“Today I want to outline a Working People’s Agenda,” proclaimed New York City mayor Eric Adams, beginning his second State of the City address.

It sounded for a moment as if the mayor had joined the New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA). Not only was he proudly pledging allegiance to the working class, he also said, “We want to move forward into a new era of abundance,” exactly the same words that NYC-DSA spokesperson Harrison Carpenter-Neuhaus used in his interview with Jacobin last week.

The mayor has a working-class background and credibly speaks about working-class experiences. He was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and raised in Jamaica, Queens. His mother was a house cleaner, and he was beaten up by cops at fifteen. And he’s right to suggest that a working-class agenda and an “era of abundance” is exactly what’s needed after decades of plutocratic rule in this city — and this country. But the mayor’s proposed budget, unfortunately, does not serve working people. Far from inaugurating an era of abundance, it looks like austerity as usual.