Leftists Like Mamdani Use Inequality Hustles to Hurt Your Retirement Account
“Affordability” may have been the buzzword, but really, Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayor’s race running on a simple message: the rich are stealing from you, and only the government can make it right by taking from others.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) spent 40 years on the same soapbox. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) made an academic career of it (that and exploiting her infinitesimal Native American heritage). Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) turned it into a social media empire. Inequality, they tell us, is America’s pervasive sin — and only higher taxes, more regulation, and bigger government can fix it. (RELATED: ‘Snowcialism’: Where a Nor’easter Becomes a State of Emergency)
There’s just one problem. The numbers don’t back them up.
According to Federal Reserve data, the share of wealth held by the top 1 percent barely budged this century — sitting at 29 percent in 2025, compared with 28 percent back in 2000. One percent. That’s the inequality crisis these politicians spend billions of your tax dollars and endless congressional oxygen obsessing over. (RELATED: The ‘Warmth of Collectivism’ Comes to New York)
But here’s what they don’t say: while they’ve been busy stoking class warfare for votes, leftists ignore a real and fixable inequality hiding in your 401(k) — one union allies and government-employee pension funds have quietly exploited for years.
Wealthy investors and pension funds covering government employees — including ones that pay leftist congressional staffers and New York City bureaucrats working under Mamdani — have long been able to invest in private equity, private credit, real estate, and infrastructure investments. These asset classes have outperformed the stock market over 5-, 10-, 15-, and 20-year periods. They offer diversification, steady income, and downside protection that public stocks simply can’t match.
And your 401(k)? Locked out. Rules governing 401(k) plans used by 60 million Americans actively participating in a 401(k) kept private sector workers from investing in the private market opportunities that public sector pensions and high net worth individuals do.
The American economy is increasingly private, and Washington has kept ordinary workers locked out of it.
The same politicians who give emotional speeches about leveling the playing field have done nothing to change this. While they chase headlines with wealth tax proposals that will never pass, millions of hardworking Americans are restricted to a shrinking pool of publicly traded stocks — a pool that has nearly been cut in half over the past 30 years. The number of public companies has dropped by nearly half since the 1990s. More than 80 percent of companies with more than $100 million in annual revenue aren’t listed on any exchange. The American economy is increasingly private, and Washington has kept ordinary workers locked out of it.
Meanwhile, public pension funds — the ones covering government employees who enjoy job security and benefits most private-sector workers can only dream about — have been happily investing in private markets for decades. They’re getting the returns. You’re getting the leftovers.
Georgetown’s Center for Retirement Initiatives did the math: adding just a 10 percent private market allocation across 401(k) plans would generate $35 billion in additional retirement savings annually. Thirty-five billion dollars going to American workers — not hedge funds, not government bureaucracies, not campaign donors.
The good news is that President Trump’s Department of Labor (DOL) is doing something about it. A new rule proposal just clarified and expanded access to private market investments within 401(k) plans. It’s a straightforward, pro-worker, pro-growth reform — exactly what actually helps the middle class instead of just talking about helping it. Independent Women’s Voice is gathering voices to support this DOL rule, and we hope you’ll join us by adding your voice here.
Predictably, the Left is already opposed. “Private investments are too risky,” they say. “Workers can’t handle it. You need to be protected” — by them, of course. Ignore it. The National Association of State Retirement Administrators reports public pensions with higher allocations to alternative investments have achieved stronger returns, not weaker ones. The International Monetary Fund’s 2024 Global Financial Stability Report found that private investment-backed companies showed lower default rates during economic downturns. And private investments already operate under rigorous disclosure requirements, mandatory audits, and fiduciary oversight. Americans support this; polling shows strong majorities of the public believe expanding access to private investments will help workers build wealth.
The Left’s inequality crusade has always been about political power, not economic justice. If Mamdani, Warren, Sanders, and AOC actually cared about working people, they’d be demanding every American worker get access to the same investments that pad the pensions of government employees and portfolios of the donor class. Instead, they keep the grievance machine running.
Real economic empowerment doesn’t come from a government program. It comes from giving American workers every tool available to build their own financial future. Open up the 401(k). Let workers invest like the wealthy. That’s not a radical idea — it’s freedom.
Carrie Sheffield is director of the Center for AI and Technology at Independent Women.
READ MORE:
Stock Market Wisdom, and Its Limits
Fact vs. Fiction on Medicaid and the Wealth Tax
Image licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.