Will NYC elect a socialist mayor?
- Thread starter BradStevens
- Start date
He’s an example of what the Democrats have turned into!
He needs to be shown personally how artifical it is. I know a guy that could deliver for a round trip ticket and gift card to Katzs Deli.
Should Cities Open Their Own Grocery Stores?
Forty million Americans live in food deserts. Can government-owned grocery stores fix this?www.governing.com
Brad, food desserts offer an opportunity for grocery chains to take advantage (as this link explains) of the lack of competition and use what is called "zone or area pricing". The customers, who are usually the less affluent, pay more than those who live in zones with more competition.
Had a dear friend who was a prime example of a "Do Gooder". He took his large inheritance to invest and manage his own small chain of eight grocery stores in zones which without his stores would have virtually no stores. He was a smart guy but knew little about the grocery business. Furthermore, store managers and qualified help seldom lasted long.
My friend died young and penniless. Seeing his failure, do wonder how city owned and managed grocery stores would stay afloat without huge taxpayer subsidies.
Im assuming food deserts are in lower income areas. When they bring up government store ideas it's followed with wanting fresh produce, healthy foods, ect.
We are told these products are more expensive. They also are where stores make the most of their 1-3% profit margin. If people dont buy them because of cost, or more likely because fatass Americans won't buy them, then how can any government ran store last long term? Im guessing whatever employees they get will be low quality too.
We are told these products are more expensive. They also are where stores make the most of their 1-3% profit margin. If people dont buy them because of cost, or more likely because fatass Americans won't buy them, then how can any government ran store last long term? Im guessing whatever employees they get will be low quality too.
Brad, great question.
Isaiah was an upbeat and positive person. Given his outward demeanor, it would seem he was a happy person.
The last time I saw him, he was excited about saving a historic Jewish synagogue in a neighborhood about which we had a common interest. He made no mention about his serious health problems.
Soon after our meeting, he passed. It came as a shock to me when told about his death.
Government ran anything would be a disaster, all one has to do is look at the postal service. Staffing at most government run entities I have had the displeasure of dealing with are poor at best.
Delivery times for first class mail have grown noticeably in the last two years. I've had bill payments arrive late on several occasions.
"Yeah, well, there's no way FedEx could deliver a letter for $.73 and make a profit!"
"Neither can the Post Office"
I haven't had to deal with any, not sure they do much. I wanted to get hired as a city firefighter (the politics behind it is awful) and I ended up not pursuing it. The truth behind why is they work 10 days a month, lift weights while at work and eat like kings where I live.
I wonder why you didn't ask about government run police departments?
I was thinking more on the lines of BMV, post office, SS offices and unemployment offices (sometimes we reach out to them for potential entry level hires).
I could give two shits about the cost, the service is horrible. There is a reason UPS and FedEx exist.
The mail arrives just as the neighborhood porch party is on its first beverage.
We all love our mail carriers.
As a bonus the neighbor's dogs find them very stimulating. One carrier throws about a half dozen dog treats over the fence toward the barking German Shepherds next door.
Fun times prevail.
Sounds fun, my mail arrives at various times and is usually mixed with my neighbors. This wouldn't be a big issue other than the neighbors are 200-400 yards away. lol Kind of hard to get it wrong but hey they manage to.
We always get mail for the house across the street that I then take over and put in their mailbox. I assume they get ours and either round file it or put it in our mailbox.
The arrogance of this guy. and stupidity. Only eclipsed by those who voted for him. A Bach in Africana studies. Housing counselor. Telling a guy worth 10 bil about business. WTF is wrong with the people of this country
Progressives are just shockingly stupid.
That is a great question, outside of traditional convention.
Of course in the vein of "When I die, I want the very last check that I right, to bounce". Get all you can out of everything that you have.
“So much inequality…”
Once again, relative measures of wealth make no sense.
What ought to matter is how people who aren’t rich are faring in a society. And, for those who aren’t faring well, how much is due to bad public policy, how much is self-inflicted, and what kinds of reasonable safety nets should exist?
I would much rather live in a highly unequal society where the average person is faring well than in a highly equal society where the average person is faring less well.
Anybody who measures societal success by relative wealth would have to say that the latter is preferable to the former.
I could say the same about greed. Yet it exists.
Both are aspects of human nature. Calling it irrational doesn't really change the situation.
It does have you’re somebody charged with creating public policy - which implies that you do so rationally instead of being directed by irrational feelings of others.
Because creating policy based on irrational emotions will inevitably lead to suboptimal outcomes.
We should try to refute the irrationality and disabuse people of it…not succumb to it.
How's that working with greed?
If you're making public policy, you're making it for real world human beings, not some fictional robot that acts 100% rationally. Recognizing human foibles in making public policy, then, is very rational and taking account of it is the only way you will reach an optimal outcome.
Using govt, though, to "disabuse people of it" is nothing more than expecting you can use government and government policy to change human nature. What does that remind you of? Swap out changing how people rank themselves against others based on money with greed and which system do you get? Communism. Your vision is just as utopian, and just as doomed to failure.
I don’t agree with you that this worldview is inherent to human nature. I think it’s learned - and can be unlearned. Human nature involves things that aren’t learned and can’t be unlearned.
Comments like Mamdani’s aren’t just not disabusing people of counterproductive attitudes. They’re actively promoting them.
Self-interest, like fight or flight, is human nature. We exhibit it from our very first day until our last day. Nobody needs to teach people to act in their own interest. It applies to everybody.
But the notion that other people having more than we do is the cause of us having less than we want - and the remedy for this is to extract more from them so we can have more - is something that is taught, not instinctual.
And I would argue that success in life is going to strongly favor those who actively reject that philosophy.
Have you raised children? Had some young ones together at the same time? It's a pretty common occurrence for a 2-year-old, for example, to be pissed that another kid has more toys than they do. Many times they'll try to take some, or cry and throw a fit. Their parents didn't teach them that.
Jealousy--which is what this is, at its essence--is as old as humanity. It wouldn't surprise me if we could see it in other primates. [1] I doubt you can name a society in history that has ever eradicated it--just as I cannot name one where greed or corruption through wielding too much power didn't exist. It's probably due to both nature and nurture, but a nurture that I doubt can efficiently or easily be changed. [2]
Policy wise, it very well could be the case that a society that has too much wealth inequality is unstable and leads to civil unrest. Many methods can be used to combat this. But if we're comparing one where we try to come up with laws that regulate jealousy out of humanity or another where we have some wealth redistribution, I'll put my money on the second one being more efficient and optimal than the first, every day of the week.
[1] Interesting article: https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/12/1...-like-people-researchers-say-its-complicated/
[2] https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/where-does-jealousy-come-from
Speaking only for myself, I've never thought I was jealous or envious -- broadly speaking, although in certain singular situations it might apply. From a public policy standpoint, the only time I've been hoping for help from the "haves" was when I found myself living at the poverty level just to pay for health insurance. The ACA and then Medicare were godsends.
I’ve spent a ton of time in wpb and on the island. It’s a unique place. It’s a place where wealth isn’t like anything you’ve ever encountered. And its proximity to poverty and horrific crime is startling. It’s a place where the extremes are as big as the middle class.
I’m no fan of socialism but generalizing I think you want a large thriving middle class and not large extremes. It leads to bad shit. So to the extent that policy doesn’t thwart ingenuity aspiration and drive it ought to aim at sustaining the middle to the extent possible
Oh I don’t disagree with that.
I’m challenging the notion that higher inequality means that people who aren’t rich are struggling.
Most high Gini countries are places none of us would want to live. But there are also high Gini countries where average people are doing quite well….even if they aren’t keeping pace with the wealthiest people.
Ask me if I’d rather live (as somebody who isn’t fabulously wealthy) in the Czech Republic (Gini: 25.9) or in Singapore (47.3). It would be an easy question to answer. Of those two, I’d strongly prefer the more unequal country.
So…what’s the difference between the “good” high Gini countries and the “bad” high Gini countries?
The answer is the reason they have the inequality to begin with.
Obviously, wealth inequality doesn’t equate to struggling financially.
Humans rank themselves against other humans. Wealth is part of that measure, especially here in the US. If you feel as if you rank poorly, it affects your happiness. These are just facts about the human race, in general. Does it apply to the same degree to every human being? No. That doesn't mean you can wave a magic wand through some reg and make it all go away.
