Don’t assume socialism’s inevitable failures will stop it from spreading.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently announced that his government-run grocery stores will offer products at a 30 percent discount. The appeal of this plan is obvious. Everyone would like to pay less for milk, eggs and meat.
That this plan won’t work is equally obvious to anyone who understands basic economics. Unfortunately, that excludes many New Yorkers and college graduates.
Take a look at the details. Mamdani doesn’t want the city to run these stores. He’s seeking proposals from “qualified grocers or firms to serve as operators” of the stores.
“The city sets the mission, the standards and the store design; experienced third-party operators run the stores day to day under those requirements,” a release from Mamdani’s office states.
That Mamdani doesn’t trust NYC’s bureaucracy to run his stores is smart, but it also shows why the government shouldn’t run grocery stores. Mamdani may want to seize the means of production, but he appears to recognize that government doesn’t do a great job of producing.
His premise is also absurd. Most grocery stores have profit margins of 1 percent to 3 percent. Mamdani wants an operator to run his stores with 30 percent discounts on major items and “provide employees with best-in-class wages,” according to the city’s request for proposals. Maybe Mamdani can hire fairies to stock the shelves with products delivered by unicorns.
But Mamdani doesn’t expect these operators to lower prices by 30 percent. The city’s RFP states that the city “will provide financial support to the Operator(s) to mitigate operating deficits attributable to discounted Core Basket sales and enable cost-effective program delivery.” This subsidy would be in addition to city taxpayers paying $70 million to build five stores and then cover their rent and property taxes.
Mamdani’s grocery store scheme won’t prove the superiority of socialism because he’s not even trying to lower costs. He’s content to disguise them with crony capitalism. It’s like someone who takes $20 from your wallet and then claims he’ll make you better off by giving you $10 back.
If the grocery stores are “successful,” they’ll drive nearby privately run stores out of business, which will erode the tax base. That will require more government-subsidized grocery stores, driving more grocery stores out of business and further reducing tax revenues. This spiral will continue until New Yorkers come to their electoral senses or run out of toilet paper — proof a country has fully implemented socialism.
These are important arguments to make. But they aren’t enough.
Mamdani gives his followers specifics that create a clear narrative. According to him, the problem is high prices, the villains are rich people, and the solution is government-run grocery stores.
Now, Mamdani is wrong — very wrong — on the details. But conservatives need to imitate his model. For instance, electricity prices are too high, the villain is the left’s push for expensive and unreliable green energy, and the solution is ending federal subsidies for wind and solar. States also need to repeal their renewable portfolio standards.
Car prices are too high, the villain is anti-fossil fuel regulations pushed by Democrats, and the solution is requiring Congress to authorize any restrictions on gas-powered vehicles.
Now one challenge for conservatives is that real solutions can take years to work, while socialists promise quick fixes and gimmicks. But by identifying the root cause of a problem, conservatives make a much stronger argument.
It isn’t enough to point out the many problems with socialist proposals. Conservatives also need to provide villains and solutions.
Contact Victor Joecks at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.
