977
Chad Mamdani moment as usual - don't worry about how your enemies see you. Worry about how your potential allies see you!
(media.piefed.social)
this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2026
977 points (98.9% liked)
Pragmatic Leftist Theory
1092 readers
6 users here now
The neolibs are too far right. The tankies are doing whatever that is. Where's the space for the people who want fully-automated-luxury-gay-space-communism, but realize that it's gonna take a while and there are lots of steps between now and then? Here. This is that space.
Here, people should endeavor to discuss and devise practical, actionable leftist action. Vote lesser evil while you build grassroots coalitions. Unionize your workplace. Participate in SRAs. Build cohesion your local community. Educate the proletariat.
This is a place for practical people to develop practical plans to implement stable, incremental improvement.
If you're dead-set on drumming up all 18,453 True Leftists® into spontaneous Revolution, go somewhere else. The grown ups are talking.
Rules:
-1. Don't be a dick. Racism, sexism, other assorted bigotries, you know the drill. At least try to default to mutually respectful discussion. We're all on the same side here, unless you aren't, in which case kindly leave.
-2. Don't be a tankie. Yes I'm sure you have an extensive knowledge of century-old theory. There's been a century of history since then. Things didn't shake out as expected, maybe consider the possibility that a different angle of attack might be more effective in light of new data.
-3. Be practical. No one on the left benefits from counterproductive actions. This is a space informed by, not enslaved to, ideology. Promoting actions that are fundamentally untenable in the system in question, because they fulfill a sense of ideological purity, is a bad look. Don't do that.
founded 9 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Imagine how much 'profits' is absorbed by shareholders that could've went back to the public.
Groceries are a low margin business.
If you're thinking that means government run grocery stores are unrealistic keep in mind that they already exist for the military. They're called commissaries and they sell groceries for significantly cheaper prices than private grocery stores, but they are open only to service-members and their families. We are perfectly capable of providing robust social services, but the state wants to keep it exclusive so they have an incentive for people living in poverty to join the military.
It mostly means government run doesn’t necessarily mean cheaper.
Grocery chains have huge economies of scale and sophisticated automated management of stocks, ordering, deliveries driving costs down.
A handful of government shops will likely have more overhead costs and inefficiencies than for example ALDI.
I’m not against government run shops or serving underserved communities at all. However the government doing it doesn’t mean it’s cheaper overall.
Also keep mind that some of the underserved areas have high crime rates, which is one reason for commercial business to stay away. A government run grocery store would likely need to also pay for extra security measures or guards.
US military commissaries are also cheaper because there‘s no sales tax. Of course the scale also help. Do you know if military commissaries operate at a loss or break even?
This video by More Perfect Union talks about them at length. If I remember right, it is literally required by law to be cheaper overall (25% savings across the board) with a default pricing of cost plus 1% and a variable pricing model where common staples like eggs and milk are sold at a loss and it's made up for on more niche items. They're tax-subsidized through the military, and it's an incredibly tiny portion of the budget. Some locations operate at a loss but they're not allowed to close any stores so that's why they need the subsidies.
So in short, yes, government run shops are cheaper because they're tax-subsidized, and are not required to profit or even break even. Personally I don't see any problem with government operating grocery stores at a loss to provide the working class with affordable groceries and having the rich foot the bill. In fact, I'd say that's the whole point.
Sounds sensible
Sounds like a good argument for more government run grocery stores.
We've seen that in a lot of cases, corporate-run means not present at all.
More reason to remove drain revenue.
Ah, the Mossad shill at it again...