PILOT SPIN
Spin Zone => Spin Zone => Topic started by: Bob Noel on October 07, 2025, 06:10:03 AM
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Looks like Boston is thinking about city-run grocery stores to address "food insecurity"
oy
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Well just look at all the success of such ventures in other cities!
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What a wonderful idea:
"Publicly-owned grocery stores can be structured to prioritize community benefit over profit, enabling lower prices, better food access, and stronger local sourcing, and may operate independently or in partnership with non-profits, cooperatives, or private operators," the order states.
So they operate at a loss, force out the current grocery stores with lower prices, all to benefit NGOs. Yeah... great idea.
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What a wonderful idea:So they operate at a loss, force out the current grocery stores with lower prices, all to benefit NGOs. Yeah... great idea.
just playing devil's adovate (sorry lucifer), some claim that there can be a "desert" of grocery stores in certain "poor," "disadvantaged", whatever, areas. So I'm not sure what stores would be forced out.
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Idiots. They just WANT communism.
All they need to do is enforce the law, have a heavy police presence, make stealing a crime again with severe punishment, get rid of odious regulations, give a guarantee of future security, and maybe the stores will come back. Although it might be too late if you already chased them away. It’s like deliberate suicide.
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part of the problem is the price of real estate...some locations are so unbelievably expensive. I don't know how stores would be able to survive.
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part of the problem is the price of real estate...some locations are so unbelievably expensive. I don't know how stores would be able to survive.
Perhaps stores in places with unbelievable real estate values are catering to people that can afford unbelievable prices.
I think Rush nailed it. The reason there are food deserts is because of theft and vandalism. I wouldn't invest my money in those areas. Crack down on crime and stop letting thugs that do get arrested out with no bail.
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I think Rush nailed it. The reason there are food deserts is because of theft and vandalism. I wouldn't invest my money in those areas. Crack down on crime and stop letting thugs that do get arrested out with no bail.
but that would require the beautiful people to acknowledge the underlying problems.
can't have that, can we?
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but that would require the beautiful people to acknowledge the underlying problems.
can't have that, can we?
And there-in lies the problem.
But the solution to theft isn't giving them free/subsidized stuff. It's making them realize that stealing doesn't pay.
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If we did not have a generation of entitlement whores who wouldn’t even think of discouraging theft. And vandalism, peer pressure and the occasional baseball bat would start to resolve the theft and vandalism issue.
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just playing devil's adovate (sorry lucifer), some claim that there can be a "desert" of grocery stores in certain "poor," "disadvantaged", whatever, areas. So I'm not sure what stores would be forced out.
It's not a total desert. There are little mom and pop corner bodegas that sell mostly packaged and chemically preserved "food". They have very little fresh healthy food. This is an attempt to get actual food into those areas which isn't a bad goal. But making it government run and cheaper than existing mom and pop stores will force them out. Maybe making sure that the existing stores have real food is a better way to go.
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Enforce the laws. Give out harsh penalties.
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It's not a total desert. There are little mom and pop corner bodegas that sell mostly packaged and chemically preserved "food". They have very little fresh healthy food. This is an attempt to get actual food into those areas which isn't a bad goal. But making it government run and cheaper than existing mom and pop stores will force them out. Maybe making sure that the existing stores have real food is a better way to go.
Interesting factoid I read somewhere is the success of small businesses is tied to small local banks, which used to give them business loans. When all the banks started getting bought out by the Mega Banks, that dried up because the Mega Banks focus on big loans to big corporations. They don’t bother with the smaller profit margins on small loans, and furthermore are not invested in local communities.
And since big corporations could out compete mom and pop on price, due to loan terms, being able to buy larger bulk inventory, deal with regulations more easily, etc., the mom and pops took a double hit. The disappearance of the small local banks fed into the cycle of everything moving to large corporations and now even the large chain grocery stores are abandoning these communities due to net losses to theft.
That problem of course has roots in the decay of these communities due to welfare, no father in the home, the evaporation of inner city jobs, and so on.
It’s a complex problem, but government owned stores is NOT the answer. What that does is encourage and perpetuate the situation. Provide cheap food and it’s like putting out birdseed for birds: They will come, and then get dependent on it, like what happens with ALL government programs, and you end up in a situation where it becomes unaffordable to the taxpayer yet if you stop the program you leave a huge population - which now feels entitled - hanging, which will then riot violently.
That’s a temporary but easy bandaid solution with devastating long term consequences. The harder road, and a harder sell to the local voters, is: Implement security by vigorously policing and prosecuting crime, provide the fertile ground for the return of private businesses, even if you must subsidize loans as a necessary government-meddling evil, and maybe most important, bring back a strong national economy, low unemployment, low inflation, stable stock market so businesses will want to expand and invest.
Also implement boys programs in the inner cities to provide healthy male role models. It can be done. Black men are stepping in to these communities and teaching the boys trade skills and basic good citizenship. And giving them a group to bond with, that men need as they mature, because if you don’t give them that with proper guidance, that’s why they form gangs. You can’t just police and punish them, you have to give them another option.
You CANNOT have a healthy community when most children are raised with no father in the home. But you can’t just do that, you have to do all the other things at the same time so that the local community economy is functional. It’s no good to teach a child not to steal if he ends up hungry with no other option.
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Also, many of these people don’t cook. They never learned how, being raised on packaged food. And (just saying) there is a laziness, entitled factor. So “real” food in their homes would just mostly go to waste. Let’s face it. The only alternative to eating junk is to cook. One more hurdle to overcome before human flourishing can occur. Perhaps the government should start up cooking classes. It never ends.
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Also, many of these people don’t cook. They never learned how, being raised on packaged food. And (just saying) there is a laziness, entitled factor. So “real” food in their homes would just mostly go to waste. Let’s face it. The only alternative to eating junk is to cook. One more hurdle to overcome before human flourishing can occur. Perhaps the government should start up cooking classes. It never ends.
This is a HUGE problem! I been thinking about it. Not just in poor fatherless communities but across all demographics. As women entered the workforce and relied more on convenience foods they didn’t pass down their cooking and housekeeping skills to their children, and now a couple generations later so much is lost.
Just little things, but thousands of them. Skills you pick up easily as a child but might never be able to figure out on your own as an adult. For example, I can crack an egg into a bowl without getting any bits of shell into the bowl, even if the shell smashes into a bunch of pieces. There’s a trick to it that I can’t even describe. Something like the shell bits will cling to the membrane and you use all your fingers to prevent the shell membrane from breaking further and following the white and yolk contents.
I guess if you want to learn how to cook and mom never taught you, you can watch youtube videos and eventually be self taught. But there is so much lost that used to be passed down in families. Part of it is understandable I guess. I don’t know how to wring the neck of a chicken like my grandmother did and don’t particularly want to learn it.
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When I was a kid, boys learned how to fix cars and hunt. Girls learned how to cook and sew. When I got to college, it was cook or starve and I liked food too much to starve, so I taught myself to cook. AFAIK, I am now the best cook I know.
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Seeing this about state run grocery stores reminds me of our situation here in New Hampshire.
Here in New Hampshire hard liquor is only sold in state run stores. You can purchase wine and beer in grocery stores, etc. There is no sales tax here except for hotels & restaurants. Since all 3 states that border NH have sales tax you can figure out where most of these stores are. Also if you enter NH on I-89, 93 or 95 within a few miles you'll find a state run liquor store. The ones along our southern border border with Massachusetts does the most business. Then it you continue north along I-93 or 95 you'll go through a toll booth. Due to the revenue the head honcho of the liquor stores has a lot of political power. I've always been of the opinion that government should stay the HELL out of business.
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PA has State run liquor stores also. 6% sales tax. The selection and prices are terrible. People go to DE to buy booze. No sales tax. Free market liquor store warehouse style.
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PA has State run liquor stores also. 6% sales tax. The selection and prices are terrible. People go to DE to buy booze. No sales tax. Free market liquor store warehouse style.
I can personally attest to that as I accompanied my inlaws on one of those liquor runs back in the 80s. The DE store was right on the highway just over the border, lol!
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Alabama state liquor stores too but beer and wine sold in grocery stores and of course quick stops.
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Alabama state liquor stores too but beer and wine sold in grocery stores and of course quick stops.
Same for PA. Beer and wine in grocery stores.
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profit-seeking food suppliers have been driven out by crime that is not aggressively addressed by the legal system, that's why there are "food deserts".
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How will the state deal with their profits being stolen by low life scumbags in state owned stores?
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How will the state deal with their profits being stolen by low life scumbags in state owned stores?
Increase taxes and expect fedgov to subsidize them.
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profit-seeking food suppliers have been driven out by crime that is not aggressively addressed by the legal system, that's why there are "food deserts".
Right out of the playbook. Ignore crime, let business collapse (grocery) then offer a government solution.
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Right out of the playbook. Ignore crime, let business collapse (grocery) then offer a government solution.
They do that for everything. Create the crisis, then have government step in. They know the problem won't get solved but the goal is to grow government not solve problems.
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They do that for everything. Create the crisis, then have government step in. They know the problem won't get solved but the goal is to grow government not solve problems.
Correct, however, the real (unspoken) goal is to enrich and impower themselves.
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Correct, however, the real (unspoken) goal is to enrich and impower themselves.
THIS!!!
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Correct, however, the real (unspoken) goal is to enrich and impower themselves.
ALWAYS the goal of commies. They’re not going to own nothing and eat the bugs along with the rest of us.
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Correct, however, the real (unspoken) goal is to enrich and impower themselves.
Heck. As a former business owner and current investor, that has always been my goal too.
But at least I never felt like I was stepping on anyone else to attain that wealth and power (as limited as it is/was).
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Heck. As a former business owner and current investor, that has always been my goal too.
But at least I never felt like I was stepping on anyone else to attain that wealth and power (as limited as it is/was).
Hence the huge fundamental difference between free market, where you and others engage in mutually beneficial transactions, and economic collectivism (communism, socialism), where transactions are forced to redistribute from producers to parasites.
You did the former. Not only is there nothing wrong with that, when everybody does it, it results in progress and higher standard of living for the entire society. It’s Ayn Rand’s “virtue of selfishness”.
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Heck. As a former business owner and current investor, that has always been my goal too.
But at least I never felt like I was stepping on anyone else to attain that wealth and power (as limited as it is/was).
Government is not a business to enrich those who run it or control it. Bureacrats and Politicians. Yet we see politicians net worth go through the roof once in office.
We need a French Revolution style purge.
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Government is not a business to enrich those who run it or control it. Bureacrats and Politicians. Yet we see politicians net worth go through the roof once in office.
We need a French Revolution style purge.
There is a huge financial incentive bribery structure underlying Congress that largely controls how they vote.
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There is a huge financial incentive bribery structure underlying Congress that largely controls how they vote.
Yep, just look at the size of the lobbyist groups and the amount of money behind them.