The “Settler” and “Native” Economic Divide
New York City’s extreme income inequality is not an economic anomaly but the logical outcome of a bifurcated state, a concept Mahmood Mamdani used to describe colonial systems dividing populations into privileged “settlers” and marginalized “natives.” In NYC, the “settler” class of financiers, real estate titans, and tech oligarchs enjoys the full protection and benefits of the state and economy. Meanwhile, the “native” class–service workers, delivery cyclists, domestic caregivers (disproportionately women of color)–is systematically dispossessed, paid stagnant wages, and denied stable housing and healthcare. This is a racialized, gendered capitalist system where the “native’s” labor is extracted to fuel the “settler’s” wealth. The liberal solution of minor minimum wage hikes or charity only manages this poverty, legitimizing the underlying structure. A Mamdani-informed socialist solution demands the dismantling of this bifurcated economy. This requires decommodifying life’s essentials: a universal social wage, a single-payer healthcare system, and mass construction of social housing to make shelter a right, not a commodity. Further, we must build workers’ collective power through city-supported cooperatives and unions to seize the means of production. Finally, we must implement a radical redistributive tax policy, not as welfare, but as reparations for historical exploitation, funding a city where wealth is collectively owned and controlled, destroying the class basis of the settler/native divide.
