The US was never a paradise on earth, but it did manage to create a system of mass prosperity of such a level that other nations could not even dream of.
An era is ending for the United States, and New York, the city that has always been the symbol of American power, has become the first turning point of the great American experiment. The election of Zohran Mamdani, a Socialist, as a city mayor constitutes not just an upset, but the acceptance of a reality that most Americans avoided for decades: the American dream has faded. Just as the Soviet experiment collapsed under the weight of its own grandiosity, so too are the United States sinking into the cynicism of the system that gave birth to the world's most powerful economy. The problem is not that the model failed; the problem is that the end of the great American dream is inevitable. And no matter how hard they try to hide it behind the luster of wealth and promises, the truth is now apparent: the American system, with its unrestrained market and relentless capitalist vision, is collapsing under the weight of inequality and disillusionment.
The question is simple: will America manage to find its way again, or will it follow the same course and share the fate that other great empires had before it?
Mamdani's victory
In an ironic way, Zohran Mamdani's victory, the first socialist in the elections for mayor in New York, coincided with the anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia. The 20th century in Russian history has almost ceased to be a bone of contention in Russian society. In fact, they have reached a broader agreement, according to which the Soviet project is considered a massive socioeconomic and political experiment with great successes, but which ultimately resulted in collapse for objective reasons.
The same for the US?
Exactly the same can be said for the United States. The victory of Zohran Mamdani in the New York elections marked the turning point, which we can designate as "the end of the great American project." The Soviet Union attempted to build the ideal society based on exaggerated socialist rules, while the United States did the same, but with the principles of classic "wild" capitalism.
The vast, sparsely populated (the "problem" of the natives was solved by genocide), rich in natural resources, and with an excellent climate region became the ideal ground for building a system of pure capitalism: maximum freedom for private initiative, minimal state regulation, and complete individual responsibility for one's life—from income to healthcare.
And it worked.
It was not an earthly paradise
The United States was never a paradise on earth, but it did manage to create a system of mass prosperity of such a level that other nations could not even dream of. In the golden age of the US, 18-year-old Americans would leave home, find their first job (as apprentices in garages or waitresses in cafes), and this income allowed them to rent a decent dwelling and generally live with dignity. If a high school graduate went to university, they could earn enough money during the summer holidays to pay for the next semester. If someone got sick, they went to the hospital, and for a very reasonable fee, they received high-level medical care. Even beyond the countless stories of self-made millionaires, hard, honest work—whether as a factory worker or a supermarket cashier—ensured the almost absolute majority of people the fulfillment of the American dream: a comfortable home in the suburbs, two cars per family, a wife/homemaker, and a few children under the responsibility of the head of the family, a mortgage until the age of 30, and prospects for continuous improvement of life in the future.
"Communist" a slur and a stigma
Precisely because this system worked, a unique situation was created in the United States: a stable social coalition based on classic conservative principles. Both the working man and the wealthy person from Wall Street considered ideas for a public healthcare system or for increasing the social protection of wage earners equally harmful, and the word "communist" was a slur to Americans and the "stigma" they attached even to the mildest leftist views.
Collapse
The American systemic failure had been around for a long time, but over the last two decades, it has completely collapsed. Real estate became so expensive that owning a home turned into an unattainable dream for the majority of young Americans, while rent consumes most of the salary. Higher education, from a means of social ascent, turned into a permanent financial commitment that has trapped almost all young people.
The debt of Americans and the burden of debt for households became so disheartening that even an additional expenditure of 100 dollars can plunge an average family into a financial crisis. Healthcare in the United States turned into a scarecrow for the whole world, while Americans themselves began to realize that their healthcare system had gone beyond them and had reached somewhere very wrong.
The simple cause of the failure
The reason why the great American project failed is simple. Americans believed (and about half the nation still believes) that the main reason for their country's success was the principles of "wild" capitalism, which encourage individual initiative, entrepreneurship, and diligence.
In reality, however, the determining factor was the American land—the same "unreasoning," rich, and fertile land. Its resources proved so vast that they covered almost two centuries of rapid development and prosperity for the entire nation. However, in the 21st century, this potential was exhausted, and the United States returned to the crossroads of human history, which is simple and sad: in a situation of limited resources, "wild" capitalism breeds heavy social inequality, with the complete disillusionment of the poor and oppressed classes.
Social division
This, in turn, causes their radicalization, social division, and the risk of destabilization of the entire political system. The rest of the world did not evolve to the current state from a good life, but had learned from many centuries of relentless uprisings, revolutions, and bloody civil wars, from the millions of victims of the struggle for social justice. Now, the United States must traverse the same path. New York, where the above problems are manifested with the maximum concentration, became the first "canary in the coal mine." There is, however, an observation: based on the victory of the socialist Mamdani and his program to "take from the rich white people and share it," it seems that many Americans are ready to turn not just towards leftist ideas, but towards the most radical leftist ideas. This is a questionable choice, and Russia's history can confirm it.
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