In one of the segments of the latest podcast, Jay examines NY Mayor Zoran Mamdani first 100 days and how the failed government grocery stores will be just one example how the Democratic Socialist's policies will ruin the city. ~~~ Gregory Jon (executive producer)
Jay Weber Show podcast transcript 4-17-24
Here's a link to the latest podcast (the time coincides with running time of the podcast)
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So, it's going to take at least three years and thirty or forty million dollars in order for Zoran Mamdani to prove that socialism doesn't work and that big government cannot run grocery stores more efficiently or competently than the private sector.
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This should be obvious by now, but this is the bottom line when it comes to this nitwit grand idea of government run grocery stores. Zoran Mamdani ran on this promise of government running stores during his campaign, if you remember, and unlike the free buses and most of the new freebee's he was promising the voters of New York, this is one he insists he can move forward with. So, this week Zoran Mamdani announced the first government grocery store
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is going to cost thirty million dollars to get up and running. And you know that price is going to rise significantly before the project is completed, because it always does. That's always the case with public works projects. And come on, this is a New York public works project. They're not going to build it and get it up and running or thirty million dollars. That cost will probably double before the doors ever open. Trust me, that's a guarantee. And
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by the way, the experts in the grocery store industry say a private grocer could do this for about half the cost. This is just to put up the building and get it going. As things now stand, New York grocery CEOs say the project should cost about fifteen or twenty million and that's it. So, Zoran Mamdani has already lost to the private sector on that front. One expert says, quote, thirty million dollars for one store is exceptionally high, considering
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land prices are a significant part of the capital costs of new construction, and the city has announced that it rents will be waived, so they're already getting a break on the land. And they're still going to run this type of cost, and that's just building it. They also say, quote, the grocery industry is low margin, so heavy subsidies will be needed to counteract these inherent inefficiencies. They say, yeah,
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government brings in efficiency, and that's a long-time tenant of any government and any bureaucracy. They can never, ever, never do better than the private sector, and I mean anything. The Post Office can't seem to make a profit. They're eternally in debt. Yet Ups and Amazon and other private courier services can make a profit. Why is that the government's been patently unable to run a railroad for decades?
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Amtrak is so heavily subsidized it's crazy. But government run grocery stores are going to be the very model of efficiency and force lower grocery prices into the private sector. I mean bull plop. Government run grocery stores are only going to heap even more runaway expenses and subsidies onto the backs of the taxpayers as they try to pay for their own groceries out of their own pocket. This is
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a farce before it ever gets underway. This week on x Zoran Mamdani posted I was elected as a Democratic Socialist and will continue to govern as a Democratic Socialist. One hundred days in and we're just getting started. I read that, and I felt the need to respond. I said, please keep making this known, Zoran Mamdani, please keep making it known that you're a democrat socialist. Say it often so
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there can be no mistake. You're a democratic socialist as New York spirals downward on virtually every front under your watch. And I mean that I wasn't being snarky. I do hope that mom Donnie and his supporters spend the next four years making sure everyone knows that this is what democratic socialism looks like, because it's going to be a costly disaster at every turn. And I know that America's
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leftists think that they're softening the blow, they're softening the word socialism when they put democratic in front of it, and to the dim witted, I don't doubt that this works. I don't doubt that this works on the naive young idealists and the perpetual older dim wits. But democratic socialism is socialism, and it's failed always and repeatedly around the globe, and it's not going to work here in no matter how
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the activists left in the Democratic Party package it. Zoran Mamdani wants to start with one government or grocery store in each of the New York's five boroughs. He claims the total cost to this is going to be seventy million dollars. Well, that can't possibly be true if the first one is going to cost thirty million dollars on its own. This is going to be more like one hundred and fifty or two hundred million dollars in order
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to realize these five borrowed dreams. And I'm going to predict right now that the first store will already be deemed an expensive disaster before the fifth store ever opens and borrow number five, you know what I mean. I'm going to predict now that there will be questions as to whether New York should even move ahead with stores number four and five because stores one in two will
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have turned out to be such an obvious disappointment. And that's just something to watch for. And for the record, this government run grocery store concept has been tried in a few other cities, like Kansas City, and it's quickly failed. I don't see Mom Donnie or New York socialists being any more successful with it, do you. If these stores don't work in the more rural communities with smaller populations
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and where shoplifting isn't even an issue, how can they possibly work in New York City, where the population is massive and where shoplifting is a massive problem. I'll ask it now, how do Zoran Mamdani and the leftists plan to keep food on the shelves when everyone knows that it's a store run by bleeding hearts who are accountable to no one. These are people who will view shoplifting
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as stealing from government. That makes it especially okay rights. It seems to be okay for most of these people to steal from the private sector grocery store. It'll be seem even more logical to steal from government to them. I'll also predict now that the theft is going to be the ultimate and never ending nightmare for these government-run grocery stores. If they think bodegas and privately run
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stores have a problem with shoplifting in New York right now, just wait until these socialist groceries are open. The shelves are going to look as bare as the photos that we've seen of Cuba and Soviet grocery stores over the decades. There won't be any food on them. Another fun twist, the owners of the bodegas and the smaller grocery stores that do already serve these neighborhoods are certain that Mamdani’s
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government run operation is going to put them out of business. You know, these are the men and the women who are already grinding out a living by running a bodega or a small grocery in the crappiest parts of New York City. Now government's going to come in and add to the competition. What a gut punch to these people, right quote, it’s going to affect us real hard, said
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Victor Vasquez, thirty-three, manager at the City Fresh Market. Our prices might have to go up. I assume they will. Yes, you know. The Washington Examiner editors put the so perfectly, I'm just going to steal a few paragraphs for them. They say the supermarket business is inherently low margin and intensely competitive. Walmart and Amazon, with its whole food stores, compete aggressively on price and delivery. One key to the
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success of these two giants of the American economy is their laser focus on distribution costs. At their core, Walmart and Amazon are logistics companies, private sector grocery chains succeed or fail based on their ability to manage costs, negotiate with suppliers, and respond to demand in that manner. They say, a city run market, by contrast, would operate under political
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rather than economic incentives. Decisions about pricing, hiring, product selection, and location would inevitably be influenced by political considerations, union pressures, and bureaucratic constraints rather than the discipline of profit and loss. It's true, they continued, that disconnect matters. Without the pressure to turn a profit, a government owned supermarket has little
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incentive to control costs. Over time, what begins as a pilot program could easily become a permanent fiscal burden. They conclude by saying, advocates of Mamdani's supermarkets argue that the food deserts justify government intervention, but the reality is that throughout the city a consumer can find a grocery store with an attendant of walk. If grocery access is limited in certain areas, the causes are complex, including crime, zoning restrictions,
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high operating costs. They say, a city owned supermarket does nothing to address those underlying issues. In fact, it may exacerbate them. I agree with that the private marketplace works, and when it comes to food, groceries and feeding America, the private marketplace has worked miracles over time. It's our model in America that's responsible for the fact that there
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is such a high standard of living globally. Other countries quote poor people suffering from an obesity epidemic that is uniquely America. We know how to feed ourselves and our people. And so not only will Zoran Mamdani’s government run grocery stores not working, but they're not needed. They really aren't. And let's acknowledge that
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Zoran thinks he has this all worked out too. I think this is going to be important as well. Let's acknowledge that Mom Donnie and his team think they finally have this figured out. Their government run grocery store is going to work because it's going to be run by people who got their experience running private sector grocery stores. This too, It just tickles me. City Hall officials said they'll identify third party expert grocery operators to run Zoran Mamdani
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public groceries. Operators will be required to directly pass a long time in any kind or direct subsidies to consumers in the form of reduced prices. Those operators will also be under strict pricing, affordability, labor, operating and reporting requirements. They say, So let's step back, am in. Mom Donnie's going to prove that socialism can work if private sector experts run it. Well,
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If a country goes socialist, where do the private sector experts come from to run the operation? After a generation or two? You're really going to be screwed, folks. If socialism only works if private sector experts run it, how long can that last? Everything about this is farcical and fraudulent, and it just frustrates me. There's a perpetual ignorance
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that comes along with socialism and with every new generation of naive, well-meaning young person. For some reason, the catastrophic failures of socialism and communism over time, over generations never seems to be learned. It's never internalized and then dismissed as a false hope. Socialism and communism are full of false hopes and false promises. I mean, if we
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can state anything at this point about socialism and communism based on our shared human existence on this planet, we can state that socialism and communism are the path to
economic and social ruin period. These are disastrous ideologies that each new generation thinks they can figure out, and they can't because it's a falsehood. The underlying premises of socialism
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and communism are falsehoods. The famous cliche from the left is, well, we just haven't done it right yet, but that doesn't mean we can't do it right yet. Does it in part because you're all nit wits, but also in part the more serious response is, it's the ideologies that are based on false definitions of fairness and false premises related to human nature, and that's why they fail.