New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the American Dream should function as a guarantee rather than a vague hope, lamenting that it is now viewed as less attainable than winning a lottery jackpot.

Speaking in an interview on Theo Von’s podcast This Past Weekend, Mamdani warned that if the American Dream becomes an ideal perpetually out of reach, people may begin to give up on it.

The democratic socialist drew a parallel to an observation by legendary New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia during the rise of fascism Europe: people turned away from democracy not because they grew tired of liberty, but because they grew tired of being hungry.

“So if democracy doesn’t mean the better life that it has to, it’ll lose its worth. And the same thing with the American Dream: if it’s something you can only see when you turn on your TV or you hear about that one guy you grew up with who made it, that doesn’t mean enough,” Mamdani said.

That framing, he added, is why his administration has focused on making housing, child care, and groceries more affordable, calling them the “basic aspects of a good, dignified life.”

Smaller efforts also make a meaningful difference, Mamdani explained, pointing to a free night of child care that gives parents a chance to go out, or free tickets to the opera.

When asked later whether he thinks the American Dream is still alive, he replied: “It feels like you have to luck out in some big way. In many ways, I feel like it’s why a lot of people play the lottery. For many, it feels like their only chance. People think that they have better odds playing the lottery than making it in their own life. What does that say about the country that we live in?”

New York City adds a further dimension to the problem: it holds plenty of wealth even as many residents grapple with wages that have not kept up with the soaring cost of living, Mamdani noted. That is not due to a lack of opportunity, he argued—instead, that opportunity is “being consolidated.”

Mamdani has sought to tap some of the city’s wealth through an annual surcharge on luxury, non-primary residential properties, but the measure has run into legal setbacks. Last month, a judge threw out New York’s rollout of its pied-à-terre tax, ordering the city to cancel the notices it sent to property owners and restart the process of deciding who owes the surcharge. The court-ordered restart leaves the timing of that revenue stream unresolved.

Harnessing part of the city’s wealth is key to making New York more affordable, Mamdani insisted during the podcast interview.

“Because right now it feels like the city is becoming a museum—something a middle-class family can afford to visit once a month, maybe on the weekends. We want people to live here, and there’s more than enough money for everyone to be able to,” he said.

Mamdani has acknowledged that he counts among the lucky few. When asked on the Fourth of July whether he was living the American Dream, he told CNN, “I’m living one of them.”

“I think the beautiful thing about today is it’s a chance to celebrate that the promise of our nation is still true—that promise of opportunity, of freedom, of self determination,” he added. “And to be the mayor of our city today, it’s something more than I could ever ask for.”

His comments come as the affordability crisis threatens some of the key hallmarks of the American Dream, such as homeownership, a car or two, and children. While U.S. households on average still believe it can be achieved, their hopes are fading fast, and some economists see a “Great Postponement” taking hold—a stretching out of milestones such as buying a home or starting a family.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has also warned that the American Dream is in trouble, committing the New York-based banking giant to a sweeping multiyear effort to expand economic opportunity across the country. “The American Dream is alive, but it’s slipping out of reach for too many people—and for future generations,” he said in March. “This slows economic growth, hurts communities, and prevents many people from getting ahead.”

More recently, Dimon has teamed up with Ford CEO Jim Farley, who said America’s skilled-trades shortfall has become too large and too varied by region and occupation. “Skilled trades are the backbone of our country and American manufacturing, and the backbone of the American Dream,” Farley said last month. The overlap spans city hall, Wall Street, and the auto industry—different vantage points converging on the same worry about whether the American Dream remains within reach.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.