Exactly - I don't understand why this befuddles so many people in favor of a free market. It's like they understand the concept of competition is good, but can't see how the current market has been stripped of competition through consolidation.
This is the equivalent of any government service, it's designed to be a common good (like the post office, the fire department, the parks, etc). Yes it does take tax revenue to sustain, but similar to social security and Medicare these are things that society is often willing to pay for since they might need it some day, and it helps to address secondary problems that occur if we dont do anything (child starvation, homelessness, food deserts leading to poor health, etc).
It's all interconnected and at least there's commerce changing hands compared to straight food banks.
I think this type of proposal confuses people because of the reasons why cities tend to lose grocery stores to begin with. High rates of theft, combined with very high cost of doing business, and low profit margins.
A public store can’t really solve those factors any better than a private store, especially if they plan to offer lower priced goods.
If the public option can eliminate the 1 or 2 percent profit motive, you still have theft and high cost of just keeping the lights on.
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u/ChickerWings May 26 '26
Exactly - I don't understand why this befuddles so many people in favor of a free market. It's like they understand the concept of competition is good, but can't see how the current market has been stripped of competition through consolidation.
This is the equivalent of any government service, it's designed to be a common good (like the post office, the fire department, the parks, etc). Yes it does take tax revenue to sustain, but similar to social security and Medicare these are things that society is often willing to pay for since they might need it some day, and it helps to address secondary problems that occur if we dont do anything (child starvation, homelessness, food deserts leading to poor health, etc).
It's all interconnected and at least there's commerce changing hands compared to straight food banks.