.png) |
| A convenience store in Pakistan's Hindu Kush mountains (Source of images) |
.png) |
| Pakistan is nominally "capitalist" |
.png) |
| The region is very remote and impoverished |
.png)
Government/NGO run store in Missouri after "millions of dollars invested"
.png) |
| Source |
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
Living 30 days like a Cuban (circa 2010)
Mamdani, the socialist mayoral candidate in NYC, was extolling the virtues of this success story in one of his speeches this week. Yes, we can see the benefits. Yes, we can.
ReplyDeleteERJ, those that tout the benefits of such a system have never lived under it and certainly do not expect to have to shop there themselves.
ReplyDeleteI also suspect theft is dealt with very differently there as well.
Is there evidence to suggest that a for-profit company buying that exact store would result in a better outcome?
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that that location had been under private management before the city took over.
Sounds like that location might have problems to solve that the Pakistan store you're comparing it with doesn't.
My understanding is that the entire mall went into bankruptcy. That tends to make renting complicated.
Delete"Shrinkage" or theft is a very big issue in some communities.
Regulations can be a nightmare in cities where City Hall wants the solution to be "government run". They can make private concerns jump through a bunch of hoops that they give a pass to for .gov entities.
For instance, there is a Mexican restaurant in Allendale, Michigan where the inspector decided that he did not like the owner so he slammed them with every chicken-shit regulation he could find. One of those chicken-shit regulations that he demanded compliance on was the required that the fans on the hoods be raised 12 inches which resulted in them closing the restaurant while they built the roof up around the hoods to raise the fan-motors to the exact height specified by the inspector.
I have no idea how many years the illegal fan height had been grandfathered along but I think the building was at least 15 years old and maybe as old as 40.
An example more local to me was the Irish Pub on Lansing's Westside. The owners sold. The new owners were in the middle of the remodeling prior to opening when the City of Lansing came in and demanded a multitude of "improvements". The magnitude of the improvements exploded the new owner's business model and they let the property lapse back to the city for back-taxes.
To not answer your exact question, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that businesses are much more likely to thrive in environments where the government is not a hostile, metastasizing entity.
Regulation can absolutely be misused - intentionally or not. And because it's preventive by design, we tend to see its downsides more clearly than the disasters it helps avoid.
DeleteOften, government-owned stores step in after private businesses have already failed. They’re inheriting tough conditions, not creating them.
I prefer a regulated market with profit incentives, but I think there's still a place for government-run programs when the private sector won’t (or can't) meet the need.
"They’re inheriting tough conditions, not creating them."
DeleteProof?
Delete"*Often*, government-owned stores step in *after* private businesses have *already failed*. They’re inheriting tough conditions, not creating them."
Perhaps it could have been worded better - It gives some grace to the private businesses that the government is replacing, but assuming they had valid issues to deal with - those aren't going to disappear due to a change in ownership. The very location being discussed here is an example. Private ownership failed, government stepped in and inherited the issues that store was facing already.
As ERJ points out - regulation *can* be an issue that comes from the government itself. The question then becomes which regulations would you like to see peeled back and why.
Probably chopping off thieves' hands reduces problems vs releasing them on bond and dropping charges.
ReplyDeleteAs we have found NGO means a money laundering service, not customer service.
ReplyDeleteThat's one of those "sad but true" things...
DeleteYou might enjoy this movie- "Noonas", about a guy trying to open an Italian restaurant on Staten Is.
ReplyDeleteVery un-woke for being made in 2025. One scene with the code inspector really surprised me- no way would they have cast that guy for the part two years ago.
The Cuban article reminded me a little of a woman I know, who grew up in Russia, came here as an adult about 15 years ago. Some food was not available. Store shelves were bare. You could get some of what you needed, if you knew someone. Sometimes sugar , or flour, or what have you, would be available, and people would drop everything to go stand in line and buy as much as they could. She was somewhat overwhelmed by our grocery stores.
ReplyDeleteEveryone was assigned a job by the government, - a teacher, a factory worker, a nurse, - and were expected to be at work - otherwise a state official would be knocking on your door.
Medical care was not always available when you needed it, and she told us of relatives having to travel several hours to see a doctor.
Russia is not as poor as Cuba, I don’t think, not as restrictive, but they are not free.
Southern NH
I was in construction for my second career. It didn't take long to realize that code enforcement and HOAs will take all of the profit out of a job and laugh about it. There's a malicious bend built in to code enforcement officers and HOAs. After a while, I just avoided doing any work where I would have to deal with that. Sadly enough, a lot of city dwellers and gated community residents aren't SMART enough to realize that they voted for the very things they're complaining about...
ReplyDeleteHate commies, me. Awful system.
ReplyDeleteBUT... in the pictures above, how many SQ feet of shelf space is available in each facility?
The images may be disingenuous.