirror world versions of the right's obsession with "government efficiency." On the conservative side of the mirror, "efficiency" is an excuse for hamstringing government employees and turning their budgets over to lazy, crooked contractors.
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On the left's side of the mirror, "efficiency" is building capacity in democratically accountable institutions that care about helping *every* person, and who deliver tomorrow's excellence by making long-term investments today.
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On the left's side of the mirror, "efficiency" is building capacity in democratically accountable institutions that care about helping *every* person, and who deliver tomorrow's excellence by making long-term investments today.
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Image:
DAVID ILIFF (modified)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_York_Midtown_Skyline_at_night_-_Jan_2006_edit1.jpgCC BY-SA 3.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/eof/
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In her magnificent 2023 book *Doppelganger*, Naomi Klein describes the "mirror world" of right wing causes that are weird, conspiratorial versions of the actual things that leftists care about:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/05/not-that-naomi/#if-the-naomi-be-klein-youre-doing-just-fine
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/24/mamdani-thought/#public-excellence
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@pluralistic Cory, have you considered using the “quiet public” visibility for the follow-ups instead of posting all of the 30+ replies as spoilers? This way, only the first one would appear on our timelines but all would be quotable and we wouldn’t have to click “reveal” on the replies to read the thread.
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@pluralistic Cory, have you considered using the “quiet public” visibility for the follow-ups instead of posting all of the 30+ replies as spoilers? This way, only the first one would appear on our timelines but all would be quotable and we wouldn’t have to click “reveal” on the replies to read the thread.
@patrys You've fallen prey to the most pernicious urban legend of the Fediverse. While that would be a great way for that flag to work, it's just not. More here, along with tips on thread management and places to find my work elsewhere if you'd prefer to unfollow me here:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/16/how-to-make-the-least-worst-mastodon-threads/
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@patrys You've fallen prey to the most pernicious urban legend of the Fediverse. While that would be a great way for that flag to work, it's just not. More here, along with tips on thread management and places to find my work elsewhere if you'd prefer to unfollow me here:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/16/how-to-make-the-least-worst-mastodon-threads/
@pluralistic TIL! Thanks for the tip about timeline filtering though.
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