Anthony Scaramucci has a message for the wealthy and powerful: fix economic inequality through market-based solutions, or watch voters embrace socialism instead.

The financier took to X on Friday to sound the alarm about rising economic hardship, invoking Franklin D. Roosevelt's legacy in the process. His argument? FDR was called a traitor to his class for implementing the New Deal, but those transformative policies ultimately saved capitalism by giving struggling Americans a safety net.

"People are hurting. FDR was once called a traitor to his class for implementing changes that we take for granted in our society today," Scaramucci wrote. "If we do not try and fix problems using market solutions, people like Zohran Mamdani will try and use socialist means to fix it."

Mamdani, for context, is a Democratic Socialist state assemblymember from New York who's been vocal about wealth redistribution and economic reform.

The Crony Capitalism Problem

In a recent interview, Scaramucci expanded on his concerns about what he calls "rampant crony capitalism" replacing the balanced approach FDR pioneered. "FDR was once called a traitor to his class, but if you really step back over the 80 years since he left the stage, you look back and say, wow, he was creating platforms, safety net-like platforms to actually protect the system. We're not doing that anymore," he said.

His evidence? The SNAP food assistance program currently supports 42 million Americans—roughly 12.9% of the population—in what he describes as "one of the richest countries in the history of the world." He's particularly critical of wealthy families worth half a trillion dollars whose workers earn wages so low they require government food assistance.

"You've got an indifferent Congress that's basically about to give the bird to those people," Scaramucci said, referring to proposed cuts to food assistance programs.

The Socialist Alternative

Here's where Scaramucci's argument gets interesting. He's not advocating for socialism—quite the opposite. He's warning that if capitalists don't solve these problems themselves, voters will turn to politicians like Mamdani and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who promise more radical solutions.

"If you don't want to fix it using market-based capitalism, what's going to happen is guys like Mandami are going to come in. They're going to beat the drum. AOC is going to beat the drum, and people are going to gravitate to their socialist causes, which of course never work throughout society," he said.

It's essentially a pragmatic argument dressed up as ideological: either the market fixes inequality, or voters will demand the government do it instead. Whether you find that persuasive probably depends on whether you think today's economic challenges resemble the Great Depression—and whether you believe bold policy interventions are still possible in today's political environment.