Rent Control Destroys a City Better Than Bombing It | Nick Gillespie

**Guest** Nick Gillespie, Editor at Large, Reason Magazine **Guest Bio** Nick Gillespie is editor at large at Reason, the libertarian magazine founded in 1968 under the banner of "free minds and free markets", where he has spent 32 years making the case for limited government and individual autonomy. He hosts The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie and co-wrote The Declaration of Independents, which argued a decade ago that unaffiliated voters had become the largest bloc in American politics. The grandson of Italian and Irish immigrants who arrived in 1915, he lives in New York City, where he watched the Democratic Socialists of America take the mayor's office up close. **Show Summary** "They are beating nothing with something." That is how Nick Gillespie, editor at large at Reason, explains the sudden rise of democratic socialism in America's blue cities. The DSA has a young, motivated army and a big promise: rent control, price controls, Medicare for all. What it ran against in New York was Andrew Cuomo's sense of entitlement. On the national stage, Gillespie says, JD Vance fielded a question about expensive gas and the high cost of living without mentioning tariffs, the Iran war, deportations of the people who build houses, or federal spending that went from $4.4 trillion to $8.8 trillion in two fiscal years. Gillespie then takes apart what the socialists are actually selling. The goal is a world without billionaires, which in practice means a world without the dynamic economy that raises living standards. Price controls failed in the 1970s and everywhere else they have been tried. He also names who is buying: highly educated, mostly white, upper income voters for whom socialism is a source of meaning and a status symbol. The same generational signaling, he argues, explains why anti-Israel politics now travels bundled with the socialist package. The back half goes wider. Independents are the biggest voting bloc in America and Gillespie argues both parties are "paper mache" institutions, one captured by the DSA, the other by a backward-looking leader in Donald Trump. He defends Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos as builders rather than looters, explains why Starlink may be Musk's most revolutionary product, and closes on America's 250th year: bullish, because we always do the right thing after trying all the wrong ones. Then a warning for Jon's home state. California and New York are handing their future to Texas and Florida, and it is entirely about governance. **Chapters** 00:00 – Cold Open: Beating Nothing With Something 00:24 – Welcome: Nick Gillespie of Reason 00:30 – Why Socialism Is Rising in Blue Cities Now 01:40 – New York's Mayoral Race: Mamdani, Cuomo, and Sliwa 02:50 – JD Vance and the $100 Gas Tank Answer He Skipped 03:59 – $4.4 Trillion to $8.8 Trillion: Where Inflation Came From 04:46 – What Socialists Are Selling vs. What They Can Deliver 06:14 – Abundance: Build More Housing and Prices Fall for Everyone 07:53 – Who Votes DSA: Educated, White, Upper Income 08:37 – Symbolic Grievance and the Cost of the Wrong Degree 09:17 – Why Socialism Comes Bundled With Anti-Israel Politics 11:41 – The Right Plays the Same Signaling Game 12:27 – Independents: America's Largest Voting Bloc 12:54 – The DSA Owns the Democrats. Who Takes the GOP? 13:47 – Elon Musk, First Trillionaire: Cautionary Tale or Victory? 14:16 – Two Ways to Get Rich: Looting or Building 16:25 – America at 250: Why Gillespie Is Bullish 17:40 – One Generation Away From Losing Liberty 18:20 – California and New York Are Handing It to Texas and Florida **Connect with Nick Gillespie** - X: https://twitter.com/nickgillespie - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nick.gillespie.940 - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gillespienick/?hl=en - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-gillespie-2ba38786/ - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheReasonInterview Enjoyed the episode? Subscribe to our podcast, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and join the conversation on Instagram and LinkedIn with the hashtag #stateofgoldpodcast **Connect with State of Gold** - X: https://x.com/realjonslavet - Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en - Website: www.stateofgold.com