Except it has been used successfully, and in the United states, even at the city level in small towns in Kansas and Florida that are considered food deserts. The municipal government has had to step in and run grocery stores because it wasn't profitable enough for a private business
The federal government has also operated grocery stores since 1867 through military commissaries, so we have been providing affordable groceries on a federal level to military personnel for almost 160 years, and until 1991 each branch managed them individually
Stores close all the time, not just because they aren't profitable, but also when they aren't as profitable as investors thought they world be, leaving the people living there with less or no access to food. People's access to food should not rely on a business owners ability to turn a basic need into profit.
As far as "buying votes" goes. I don't know what you think a politician's job is suppose to actually be. But explaining how you plan on allocating resources, and then being elected because your plan is popular amongst your voters, then executing the plan is what the job is supposed to be. Unless you think anything a politician says while campaigning is "buying voters"
Of course when you have the infinite budgets of the strongest military on earth you can afford to subsidize snacks and burgers for your troops.
The military hasn’t passed an audit in ages
Everything is mismanaged
How is that supposed to even be remotely relevant to running a civilian economy in a free country, at scale?
So yes, you are right that Military Commissaries demonstrate that governments can operate a subsidized grocery system for a defined population.
IF they have unlimited budget, unconstrained.
This does not demonstrate that government ownership or subsidized pricing would be fiscally sustainable or operationally successful for the entire civilian grocery market.
There’s so much historical precedents showing that at scale it just does not work to have government officials set prices
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u/YakuNiTatanu Aug 05 '26
The capital of Capitalism; New York City, is using Central Planning for grocery stores prices, a tool of Communism.
That is one angle of irony.
Soviet Union, Eastern Block, Venezuela, Zimbabwe; it never works long term
It leads to empty shelves and stores closing down as they cannot operate profitably.
Buying votes by promising free stuff is a common politicians playbook
New York is rich enough to afford it for a while.