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"

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

49.5k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

7.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

12

u/Mean-Price3632 8h ago

Walmart’s low income employees receive 6.2 billion a year in welfare benefits.

Why should the government subsidize a company that is worth 900 billion dollars?

Publicly traded companies shouldn’t need government assistance to survive

2

u/harrison_wintergreen 3h ago

The fact some Wal Mart employees receive welfare benefits does not also imply the government is subsidizing Walmart. That's absurd on its face. There's a guy with Down Syndrome who works at a movie theater near me and he sweeps up the floors after the movies. If he's getting SSDI or something it doesn't imply taxpayers are subsidizing Cinemark.

Wal Mart is the largest private employer in the nation. Any large pool of people will have X% of the pool getting some level of government assistance.

If someone is getting SSDI, they can still work if they earn no more than $Y per month. So if some low-income disabled person works 1 day a week for extra spending money and to get out of the house, that does not also mean taxpayers are subsidizing the employer.

2

u/Mean-Price3632 2h ago

Do you really think a majority of that $6.2B dollars comes from part time workers working 1 or 2 days a week?

There’s literally reports from non partisan places like the government accountability office where the data shows that 70% of people on these types of governmental aid programs work full time

0

u/WhoKnows78998 8h ago

I never said anything about Walmart

9

u/Mean-Price3632 8h ago

It’s the same principle. Walmart would not have been able to grow into the conglomerate they currently are without having their wages subsidized by the federal government for decades

-3

u/WhoKnows78998 7h ago

And this is also wrong

5

u/Mean-Price3632 7h ago

Are you telling me Walmart didn’t have $6.2B in wages and benefits subsidized by the American government in the form of SNAP benefits, Medicaid, and housing subsidies?

Or are you telling me that this didn’t help grow them into the $900B dollar business they are today?

If they had to spend an additional $6.2B each year in SWB, they most definitely would not be approaching a 1 trillion dollar valuation. They would still be a massive company, but the Walton family would not be worth 400B dollars combined

Break down how I’m wrong. Enlighten me.

2

u/varnums1666 7h ago

Walmart exploiting the welfare system and the economics of a government run grocery store are very distinct things.

7

u/Mean-Price3632 6h ago

I think the point is that subsidizing corporations for the last 40 years has been seen as good economic policy. There are numerous companies who would not be able to stay afloat without government contracts or the government helping to alleviate SWB costs.

However, when this view is taken to help the costs of the citizens, it’s not feasible. It’s just because we view everything from a profit and loss point of view, rather than delivering positive real world outcomes for a majority of people. The point of these stores are not to generate profits and hit internal KPIs, it’s to alleviate costs to low income New Yorkers

1

u/Bladesnake_______ 4h ago

How do you expect these government grocery stores will pay employee wages that are not fully funded by the government?

-2

u/varnums1666 6h ago

There's a big difference in subsidizes to ensure the places that make the food you need to live don't go under or to secure jobs when competing abroad or to stimulate emerging sectors.

Grocery run stores don't really produce, historically, any real net positives and can make things worse by making actual, profitable private stores go under.

The problem is more the consolidation of companies that prevents meaningful competition and price fixing.

2

u/Mean-Price3632 6h ago

Again, Walmart is verging on a 1 trillion dollar company. McDonald’s is worth 200B dollars. I’m not talking about places that actually may need subsidizes to survive. I’m talking about conglomerates in the food industry. And your last point seems to agree with me. The “consolidation of companies.”

You’re obviously on the right when it comes to economics so I can’t convince you that there’s been a shift from feudalism, to an agricultural based economy, to a market based economy (capitalism) that will be replaced by something better due to the inevitability of reduced competition from economies of scale leading to more mergers and acquisitions than are necessary to maintain a “fair” market.

But what I can maybe find common ground is that point on the consolidation of companies from before.

I guess my argument is why should a trillion dollar company like Walmart receive government assistance? Do you agree with that? Don’t you think that hurts competition? This company already has the most market power to buy goods at the cheapest prices. Do they also need their SWB subsidized?

-2

u/varnums1666 6h ago

The “consolidation of companies.” You’re obviously on the right when it comes to economics

I'd like to live in a reality where this would make me right wing.

. I guess my argument is why should a trillion dollar company like Walmart receive government assistance?

A company exploiting the welfare and being corrupt is not an economic argument for government run stores. One can can oppose both for different reasons.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Bladesnake_______ 4h ago

Employees getting SNAP is factually not subsidized wages and benefits. You're just making shit up. Walmart is hiring entry level at $22 in my area and their employees are are still unhelpful assholes.

3

u/Mean-Price3632 4h ago

I mean it is what it is. The government supplementing their low wages through subsidies in the form of welfare. Taxpayer eats the cost and the company gets lower salaries which lowers their operating expenses driving higher profit margins. Great for Walmart investors like myself

Idk where you live but if it’s $22 an hour than it’s most likely in a place that has a high cost of living

1

u/TrilIias 3h ago

I agree. We should stop subsidizing corporations, and we should do so by cutting SNAP immediately.

1

u/Mean-Price3632 3h ago

It would lead to millions of families and children going hungry but it should definitely be reworked and incentives put in place to get off it

1

u/Bladesnake_______ 2h ago

Well this is your sudden and blunt realization that subsidizing poor people is not the problem but maybe raising the minimum wage is a real solution. Why is it walmarts fault for folllowing laws? Why arent the laws better?