‘Why do Americans think we can do socialism? We have none of that in our DNA and we’re just going to screw it up.’ — Ken Griffin
Ken Griffin has a few choice things to say about socialism.
The founder of Citadel, the global hedge fund, was recently singled out in a video by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, for his ownership of a $238 million penthouse in the Big Apple. The mayor’s comments were tied to a proposal by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, to tax second homes in the city that are worth over $5 million.
As noted by the Wall Street Journal, the tax would “target wealthy individuals who own these pieds-à-terre but primarily live outside the city” and is aimed at closing the city’s $12 billion annual budget gap. In his video, Mamdani said the tax would raise at least $500 million for the city and help fund services like free childcare and improvements to street cleaning and neighborhood safety.
Speaking this week at a conference in Oslo, Norway, Griffin didn’t merely criticize the mayor for calling attention to him — Mamdani’s video showed the mayor standing outside Griffin’s building — he also questioned socialist policies in general.
“Why do Americans think we can do socialism?” Griffin said. “We have none of that in our DNA and we’re just going to screw it up.”
To be clear, socialism is not the same as democratic socialism. The former is an economic system advocating for social ownership of industry, while the latter is a political approach that blends socialist ideas within a democratic system.
And of course, policies that increase taxes on wealthy individuals are not necessarily advocated only by socialists — many Democrats, such as Hochul, have also pushed for them. But prominent democratic socialists in the U.S. have been among the loudest voices calling for such taxes.
Bernie Sanders, the independent Vermont senator, introduced the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act earlier this year with Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat. The proposed legislation calls for a 5% annual wealth tax to be levied on billionaires in America.
“At a time of unprecedented income and wealth inequality, this legislation demands that the billionaire class in America finally pay their fair share of taxes so that we can create an economy that works for all of us, not just the 1%,” Sanders said in a statement.
According to one study, there are more than 1,100 billionaires in the U.S. — the most of any country — and their cumulative net worth equals $5.7 trillion.
Recent research from University of California, Berkeley, has shown that billionaires have seen their taxes go down over time. The effective tax rate for America’s top earners dropped from 30% in 2010-17 to 23.8% in 2018-20.
“When taking a comprehensive view of taxation and income, ultra-high-net-worth individuals appear less taxed than the average American,” researchers concluded.
A number of states beyond New York have also proposed or enacted wealth taxes. California is considering a 5% tax on billionaires to fund healthcare needs.
Griffin has criticized socialist policies in the past. In 2019, he called the governmental system “one of complete failure,” pointing to issues in Venezuela. “Soaking the rich doesn’t work,” Griffin said at the time.
In Norway, where Griffin delivered his recent remarks, a strong social safety net is a hallmark of the country, which is governed as a constitutional monarchy. But capitalism thrives also there: The country’s political-economic system has been described as “cuddly capitalism.”
Citadel is behind the redevelopment of a building in midtown Manhattan that will reportedly cost more than $6 billion. The company recently raised the possibility that it will not move forward with the project, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Griffin was scheduled to meet with Hochul on Thursday. At the Oslo event, he said of the planned meeting: “We’ll talk about our future direction in New York.”
A Citadel spokesperson didn’t comment on the meeting or Griffin’s remarks in Oslo. Representatives for Hochul and Mamdani didn’t respond immediately to requests for comment.
