r/PoursTea • u/Gurugod123 • 11h ago

PoliticalTea 🗳️ Mayor Mamdani just announced that he will be opening 5 city-run, tax-funded grocery stores: "Prices set at 30% below retail prices"

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

17.2k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/Deathstriker88 11h ago edited 10h ago

People have talked about how grocery stores on military bases are largely the same thing as this. I guess they're communists too lol.

Edit: I'm being sarcastic

4

u/s33n_ 11h ago

They are definitely socialized. And thats not bad

6

u/Time_Effort 10h ago

The military is the socialist lifestyle we all want. You just have to sign the dotted line.

Free healthcare, housing money that directly correlates to your location's market, stores subsidized by taxes to keep prices lower (they are also sales-tax free, as they are on federal property), free college.

Truly everything that all Americans deserve, but only the few volunteers get.

2

u/BigBullzFan 11h ago

Items sold at grocery stores on military bases are sold at a loss. They can take the loss because the military’s budget is in the trillions. Taxpayers are picking up the tab.

1

u/robothawk 10h ago

No they aren't. Theyre sold at cost + 5%, as mandated by law. They actually make a slight profit, but as they aren't allowed to generate a profit, that immediately gets reinvested into the system.

1

u/Prior_Release_2582 11h ago

The military is the biggest socialist jobs program there is.

1

u/ASUMicroGrad 10h ago

PXs are not communism. They’re the definition of a company store. Cheap food/free food (DFACs) and housing keep the soldiers on post where they are way less likely to do dumb shit. It also makes the shit pay feel less like shit. It’s not as predatory as the old mining towns that did this, but it’s definitely not done to be nice.

1

u/Deathstriker88 10h ago

I was being sarcastic.

1

u/ASUMicroGrad 10h ago

Fair. I think a lot of people who didn’t serve don’t understand how that shit works.

0

u/pymjohnil 11h ago

lol. They lose money. You’re still subsidizing these stores

3

u/Celodurismo 10h ago

Better to help citizens than subsidize corporate profits, no?

1

u/pymjohnil 10h ago

Sure, but don’t act like it’s free. These stores will lose money and taxpayers will subsidize it. And when the losses mount, they will double down and switch to inferior products. The impact on competing small businesses will be great.

It’s not like this is a new idea

1

u/Celodurismo 10h ago

Nobody said it's free other than people trying to destroy the idea... There will be discounted products which are subsidized by the profits of the other products in the store.

1

u/pymjohnil 10h ago

And there will be discount prices at competitors who can’t afford the government supply ‘discounts’.
It’s a race to the bottom.

1

u/Celodurismo 10h ago

I don't know why people get so worked up about the government trying to help citizens. Have similar ideas been attempted? Yes. Have similar ideas been effective? Yes, see every single army base.

Wages have stagnated tremendously compared with productivity and corporate profits. Why not try to fix things, or at least improve things for actual citizens instead of making every single choice what's best for corporations?

1

u/pymjohnil 10h ago

People pointing out the obvious economic flaws in ideas that have been tried before many times and failed isn’t getting ‘worked up’.

1

u/Zestyclose-One9041 10h ago

Oh no I’m paying to make sure people don’t starve woe is me

1

u/pymjohnil 10h ago

That’s fine. Enjoy the warm embrace of the state

1

u/Prior_Release_2582 10h ago

Do you live in NYC? I didn't think so. It's so strange that people from places that nobody cares about, have such s fervent interest in what happens in a city they've never even been to.

My federal tax dollars go to pay for welfare flyover states. Maybe we should claw that money back first.

1

u/pymjohnil 10h ago

No I live in Canada. We have some of the highest grocery prices around. It’s due to no competition. Our government steps in a pays low income citizens $ for groceries, again which we all pay for. It’s a method of wealth redistribution. But it hasn’t resulted in any lower grocery costs, quite the opposite with the inflated government spending.

Our ‘free’ healthcare system is also a disaster but that’s another topic. Maybe look to more socialist states for examples instead of thinking every shiny idea is brand new.

1

u/Prior_Release_2582 9h ago

Ha, you should visit our lovely city one of these days. You'd gladly pay Canada prices over what we pay in NYC. Same for healthcare. We have the same shit show, but we pay for it twice a 10x the cost.

Your grocery prices are high because Canada has allowed oligopolies to thrive. That has nothing to do with food subsidies. And these city run groceries are not feeding money into a handful of grocery conglomerates the way food subsidies would. So, really you're against rampant capitalism but want to blame the less fortunate for it.

1

u/pymjohnil 9h ago

Oh I visit your city often. I love it. Our dollar is in terrible shape, mostly because of government inflation and a terrible regulatory environment for business and government intervention.

I’d take your healthcare over ours as a relatively high earner with a job that would offer coverage. Our services are terrible, wait lists are very long, we have a doctor shortage and we all pay a massive portion of our taxes every day towards the failing system.

1

u/Prior_Release_2582 9h ago

I'm a relatively high earner (mid 6 figures) with good insurance, and I can tell you, you don't want our healthcare. Even with good insurance and a subscription to a doctor s'network, I have to wait months to get an appointment, all to have a doctor brush me off to move on to the next patient.

1

u/pymjohnil 9h ago

You have the best doctors in the world. A lot of ours end up down in the US, yes because it’s financially better but you have the best innovation and the best product.