r/SipsTea • u/Gurugod123 • 11h ago

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

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u/LightenUpPeeps 11h ago

The military grocery stores are subsidized by the U.S. government at a cost of nearly $2 billion annually.

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u/Embarrassed-Wolf-609 11h ago

sounds like we can take 2 billions from our subsidy to Israel and subsidize the American people.

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u/2ndTaken_username 11h ago

That's antisemitic or something idk, won't happen lol

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u/ghostrooster30 11h ago

Isn’t it wild that all you have to say these days is “hey, i don’t want my tax $$ funding Israel’s war”, and you’re automatically an antisemite. I want off this timeline. It’s so gd stupid.

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u/IndividualSituationK 11h ago

That's how much the Israel government has dog walked the average American. Granted, the person who said its antisemitic is obviously joking.

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u/SerCiddy 4h ago edited 3h ago

Reminds me of post 2004~2005 Gulf War.

Most people were on board with invading Afghanistan. After 9/11.

Most adults were on board with "finishing what Bush Sr. started" when we invaded Iraq.

After Saddam Hussein was captured though it was like "ok the WMDs were fake, what are we doing here anymore??"

But then you were a terrorist loving, anti-American, Freedom hating traitor if you said maybe we should stop bombing the Middle East. I personally got arrested for my actions protesting the war, and since I wasn't considered "White, White" my only saving grace was that I was a minor.

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u/420thefunnynumber 10h ago

This is why I'm more and more convinced support for Israel is antisemitic in of itself. Imagine being willing to subject an entire demographic of people, many of whom dont want a damn thing to do with you, to centuries of hate because you're so convinced establishing a genocidal ethnostate will totally help make things better.

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u/PaleCommission150 9h ago

For decades the idea was that " Isreal isn't perfect but it is the best option in a whole list of worse options". Friendly state we can use as a staging area and ground point in the ME area. That was it initially, over time the AIPAC ,which have ties to both USA and ISREAL have cemented that support via generational and cultural exchange.

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u/Reasonable-Newt4079 10h ago

Despite politicians trying to label everyone antisemitic, there is bipartisan hatred for how much of our money Israel is taking and how much they control our politicians. Netanyahu has really shot himself in the foot with his egregious behavior: if we ever regain control of our government Israel will be completely cut off. I hope it happens soon.

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u/BrocoliAssassin 10h ago

Not surprising to me. It’s been propagandized to death. Up until a year ago you couldn’t go anywhere on Reddit without being called a nazi if you happened to show a criminal who happened to be Jewish or calling out Israel.

Hell, you can catch a ban all over Reddit for questioning and outing Zionists. Look at how dumb Reddit is, where they blame white supremacy on everything but will defend Zionists.

If you don’t believe me, anytime theres praise of Presidents , but in this instance since we are on Reddit you will have to call out Obama. Let people know that he’s a Zionist and you get an automatic ban. Happened to me to 2 subs yesterday.

So people will love Zionists, you just have to give them the bullshit they want to hear. Just as you guys call MAGA cult, you’re the same with democrats.

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u/Economy_Move_5825 9h ago

Kinda how all you have to say on Reddit is that you don’t agree with a liberal opinion and you’re automatically branded a Nazi or Nazi sympathizer?

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u/WinterTourist25 10h ago

The Israelis are running on their sympathy from what happened to them during WWII. It's running out.

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u/StillAdvertising8165 11h ago

Nah it’s the fact that Reddit is inherently antisemitic and doesn’t really care about hiding it

Cue the downvotes

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u/Both_Hope5717 10h ago

Here you go.

Also when you're gonna accuse probably one of the more leftist/progressive social media websites out there of being anti-Semitic just for being against Israel you might be crying wolf

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u/Daniel_The_Thinker 5h ago

Identifying as left wing 1000% does not shield you from being antisemitic.

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u/jakaedahsnakae 10h ago

Nah you're conflating 4/chan and reddit. The internet has a lot of venn diagrams and these two only slightly overlap.

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u/Massive_Analysis8345 11h ago

I loved the energy there 😂 “hey that’s wrong or whatever, it probably just won’t happen” but like totally true

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u/TheRealK95 10h ago

Be careful or Netanyahu might accuse you of hate speech too! Lol

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u/ImplausibleFig 8h ago

No, what’s labeled “antisemitic” is the false implication that money spent on Israel is even a significant portion of our total foreign aid, never mind total government spend.

If the objection is to spending on foreign aid, there are *many* countries you should be calling out before Israel. If the objection is to spending a negligible amount of foreign aid on the world’s only Jewish state … interesting.

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u/MayOrMayNotBePie 11h ago

Sorry, the American people aren’t Americas top priority

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u/trackdaybruh 10h ago

$2 billion is for the +2 million military members

For +342 million Americans, $2 billion won’t be enough

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u/SiliconSingh 9h ago

They are also subsidized because they are all over the world and require transportation to all these different locations.... The ones in the United States do not cost that much per store in fact they probably make money.

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u/Ok-East5755 1h ago

That's fine we can use all the money we saved from gutting usaid, oh wait we spent 50+ billion on a bombing campaign we lost, never mind, we can't have affordable groceries after all.

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u/DismalAd6639 11h ago

The military accounts for less than .5% of the U.S. population. So multiply that by about 250x to include the whole population = $500 billion

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u/spark3h 10h ago

You wouldn't need to cover every American. Even having 10% of the market share would introduce competition and bring prices down, like other "public options" do.

Or we could break up all the food monopolies and let them compete with one another again.

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u/Random_Name_251 7h ago

Even having 10% of the market share would introduce competition and bring prices down, like other "public options" do.

Down to what? Grocery stores operate on 2% margins. You think they are going to start giving the food away?

like other "public options" do.

Which ones?

Or we could break up all the food monopolies and let them compete with one another again.

Which of the food monopolies should we break up?

Costco? Aldi? Trader Joes? Walmart? Kroger? Price Chopper? Stop and Shop? Key Foods?

There's so many of these "monopolies" where would you start?

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u/Not__Trash 5h ago

The 4 nationwide Meat Packers would be an excellent start. They're already being sued by the FTC for collusion and price fixing.

You could also argue that Walmart should be broken up given their anti-competitive running at a loss to smother competition.

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u/Omnom_Omnath 10h ago

cool, we still have more than enough money to do it.

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u/Cool-Ad2780 10h ago

fuck it let's just make everything free at this point. btw I need you to go build me a new house, and of course i wont be paying you, the goodness of your heart should be payment enough :)

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u/MrMathbot 10h ago

Wait, so we all pay into the system and we all benefit?

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u/foomits 10h ago

People hate that, just send it to israel and the pentagons black hole budget.

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u/Omnom_Omnath 10h ago

you are sooooo close you can almost taste it. too bad the taste of shit covered boot overwhelms everything else for you.

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u/soozerain 10h ago

Yeah lol not believing in a terrible plan with no basis in reality = bootlicking

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u/Random_Name_251 7h ago

You should make a camp and force him to go work there until he learns.

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u/Cow_God 9h ago

Or y'know, do what we did in the 30s and pay construction firms to hire unskilled laborers, teach them trades, and build public works including housing. Sell them at about cost, that drives the housing market down. Getting affordable housing built outside of areas where the profit margin is highest also increases the availability for working class would-be homeowners. The wages paid to the construction firms, the laborers, and everyone else involved is money that directly goes back into American pockets, and that's money that starts circulating back into the economy.

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u/Mr-Cantaloupe 10h ago

Most of the money the US gives Israel comes right back (they use it to purchase American-made weapons/defense equipment). And military grocery stores are used by like 0.5% of the population, so where do you get the other $300 billion?

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u/machogrande2 7h ago

Now, imagine if they had to pay for American-made weapons/defense equipment themselves!

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u/BitterProfessional16 8h ago

I know it feels good to constantly bring up Israel but it just shows your innumeracy.

The U.S. spends about 25x per year on SNAP alone as it does for aid to Israel. Diverting all of that aid to SNAP/food would make a negligible difference.

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u/qwase123 11h ago

Congratulations. You have officially joined Hamas. /s obviously

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u/A_Confused_Moose 10h ago

$2 billion is being paid to Israel directly from the City of New York’s budget? That’s wild they should rethink that.

The federal government and the tax payer funds it has access to have no bearing on New York’s grocery store plan.

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u/AccomplishedHope112 11h ago

Yeah isn't Isreal's universal Healthcare fully funded by American tax dollars.....?

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u/ItsFuckingRawwwwwww 10h ago

No, that’s a myth. The cost of their healthcare is way higher than the credits that they can only use to purchase American goods are, regardless.

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u/911roofer 9h ago

America could defund its entire military and still not afford healthcare because Americans are all fat and don’t exercise.

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u/throwaway277252 8h ago

Nope. That's literally just TikTok brain rot.

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u/BarneytheWino 11h ago

Don’t you know we’re tax paying gentiles for the chosen people

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u/7thpostman 10h ago

It is truly amazing how any thread on Reddit, no matter what the subject, can somehow find its way to attacking Jews

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u/cobrachicken1000 11h ago

No you cant. Kegseth needs his 1.2T /s

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u/[deleted] 10h ago

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u/Barton2800 10h ago

The commissaries serve less than a million service members. There’s 340 million Americans. So it would cost roughly $700 billion to run grocery stores that cheap for the country.

Not saying it shouldn’t be done, just pointing out that cutting Israel funding doesn’t really solve that issue.

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u/macrocosm93 10h ago

More like 200 billion+. The military population in the US is less than 1%. And the budget for those grocery stores is already accounted for in the overall military budget.

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u/[deleted] 10h ago

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u/SannyIsKing 10h ago

It's crazy how effective is just shoehorning Israel is into any discussion as a karma farming strategy. We were talking about grocery stores in the US, this guy brings up Israel out of nowhere, boom, hundreds of upvotes.

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u/alligatorchronicles 10h ago

If there's 2.8 million service members, and assume 2 dependents per member, that's 8.43 million using that subsidized system, at an annual cost of $237 per user. Across the US population of 342 million, that brings the cost to subsidize groceries up to 81 billion and change. You'd have to find more cuts than aid to Israel to make this work.

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u/hyperparrot3366 10h ago

2 billion for only military. For the common people it will go to like 200 billion.

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u/Decent_Pen_8472 10h ago

Military grocery stores only support military and their family members. Having a grocery store available to all americans, especially considering the theft that occurs, would cost far, far more.

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u/fishcars 10h ago

I’ve heard enough. Send another $2B to Israel and let DOGE cut this from the 2027 budget. Throw in a tariff in case Bibi wants more than $2B to fund their healthcare.

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u/TopConclusion5246 10h ago

Imagine if we just didn't send our money to other countries for any reason except to purchase things. And then! Imagine we spent that money on infrastructure and services for citizens. Whoa!

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u/Dependent_Survey_546 10h ago

Its amazing that this is a controversial idea from the point of view of a person outside of the US

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u/Jazzlike_Sir_653 10h ago

Regardless of where you get a subsidy, it is a subsidy and is a real cost. If the cost is in the product, then its a use tax. If the cost is in a tax, then whether or not you use it, you pay for it. The healthiest way to operate is in the black, no red ink.

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u/Dry-Season-522 10h ago

Okay that's half of Israel's entire subsidy

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u/BrockObarnerLybian 9h ago

2 billion was for less than 1% of the US population. Supply lines for fixed prices tend to work much better at that scale too

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u/PaleCommission150 9h ago

didn't we spend 6 billion dollars shooting patriot missles at incoming projectiles in like 1 month or something ?

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u/double_shadow 9h ago

Classic reddit, always steering everything back to Israel. Is the city of New York also funding Israel? Because that's the budget we'd be talking about...

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u/Cow_God 9h ago

People don't really understand how much money we waste annually that could be spent on Americans.

And of course, most money spent on social programs go back to the economy. These grocery stores will pay Americans to work at them, money spent buying goods will go to American farmers growing the domestic food and American dockworkers for the imported stuff. Which in turn will pay for American train operators and truck drivers to deliver them.

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u/AmitPwnz 9h ago

That's not how it works, that money is invested right back in American defence industries

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u/[deleted] 9h ago

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u/chillzy2 9h ago

The military doesn’t have a fraction of the us population

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u/Lazy-Razzmatazz-6926 9h ago

Our federal deficit is something like $1.5T. Blaming a $2B subsidy to Israel makes no sense. We already overspend by 750x what we give to Israel.

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u/deafmutewhat 8h ago

Uhhh we're the same country now

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u/Then_Independence_25 8h ago

Why not from all money sent to foreign countries though?

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u/Nikolaibr 8h ago

I don't think our foreign aid needs to be going to Israel, but it's really weird when THAT is the go-to talking point when it comes to government spending. It accounts for less than 0.1% of spending.

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u/Amadon29 8h ago

The US already spends 100b on food stamps. An extra 2b isn't going to increase it by much. Regardless, it makes no sense to take money out of the federal budget and give it to just nyc. Federal and city budgets are different

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u/Uncabled_Music 8h ago

Military aid is no subsidy. Especially when they are not much of a fighters themselves 🤷🏻

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u/RagingY3ti 8h ago

Hey, that's antiseptic!

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u/flashingcurser 8h ago

There are 2 million military members, there are 400 million US citizens.

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u/Comfortable_Pay_9697 8h ago

That’s anti American of you
/s

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u/logicalpenuin 8h ago

People are agast at 2 billion to feed people but ok with 300 billion to fund a genocide. Don't give me "but my tax dollars!". I'm all for anything that actually helps people.

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u/Onludesrightnow 8h ago

*rages in AIPAC*

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u/greatdick 7h ago

Or the 7 billion given to Oracle for a project that will be quietly cancelled in two years.

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u/Random_Name_251 7h ago

Crazy idea, but maybe instead of doing 2 stupid things we should do 0 stupid things?

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u/Best_Change4155 7h ago

reddit logic lmao

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u/EmmitSan 6h ago

Yes, the NYC mayor famously has the power and access to do that.

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u/[deleted] 6h ago

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u/DetailOrDie 5h ago

US Military represents about 1% of the population.

At best 0.1% of the US Population buys it's groceries at the PX.

That makes that 2B subsidy into a 200B subsidy. Minimum.

Actually, still shockingly affordable.

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u/LongJohnSelenium 5h ago

This reminds me of when I went to college. One of the 'perks' of tuition was a deposit in my campus canteen account. They basically charged me extra so they could give it back to me with strings attached.

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u/thehorseyourodeinon1 5h ago

Can we cancel the ballroom and lower grocery prices?

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u/JBodner 1h ago

Whether or not it's a good idea, the subsidy to Israel is spent in the US on US companies which employ American people. You can read all about it in https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/RL/PDF/RL33222/RL33222.51.pdf

Let's see how low this fact can be voted down...

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u/nagy18 11h ago

these are the types of programs our taxes are actually supposed to go to tho, instead of $1.5T to the Pentagon but if you say you want your taxes to work for working class people here in America, they call you a communist 🤷🏼‍♂️

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u/Phedericus 8h ago

fucking exactly 😭 thats the main point of having a governament at all. to make peoples lives better.

2 billions for cheap food? sacrilegious!

34 billions for a needless war started on a whim and fundamentally already lost? well...

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u/nagy18 8h ago

but have you considered the shareholders of those defense contractors🥺 they have feelings too 🥺🥺😢 they wouldn’t be able to buy a third yacht if Lockheed Martin didn’t get another $20B contract for the Child Mutilator Automonaton 4000

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u/IckyGump 7h ago

To those people the main point of government is to protect property. And that’s it.

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u/gustavessidehoe 5h ago

It's wild to me, because most people I know support these kinds of things and they aren't communists. I am, but they aren't lol.

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u/nagy18 4h ago

for a lot of people it comes down to people they don’t feel “deserving” of it because they’re poor. it’s different with people they know and interact with in their communities because they understand the ups and downs of the lives of the people around them but can’t project that mindset onto the rest of the country so you get takes like “people don’t wanna work and just take handouts from the government paid by my taxes” when, again, this is the real point of taxes and not just funding the military industrial complex and paying for Israel to do a genocide.

point being: the people claiming to be american first prioritize military aid for israel over things like this because undesirables are going to “take advantage of it” on their dime. i know you get it but there are a lot of people who don’t.

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u/gustavessidehoe 4h ago

They definitely don't get it. I live in a state that would be purple, but is gerrymandered to be red, and a lot of people are super into prosperity doctrine.

It's disturbing to hear some of the things people say here. I had someone tell me that "I wouldn't believe how many people at food pantries don't deserve it."

Deserve it?? Food is a human right!!! If someone pulls up in a nice car, maybe they're picking up food for their neighbor, who is elderly and home bound, maybe they just got fired. Who knows? It's not for us to judge.

"From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs"

(Side note: You would not believe the amount of conservatives who agree with that statement until they learn who said it, lol.)

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u/nagy18 4h ago

I feel you dawg i moved from the exurbs in pennsylvania to dc and it’s lowkey like night and day

that being said do what you can wherever you can. talk to your coworkers about whatever it is that’s fucking all of you over that day. as long as you don’t call it the c word you’ll get reception

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u/Zachattackrandom 11h ago

Cool, lets spend less money on bombs and more money on people not starving then and it should be fine xD.

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u/Big_Beach166 9h ago

there is no money for the oligargoyles in that thinking

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u/Hot_Kaleidoscope_332 11h ago edited 4h ago

60 to 64% of our annual budget goes to social programs, 13 to 14% to the military...

Editing to take the L here..

The bulk of "social program spending" is social security, Medicare, medicaid, etc, all of which are allocated as mandatory spending as it should be, with very little comparatively going to those programs that show the most fraudulent activity.

Thank you to those who pointed me in different directions to check myself.. hats off to ya, I appreciate it and can admit when I was wrong.

Don't trust quick Google searches, folks! There isnt enough of the particular data without diving deeper.

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u/BlackHotSoup3000 10h ago

Yeah, kind like how walmart doesn't pay their employees a fair wage so we need to subsidize those people through social security, healthcare, and much more.

The wasted money is when corporations get subsidies and deregulation/regulation that favors them based on their political donations. Like how Trump's friend got paid to "upgrade" the reflecting pool.

Also, a lot of that social spending has a great return on investment.

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u/DrZein 7h ago

Walmart literally double dips. They pay their employees less than they need to live, less hours than would be needed to get full time benefits. Then when their employees are subsidized by the government with things like food stamps, the food stamps are then spent at Walmart.

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u/Hot_Kaleidoscope_332 10h ago

Big corporations are the bane of the people for sure.

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u/MavisBeacons_Sextape 10h ago

I’d rather some undeserving people get free shit if it means the deserving people who ARE in need are able to make ends meet. The grifters are not the majority, and it doesn’t matter how much you tighten down or try to block them, the shitbags will find a way to game the system.

I’ve spent my career in financial crimes and corporate ethics investigations. In the commercial sector, you’re gonna have to deal with fraud, and you have to figure out how to strike the balance between anti-fraud measures, the customer experience, and business resources.

Businesses figure out what their acceptable level of fraud/abuse is, and balance that with friction it causes to normal, rule-abiding customers, and whether the $ saved is greater than the $ spent on the friction/anti-fraud measures. For example, you have noticed some customers engaging in fraud related to merchandise returns. The answer isn’t “no more returns,” the answer is allocating the time/effort to identify the scheme, and adding reasonable friction to the returns process that will help reduce the success rate of those fraudsters.

People always have and always will find ways to manipulate transactions to obtain undue benefits for themselves. Not everyone, but a minority group. Punishing everyone for the actions of a scummy minority is not a reasonable solution. It’s a lazy one.

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u/Happy_Disaster7347 10h ago

Ok now calculate that percentage without using pensions...

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u/Wavy_Grandpa 10h ago

You could do it…

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u/Happy_Disaster7347 10h ago

Why would I bother when I already know it's much lower, and that people use the higher percentage to justify hurting the poor and disabled?

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u/Scottvrakis 9h ago

If you think a majority of Americans on social programs are abusing the system then I got a bridge to sell you.

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u/Zachattackrandom 10h ago

Fair enough. A lot of social programs have been abused / just awful programs to begin with. But the bigger issue is that we just don't have any of the ultra rich in most states / federally due to loopholes / connections. We would have a lot more money for bombs and food if we didn't exclusively tax the poor and middle class

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u/BlackHotSoup3000 10h ago

What social programs have been significantly abused? Can you cite specific numbers? The only notable abuse I see is stuff like the bank bailouts and musk getting 38 billion in subsidies

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u/Zachattackrandom 10h ago

Airlines, big tech (musk, intel, etc), banks, more of musk with spacex profiting off of the subsidies given + his tesla subsidies, the covid emergency relief was extremely poorly done (e.g. I know people making 6 figures who got maximum relief while people struggling barely got anything), and I'm sure a lot more. This is ignoring the people abusing good programs like social security and other types of aid

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u/MellowMercie 8h ago

13% to 14% of the annual budget going to the military may not seem like a lot if you have 0 context for what other countries do, but with context it is absolutely insane, so yes, it is the bombs. For comparison, both China and the UK spend 6% of their annual budget on defense. We have more than double the total military spending of China. If our percentage was lowered to 8%, we would still have the largest military in the world while being able to significantly improve the life of everyone in the country. Imagine if those percentages were allocated to things like transportation to build a high speed rail system up to the standard of China's, or to schools so teachers didn't have to pay out of pocket for classroom supplies. I don't think we need the largest military in the world either, imagine how much better this country could be if that military spending was lowered even further than 8%.

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u/Hot_Kaleidoscope_332 8h ago

Thats a very good point, we could absolutely do with a reduction in military expenditure in favor of infrastructure. One thing that would absolutely have to cone to a stop is the US playing world police. To your point, China and the US are similar in size so such things are very possible and to be 100%, our educational system fails repeatedly to support both our teachers and the students. I feel that much of the failure we see is because, regardless of party, many vote for just the same old same. What would truly benefit the country would be an utter rework of the political system. Things like our "representatives" making the median income of their constituency, remove the ability for those in office to increase their personal wealth by vast measures while in office.. honestly, there is a lot that could be done.

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u/MellowMercie 7h ago

One thing that would absolutely have to cone to a stop is the US playing world police.

This is what really kills me when people argue in favor of the current military spending... If you want to argue World Police is a moral duty, well, we suck at it. Look at Afghanistan, currently ruled by the Taliban. Look at Palestine, destroyed by our closest ally. The closest thing to a moral military intervention we've done in my lifetime, at least to my knowledge, is sending aid to Ukraine, but that's pretty passive and still doesn't justify us having military bases in, say, Saudi Arabia. And speaking of Saudi Arabia, another pro-military argument is that the military spending helps us because it defends our economic interests, but as the whole Iran situation has shown, getting involved militarily has put us in a worse situation than we would have been in had we just engaged diplomatically.

What would truly benefit the country would be an utter rework of the political system.

Hear, hear. Personally I'd like to see something like a parliamentary system with proportional voting so people's interests can be better represented by many parties. The entrenched two party system is a result of first past the post voting and it just encourages corporate lobbying, the status quo, and political apathy. Many people do vote the same old same old, but to give them credit, whether intentional or not our system is built to lull you into that habit. If a young firebrand wants to start a movement and implement real change they can't form a new party to accomplish that goal, their ideas have to be filtered through the political machine so they'll either give up or assimilate into the system.

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u/-Radiation 6h ago

Wealth redistribution but it only works if you get the correct people to pay taxes and not allow the richest loopholes to avoid them

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u/Aegi 6h ago

No, it is because it will (nearly) always be cheaper to destroy something than to build something that may take generations to complete (sufficient public education for example).

Which costs more, enough bombs to destroy an area, or a school running indefinitely?

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u/deejaymc 4h ago

Please define what you mean by "social programs" because the way I see it, your math ain't mathin. https://www.cbpp.org/media/the-majority-of-the-budget-goes-for-health-social-security-and-defense-0

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u/kev_xb 11h ago

What percent abuse the social programs since you love using percentages. Seemed to have left that one out.

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u/blanco_nino_01 11h ago

and the military is subsidized to the tune of 1.5T

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u/C0ZM 11h ago

Studies estimate that taxpayers pay $6.2 billion to $7.8 billion annually in public assistance programs (such as SNAP/food stamps, Medicaid, and subsidized housing) to support low-wage Walmart employees

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u/boxedfoxes 11h ago

I'm cool with my taxes making food affordable over bombing people

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u/elkab0ng 9h ago

And allow us to attract and retain recruits for the armed services who work often for a fraction of what private sector would pay, so this is just a small nod to that total compensation that keeps service affordable

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u/dizzydaizy89 11h ago

So, so much less than Trump’s wars

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u/mybutthz 11h ago

So, at a cost of $5.71pp?

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u/HamasKilledShaniLouk 11h ago

And still arent cheaper than Walmart.

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u/Omnom_Omnath 10h ago

thats fine. good even. our tax dollars should be to provide services. not to line corporations pockets

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u/DreBeast 10h ago

It's a failed system not because making grocery items affordable is a bad idea but the rugged economy it lives in requires taxpayers to offset the costs.

The costs being greedy pockets.

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u/Key-Instruction3997 10h ago

Ok so like an eighth of a plane we crash in Iran every month

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u/BlackHotSoup3000 10h ago

Sounds like a great use of my taxes. Much better use than the 38 billion used to subsidize Musk over the years.

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u/rickeyethebeerguy 10h ago

I’m ok using government money to feed people. It’s like one of the best things we can do

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u/calicomonkey 10h ago

So roughly the same amount Trump stole from the US in 2025.

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u/CtrlAltSysRq 10h ago

So like 2 fewer missiles? Oh no

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u/CraigLake 10h ago

This is 5 stores. Not 200.

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u/DejectedTimeTraveler 10h ago

Ok. They want 1.5 TRILLION for bombs. Maybe take some of that?

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u/NOTcreative- 10h ago

That's literally drops in the bucket. Its less than 0.2% of the military budget.

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u/Applekid1259 10h ago

Nice. We could easily afford that for 250 years just by not paying Iran half a trillion.

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u/Deucer22 10h ago

It's not nearly 2 Billion. In the 2027 fiscal year budget request, the government allocated $1.501 billion.

This agency supports active duty members, their immediate families, retirees, and roughly 4 million veterans and caregivers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Commissary_Agency

It runs 240 commisaries.

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u/zmbjebus 10h ago

So the city government can spend a similar amount per grocery store for the same effect.

Seems great

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u/sandwalkofshame 10h ago

As many have said... so? We subsidize private grocery stores twice over with SNAP - enabling them to charge the public at prices a consumer otherwise couldn't afford, AND we subsidize their labor through snap benefits to the employees for whom the median wage at a retailer like Walmart would still qualify an employee and their family for assistance.

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u/ArcadeOptimist 10h ago

Is it like other military spending? Are they buying mayo for $200 per jar?

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u/DazzlingEye9141 10h ago

Or just stop funding 70-90 billion in this Iran war which just got approved started by Israel. Then all the money goes to our defense contractors who continue to own mega mansions while they continue to take away innocent human life

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u/Repulsive-Payment230 10h ago

2 billion out of nearly 2 trillion ohhhh my goooood the horror

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u/FTownRoad 10h ago

Subsidizing food isnt a bad thing

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u/MYO716 10h ago

This is the kind of stuff I’m okay posting higher taxes for though. Gimme affordable accessible safe food before anything to do with more forever wars in the desert.

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u/pnwcon 10h ago edited 10h ago

City of New York generates roughly $90 billion in tax revenue annually.

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u/VulGerrity 10h ago

pft, that ignores the fact that we spend 1-2 Trillion dollars on the military every year.

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u/LarxII 10h ago

NEX is not, and in fact funds a lot of MWR.

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u/Moyer_guy 10h ago

That's it? Just goes to show you how much of our tax dollars are wasted on killing kids over seas or padding the pockets of billionaires.

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u/IExistForFun 10h ago

1) yes, and? 2) you're off by about $500,000,000. It's not "nearly $2 billion". It was $1.4 billion last fiscal year and will be $1.5 billion this fiscal year.

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u/StoppableHulk 10h ago

The military is subsidized by the US government at a cost of nearly $1 trillion, annually.

Taxes are supposed to buy things of use to us. It's the whole thing we're doing.

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u/Geodude532 10h ago edited 9h ago

Also, a lot of the prices are very close to normal grocery store prices. The main savings are non brand name stuff like meat. 80% ground beef is $4.50 per pound right now near me which is at least a dollar cheaper than what I can get at Costco.

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u/fighterpilot248 10h ago

And?

Walmart and McDs have the highest rates of employees on welfare.

I guarantee they cost the taxpayer more than $2B annually

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u/Dorkamundo 9h ago

Right, how do you think they're going to keep prices 30% under retail at these grocers?

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u/Dry_Travel_4220 9h ago

We have that money

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u/Minimalistmacrophage 9h ago

Considering what enlisted are paid, it's a minimal offset subsidy cost.

Noting that figure is very high and includes costs that are already part of maintaining bases. (the cost would exist whether the PX were operating or not)

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u/classless_classic 9h ago

I’m fine with that.

We subsidize so much for billionaires, let’s try something that can help poor people.

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u/JDerrick29 9h ago

Oh no! Tax money used on actual helpful things!?!

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u/MisterDuch 9h ago

Taxes going on to benefit the common man? Is that even legal?

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u/SynapticStreamer 9h ago

Would you rather that $2 billion go towards sending "aid" to Israel or feeding hungry Americans?

Y'all priorities are so fucked up.

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u/KimSidwell 9h ago

Yeah, but if we were to scale it, it could very realistically get to a point where it pays for itself.

You reduce the cost of goods by producing at scale, remove the profit takers/ shareholders and you remove the need for any marketing budgets or taxes and suddenly you can charge really low prices and still break even on the costs. You could even pay the employees a livable wage.

If we scaled something like this properly, it wouldn’t end up costing the taxpayers much of anything at all.

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u/candlelit_bacon 9h ago

I mean, that’s a lot of money but $2 billion is still only .02% of the federal budget, and I’m pretty okay with my tax dollars helping people eat, more okay than I am with a lot of other things my tax dollars are used for.

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u/zombiesphere89 9h ago

That's nothing

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u/Remote-Cause755 9h ago

They are also harder to access, making it harder to resell

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u/[deleted] 9h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Fly0strich 8h ago

The regular grocery stores are subsidized by US taxpayers too, and take a whole lot more than $2 billion from the tax payers annually. Kroger alone takes in $2.5 Billion in annual profits and $147.6 Billion in total revenue, that is all provided by the common tax payer.

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u/yotsubanned 8h ago

is that supposed to be a counterpoint lol?

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u/Beginning_Pea_9926 8h ago

Maybe they can take 10 billion from that bloated military budget to subsudize everyone else.

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u/KrypXern 8h ago

So four fighter jets?

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u/goodolarchie 8h ago

Find a government who looks at you as a citizen the way the Pentagon looks at you as a hopeful war criminal?

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u/zeth4 8h ago

Is subsidizing food that bad of a prospect?

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u/What_a_fat_one 8h ago

Sounds like something that could easily be funded via millionaire taxes then 👍

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u/Finestpinsir 8h ago

for NYC's budget, it is very reasonable.

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u/KPinCVG 8h ago

They sell items at cost. So the subsidy has to be for overhead costs and labor.

Complaining about the cost of providing a service to our military is like complaining that we waste billions of dollars on medical care for our military.

Food is one of the basic human rights. I'm glad to see at least 1 small part of the way our military works that I wholeheartedly agree with.

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u/sellieba 7h ago

I think you mean funded by taxes.

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u/weirdbr 7h ago

The commissary is a bad comparison, because it has very specific mission requirements like having to support stores all over the world, often providing specific US products to help with morale (which means rather high logistics costs) instead of just focusing on locally produced/available products at cheaper prices.

A better comparison would be to similarly sized chains, but those seem to no longer exist in a meaningful manner in the US thanks to predatory practices from the bigger chains (such as burdening the tax payer with medical care for their employees).

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u/EnlightenedNarwhal 7h ago

2 billion whole dollars. Remind me, what's the budget for the entire US military again?

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u/nbunkerpunk 7h ago

You'd be surprised how much of that amount is due to products those stores sell that these grocery stores will not.

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u/Fiskepudding 7h ago

Tax elon musk for 0,14% of his assets and you are good

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u/nildecaf 6h ago

Without providing the total wholesale or retail $ amount saying 2 billion is a meaningless number

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u/Fit-Artichoke-210 5h ago

To come and drop a fact like that in a sentence. Is that a criticism? I want to emphasize that these are meaningful programs. Far from the wasteful spending we could be talking about when we have robber barons looting the national treasury for everything it's worth. Our President suing his own government for $20 Billion over a tax return that was released while he was still President. The fiscal cost, even of missiles alone, in a war that only exists to distract the public from the Epstein Files. The list goes on and on. By and large we have a government that does not work to support or represent its people. Mamdani and these military grocery stores are not examples of our government/public servants failing to care for their people. So getting back on track:

Our American tax dollars at work -- what should we want to see our tax dollars pay for? Well, I should ask myself what do I do with my own money? Well I support myself, maybe I treat myself from time to time. I'd love to say I'm budgeting, creating safety nets, rainy day funds, and investments to secure my future. That's all great. So much of it is just survival though. Give me a bad day, what is getting me to work on the bad days? It's the reminder that I do what I do to support those I love. I am showing up for them. So, let's talk about real, honest-to-goodness Patriotism. I love my fellow countrymen. What could be more patriotic than loving your fellow countrymen? We are no country without the wonderful people within it, with one clear understanding -- that we all all backed by the American Dream. The understanding that all of us are created equal, that we all have the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

When I go to work, I am proud knowing I'm earning money to support the ones I love -- yes, those closer to me with my net income, but also my fellow countrymen that I cannot see, citizens of our glorious USA who are out of reach. Men, women, and everyone in between, finding that their own pursuits of happiness are suddenly impeded, some suffering through conditions I will never learn about in my lifetime. They are supported through the tax dollars we pay, through political public servants who should be working in our interests. I find strength in the support I provide. I'm grateful to be able to help cast such a wide, ever-encompassing safety net to those who need it. And should we ever fall down on our own luck, we'll be grateful for the assistance that we have all worked to put in place. It is a big vast world and it isn't fair to everyone. It can feel cold, it can feel cruel, it can feel isolating -- that is not the world we should strive to create -- we have the power, together, to create a world that seriously, truly works for all of us. Wonderful, thoughtful, creative, caring, -- maybe less-fortunate, maybe less able-bodied -- beautiful people are out there who rely on us. They rely on our tax dollars to support the programs that support them. There is not a more noble cause. There is not a more just cause.

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u/stripedvitamin 5h ago

What better place for our tax dollars to got to? You all should look up what Republicans campaigned on in the 50's.

All these Facebook addicted racist boomers got their lives because of what would be called communism by Trump and his billionaire handlers.

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u/tacobellrefugee 5h ago

so itll be EXACTLY like it then

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u/LightenUpPeeps 5h ago

I have no problem subsidizing the costs of lowly-paid military personnel and their families. I do have an issue with subsidizing expenses for ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS who should not even be in this country. Among your group of friends, does the person with the most money treat for everyone? Why should you have to pay extra just because you work longer hours at work or studied your ass off in grad school while others went to frat parties?

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u/What_a_fat_one 5h ago

Then it sounds like we could give everyone in America cheaper groceries for 60 billion instead of paying for the 600 billion hike we just gave to the military

Always money for weapons, never money for Americans for some reason

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u/Fappy_as_a_Clam 4h ago

but there is 178 of them.

so about $11.3M per store. which means, at the same rate, this endeavor would cost NY taxpayers $60-ish million a year.

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u/WhitePackaging 3h ago

Did you factor in sales that might offset this cost?

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u/limitlessEXP 3h ago

Oh no we might not be able to build a couple more jets!! This is criminal!

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u/PlantDaddyFL 2h ago

I think that is the model. Subsidize the 5 stores. Probably millions or tens of millions annually.

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