When I consider our new Mayor Mamdani and his legions of committed followers, the thought I can’t get away from is “How is it possible to be this ignorant?”
Right now here in New York, Mamdani is moving forward with his plan to open a chain of government-owned grocery stores, at least one for each of our five boroughs. The underlying concept is that groceries have become too expensive for low income people to buy, undoubtedly due to evil capitalists siphoning off vast profits somewhere in the system. In the latest iteration of his proposal, Mamdani has said that the government stores will sell “basic” products like bread, milk and eggs at “guaranteed cheaper” prices. From the New York Post, April 14:
“When it comes to the products that we will be selling at the city-run grocery stores, there will be an essential basket of goods that will be guaranteed a cheaper price, and cheaper than what they’re being sold at currently,” Mamdani said during a news conference at La Marqueta in Harlem.
And yet, in the collection of real world evidence that has been accumulated over the last 100 years or so as to whether socialism can ever work, there is no case of more overwhelming evidence of socialism’s failure than the case of grocery stores. Do Mamdani and his sycophants not know about this?
The Soviet Union was famous for its sad empty grocery stores, often with little or even no inventory, and long lines that would form every time there was a rumor that some food would be available. This was universally known (among those who paid attention) to be the case into the 1980s, going on seventy years since the Communist state had been formed on the promise of abundance for all.
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