Smith: Government-run grocery stores will drain public funds and crush bodegas
Noah Smith · Is AI Really Taking Our Jobs? — With Noah Smith · Jul 2, 2025 · at 34:32
Economics writer Noah Smith analyzes the economic viability and unintended consequences of state-run municipal grocery store policies.
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“So if you make government run grocery stores, it'll do two things. Number one It will outcompete all the little indie grocery stores and bodegas, thus like a meager source of capital and wealth accumulation for like poor people in poor neighborhoods... And then also because American government is, has this thing that the authors of the book Abundance talk about where American government hobbles itself. It self-regulates to the point where government stuff costs more, costs too much. Because it does that, the government run bodegas are not even, you know, they're going to have to be subsidized in order to compete. So it's just going to be like a, Fiscal drain”
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