POLITICS: GEN Z'S WAKE-UP CALL TO CORPORATE AMERICA

SEBASTIAN LEON MARTINEZ had pounded the pavement for New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani from frigid 23-degree cold snaps in January to the 100-degree day in June when the young democratic socialist stunned the political establishment by winning the primary for the Democratic nomination.

- BY KRISTIN STOLLER

That night, Martinez, a 20-year-old NYU student, found himself "sweaty, laughing, incredibly tired" at Mamdani's victory party in Queens. It was a "monumental" moment, Martinez told me a week later. "A lot of people around me were crying and laughing," he recalled. "Talking about how we've changed the political system, not only in New York City, but probably for the entire Democratic Party in the country."

But as the 33-year-old candidate's supporters cheered Mamdani's win, business titans from Wall Street to Silicon Valley slid into panic mode at the thought of a socialist running New York City. Hedge fund billionaire Daniel Loeb warned of a "hot commie summer" in a post on X. Fellow billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman pledged to bankroll any New York City mayoral candidate capable of defeating Mamdani.

Is Gen Z rejecting capitalism outright, some wondered, as their millennial counterparts tried to do with the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011? Could Mamdani's win spark a full embrace of socialism by the next generation, fulfilling dire predictions about the imminent demise of "late capitalism"?

In a word: no. That's what I heard in a series of conversations with members of Gen Z and those who study them in the business and political spheres. Most scoffed at the notion that young people are rejecting capitalism on a large scale, or planning any kind of a revolution.

"We're not seeing young people go live on communes," said Shana Gadarian, a professor of political science at Syracuse University. "They're working at banks, they're starting gig economies, they're working in high tech. If that's not capitalism, I'm not clear what would be."

If there's a message for political and business leaders to glean from the youth movement buoying Mamdani, it's perhaps a simpler one: Stop bullshitting us.