George Will wants a clear and present example of the wonders of socialism, so he’s pushing for the Progressive-Democratic Party’s most prominent socialist (yes, even more so than Bernie Sanders (D, VT) to become mayor of New York City.

I want him to win. I think every 20 years or so, we need a conspicuous, confined experiment with socialism so we can crack it up again.

That works out to about once a generation, which I think overstates the need. Every three generations—every 60-ish years—I think would be about right; the grandfathers would still be around to help the grandchildren with the empirical outcomes of their own dabbling in socialism.

I agree with Will’s basic premise, though: let New Yorkers get the socialism they want. Let the outcome of that serve as an object lesson of the destructive and life-shortening nature of that ideology. New York City is large enough and nearby enough that the results will not be able to be ignored.

Nevertheless, to paraphrase HL Mencken, give New Yorkers what they want, good and hard.