The only thing that can stop a primary candidate with a platform like Mamdani, is depressed Dem primary turnout...
The DNC chair didn't endorse him in the primary, because this chair will never even glance at the scales during any primary.
But literal days after Mamdani became the candidate, he gave a PBS interview talking about how if Dems want to win, we need to run candidates like Mamdani.
We'll get a fair primary with nothing holding us back, and voting in the Dem primary comes with zero obligations in the general. There is absolutely zero reason to stop voting in Dem primaries now. It's more important than it's ever been, because it'll be the first fair one in at least 30 years.
But all the stuff Mamdani is doing in NYC today, can be done nationwide in just a couple years if we don't give up right before the finish line of a marathon
By the same token, now is the time to promote this message of hope and action wherever you see it, and proactively address expressions of doom and defeat, however harmless they may seem. We all share responsibility for this to the extent that, taken together, these attitudes constitute a climate of action or inaction.
Now is not the time to give up and stay home, yet there are many currently in a state of deep hopelessness they feel compelled to spread. These comrades are effectively deactivated right now, and would deactivate others if only as a comfort to themselves, to validate their fear and justify their inaction. They don’t realize, or simply aren’t considering, how contagious and harmful it can be.
Edit: If you ever wondered what JFK meant by “fear itself,” wonder no further. We’re all living in such times.
Its important to see that candidates are winning by offering something to the voters. They aren't running in orange man bad. They can feel that way, but it's not why they are running
There are like a bajillion studies relating voter psychology and political preferences. If you want conservatives to vote you run on anger, holding onto what you have, fear of the other. You want the other side to vote, you have to present a vision of what's possible.
The only one the DNC is supposed to be involved in...
And in case you don't know what that is because since slick Willy was in office (30 years ago) the neoliberals have kept their finger on the scal s and in all the pies:
That the current DNC chair was the state party chair of Minnesota for a decade with a proven track record of doing so...
That the way the neoliberals controlled politicians and entire state parties was withholding funding thru the victory fund and the current chair has immediately and without strings dumped that money back on the state parties...
That the current DNC chair said Mamdani is the type of candidate we need for president both in policy and charisma...
The reason why we keep winning special election is with the funding from the DNC, everywhere has been operating at campaign levels for a year and a half.
Normally that's only for 2 maybe 3 months before the general.
Trump controls the RNC, and if they give anyone money it'll only be the most extreme maga candidates who are likely to lose.
The cards are dealt, we just haven't laid them down yet.
Interesting, thanks. Does that mean that progressive candidates actually have a chance of getting DNC money or at least fair treatment this time around?
He can sell groceries at a loss because the money comes from other places...all of which is eventually paid for in taxes (in this case there is probably a small resitribution from rich to poor which I am happy with).
I don't mind Democrats getting caught helping their constituents. But let's not pretend he found some cheap grocery loophole; grocery store are already incredibly efficient, they only make ~3% profit. I am just speculating that the logistics needed to spin up govt groceries is much larger than the existing ~3% markup from the private sector.
Ag/food production is already subsidized, so it’s not like buying from for profit stores eliminates social aspects of the industry. On the other side, what NYC is doing is removing CEOs with multimullion dollar comp packages from the equation.
The problem is we are only talking about grocery stores where the revenue is only about 3%. Ton of problems with Big Ag which as you said is heavily subsidized. I don't mind the redistribution. I think it is great optics. But I just think it is ineffective, because grocery stores (only talking stores) are in fact very efficient already.
I don’t know of anybody who could be accurately described as “tankie” who would be against anything he’s done. They might say it doesn’t go far enough, but I wouldn’t describe that as “butthurt”. Where are you encountering comments like that?
I’m not the same commenter as the one you’ve replied to, but I’ve definitely seen tankies shitting on people who support Mamdani. I didn’t save any of those comments so I can’t directly point to any right now, but many of your comrades over on .ml are continuing to sow dissent on the left; pushing anti-voting rhetoric; and suggesting that even Mamdani doesn’t pass the purity test. It’s unhelpful at best and actively helping Republicans at worst.
My favorite are the ones who have been like "He hasn't said a single word about Palestine since the election!" that I was seeing a few months ago. Even more hilarious with his recent very public statements.
What's hilarious about his recent public statements?
He literally ran on the idea that he would arrest netanyahu, and his recent statement was "he's a war criminal, but whoopsie I actually can't arrest him, sorry"
That his very political backtracking is hilarious to you is very concerning. He's not a horrible mayor, Americans would be way better off with people like him in power, but of course socialist will shit on him as he maintains the imperial status quo. He'll talk about Palestine and keep using it as rhetoric, but so far all he's done is call netanyahu a war criminal and say he can't arrest him, and he is working very closely with several Zionists on his team.
The problem with liberals is they worship individuals instead of ideals and ideas. You can't criticize mamdani without being called a maga or tankie, there is no room for discussion, he's perfect and can do no wrong because "his moral compass points to good".
I propose he doesn't run on issues he never had intentions to deliver on. He shouldn't make promises he could never keep.
He was either woefully unprepared and didn't know that obviously he has no jurisdiction to arrest netanyahu under the ICC warrant, or he knew and lied. I don't think he's incompetent.
You may enjoy the short term benefits he brings domestically, but as an imperialist, he serves the ruling class like the rest of them. You can both celebrate wins and criticize flaws.
So, what are you doing for the cause, comrade? Other than going online and denigrating those actively improving the lives of other people. Where's your praxis?
My “comrades” are like people who signed up to the same email server, were not all familiar with each other. There’s not some meeting or private chat I can bring the matter to.
Is there anybody of significance, or significant number of people, saying these things? Or are we letting the trolls dictate the worst takes for everyone?
Just a handful of examples I found lazily searching for a couple of minutes - and that's only specific to criticising Mamdani. If you want a list of .ml users encouraging people in the US to stop voting altogether, that list would be much longer.
My “comrades” are like people who signed up to the same email server, were not all familiar with each other.
Of course you don't personally know everyone from .ml but you've been here long enough to know exactly the kind of person that maintains and posts from an account on .ml. Tankies spouting No True Scotsman, anti-voting, leftist-dividing, Russia/PRC dick-sucking rhetoric are par for the course. It's why as soon as someone comments from a .ml domain the rest of us collecvitely sigh and brace ourselves before we read what you have to say.
I'm not denying that there are reasonable and rational people from .ml - you yourself seem to be one of them - but there is so much bad faith whataboutism and tankie nonsense that people like yourself who continue to maintain a .ml account end up getting lumped in with them.
I have been blocking .ml for a couple of days now after having been argued with in bad faith, having words put into my mouth and basically having been declared one of "Hitlers Helpers" for just talking about my lived experience with the GDR and being a social democrat instead of a communist.
Lemmy in its entirety has become so much more pleasant and the amount of posts and comments that go "voting makes no sense at all" that I see has plummeted to basically nothing. It's very refreshing.
When I originally joined Lemmy I joined .ml because it seemed like the default instance. It's hosted by the devs! It seemed like a good choice. But as this platform has grown and especially during the lead up to the 2024 election the awful side of that instance really started to show and I decided to leave. I'm glad I did. It sucks that the dev-hosted instance is such a cesspit as that is where I would expect new users to end up.
Honestly, I would not be surprised if something like 80% of those that identify as tankies online are just paid actors working to try to depress Democratic turnout.
You need to understand the difference between shitting on people and calling out hypocrisy
Let's follow this train of thought that ended with people believing that rare instances of successful compromised socialism through voting is more socialist than marxism
When a Israel parade takes place in NY people will call it out and demand support for genocidal ethno state cease completely, of course the mayor wants to do that but the power you gain from being voted in is limited, limited by the people allowing you to stay in office, take a look at khan in ICC, this isn't very good because it makes democracy look like a failed system, it isn't we just like to consider the powerful as morally just people that will adhere to it, thinking otherwise is too scary to consider, listen i don't get paid enough to hate governments
So naturally democrats wanting to get any sort of legitimacy for voting even though a pedophile was voted into office(the goal is to maintain stability at the sacrifice of change) will label this criticism or pointing out limits of power of the voted in representatives as an attack on change, the idea here is that any concession allowed by the ruling class must not be judged or criticized, turning the struggle against them into a struggle for them, they did permit us to have Mamdani so we should not question it further and just focus on throwing away the original principles that the movement stood for and instead have Mamdani become the movement to highlight how successful it is, he was the 1 in 100 good apple the system leaked through so there's no way he's suppressed or contained, did i say concession earlier, i meant victory
Now that we've adapted to this new successful view(the 1 in 100 Mamdanism) that keeps giving legitimacy to democracy we can shit on anyone, especially people who used to criticize us, like tankies! But wait we were both against the epstein class, wars in middle east how come we're against them now? Well they must have veered away from their principles of socialism, see socialism is all about democracy(alarm bells) trust me and tankies criticize our democratic representatives, we also agree with them on criticism for 99/100 of the representatives but listen, tankies are enemies, not just any enemies, a bigger enemy than misrepresentation even! If they judge any representative we don't judge then they're against the 1in100Mamdanism movement which is socialism(through elections but don't bring that up now, we made progress here), if they do agree well that's good but it doesn't show greatness of elections and stability so why focus on it
It's better to point at tankies as the evildoers who tried to get in our way whenever the 1in100Mamdanism succeeds again, than to point to the Democrats and republicans that did a smear campaign against him, because we are a fair and functioning democracy, and pointing the latter puts a question mark on something that should never be questioned
I don’t know of anybody who could be accurately described as “tankie” who would be against anything he’s done. They might say it doesn’t go far enough, but I wouldn’t describe that as “butthurt”. Where are you encountering comments like that?
Because when you are terminally online, nothing irl will ever be good enough.
Tankies just want to talk about Socialism in a perfect vacuum. Why would they want to talk about someone actually doing things. That requires effort.
I feel like it's the complete opposite. The people that I see online who end up being labelled as "tankies" are usually the ones asking the hard questions about how to actually achieve socialism in the real world, while liberals and social democrats are the ones dreaming in a vacuum, basically arguing that we'll just have to ask the billionaires and imperialists nicely to give up their money and power, etc., ad infinitum.
They are? I feel like you're butthurt about tankies advocating for marxism that any success the ideology has needs to be stripped away from it and announced as against it?
I've never seen a single tankie hating on mumdani if anything they just keep hating on everyone who's hating on mumdani, because mumdani actually pushes socialist policies
I'm getting very confused what i'm supposed to be arguing against here, is your point that tankies aren't socialist?
Even the Egyptian kings knew if they kept the populace fed, sheltered, and somewhat entertained that the public would do what they were told. Now with so many homeless and so many joining the ranks quickly they're voice is being shut out by the same people who are causing famine, disease, and chaos in order to profit from it.
Mr. Mamdani is a student of history and realizes this, not so much because he wants to control the populace but because he's a good person. He has a moral compass that points to "good" - for the good of all.
It's literally bread and circuses. Meanwhile capitalism has decided to take away bread and jack up the price of circuses and they are surprised the people are turning on it. Thoughts and prayers don't fill stomachs: actions do.
Look at this guy. Finally, people who are able to bring together a broad front of the left, in order to actually fight. Who thunk it’d be an unapologetic “hardcore” socialist party that includes Marxist-Leninists, anarchists, social democrats, pro-electoral socialists, union socialists and even progressive liberals.
The fascists were able to effectively organize and seize power because they were able to bring together a front that included moderates, independents, white supremacists, randians, neo-Nazis and bible thumpers, all who disagreed on some level but found common ground on hatred, classism and selfish greed.
True. And the DSA platform includes doing away with the senate. I’d also do away with the executive and have a prime minister appointed instead by congress. One person should not have their own cabinet with complete control of the administration of bureaucratic agencies. We could all benefit from a parliamentary system, especially with representation for DC, US territories, representatives from the collective of tribal nations and Puerto Rico.
Maybe we have a shot at catching up with the rest of the world, instead of remaining in the political Stone Age.
The fascists didn’t have popular support, though. They only won because it was a coup. The US is not a democracy.
Can you please clarify what you mean? While I agree with your conclusion, I don't follow your two statements leading up to it, especially the coup part. Are you talking about the last presidential election or something else?
Thanks. I'll have to read up on those allegations. The official counts appear to show that Trump received over 2 million more votes than Harris, so it seems to me any fraud to make this happen would have needed to be massive. We do have the electoral college system so I guess it's possible that smaller efforts could have flipped the result, but we barely hear anything about any of this in the media. Given that, my first instinct to the idea that Trump's win in 2024 was a coup is to think that it's a liberal version of MAGA's 2020 election fraud claims.
There were (are) a bunch of lawsuits about it. The DOJ being firmly in the hands of the Trump administration is actually one of the reasons many of these cases aren't seeing light, not to mention all major media outlets are now owned by Trump supporters.
One I remember in particular were several counties in NY state where votes for a Dem senator were recorded, but NO votes for president were recorded. Many thousands of times.
The coup is in progress; and we won't know if it succeeds or not until November I guess
Thanks for the link. I have no doubt that lawsuits fly with every election, especially national/presidential ones, but the main question for me would be how many more legitimate lawsuits were filed in response to 2024 compared to 2020, 2016, 2012? I have a hard time believing that there was widespread fraud and a coup this last election if nearly no one talks about it, not just in major media outlets but also non-major media, alternative media, social media. I can count on my fingers the number of times I've seen this mentioned.
Well, Trump did say that his buddy Elon is very good with computers, including voting machines, and would ensure a victory... That alone should trigger an alarm bell
As someone that used to buy produce wholesale at the same warehouse that several local supermarkets did, you have no idea how much produce is marked up for retail. None at all.
I suppose there's a big markup to account for what they'll end up throwing out, and then the high price is part of why there's so much unsold and needing to be disposed of.
a lot of that ugly produce is what goes into canning and pre-made products.
This is just supposition on my part based on personal experience, but it seems ever since the tariff bullshit started, the availability of quality produce has crashed for me in america, and not only are the "ugly" ones ending up on shelves now, but even damaged ones. . as if theres not enough produce coming in to to allow stores to be selective on what appears on shelves vs what goes into canning/etc.
I've noticed potatos are smaller, often heavily blemished, meaning I might get 2/3rds of a the weight of edible potato with 1/3rd going to scrap because of damage/etc.
Tomatos too, tend to be smaller, often bruised, and i've found rot inside more tomtatos since tariff bullshit started, than in all the decades before.
Carrots are thin, spindly, and barely have any crunch to them.
Lettuce is now giving everyone Trumparrhea
Onions, even worse than potatos, are blemished or mouldy, and I might be lucky to get half a pound of edible onion for every pound I buy.
and its same with everything else I've not mentioned in the produce section.
I imagine some of this may be regional as well, so that people on the opposite side of the country from me might not have the same experience.
A lot of produce goes bad as well. They regularly throw out a lot of it (unfortunately much of it into bins, but I guess there's a food safety issue with giving it to homeless people).
Grocery stores in my country are operating on a 2-5% profit margin. All companies' annual reports are public and shareholders can't take dividends unless there's profit AND there's no tax on profit, only on dividends, so there's little incentive to hide profits. And no, grocery prices aren't cheap here either, they're up a lot in the last 6 years and change.
If Mamdani could cut costs 30%, either the stores aren't turning a profit (which they don't need to since they're being run for the benefit of New Yorkers), or Americans have it much worse in terms of price gouging. I suspect it might be the latter if there aren't as many competing chains in the US. Here we've got 3-4 even in many small towns, 6-7 in the cities, and of course small independent ones in some places. And one of them is a co-op. But I'd still expect NYC in particular to have healthy competition, it's such a huge market and so dense, room for a lot of competing stores.
Where the markup is criminal IMO is nonperishable goods. Fucking regular pens with a 300% markup in office supply stores, etc. Stuff they don't have to throw out after a few days.
Large scale covid inflation was caused by FED printing too much money. This isn't something Mamdani can fix he can only do band-aid solutions on top of the issue.
Large scale covid inflation was caused by FED printing too much money
Was it? Considering the inflation was global I figured it was more impacted by lack of supply and an increase in disposable income for those who were able to still work but not go anywhere.
Really? Actually I thought it was caused by retailers taking the opportunity to increase prices when everyone thought prices would increase due to covid.
Basically all central banks did the same thing. Lack of supply was an issue, but it was massively worsened by all additional spending. If you look at asset prices everything was going up, from stocks to bitcoin, not just consumption goods
While you are absolutely correct here I’m only commenting to say that nobody ever accepts that money supply is the main driver of inflation because there are a lot of factors that impact short term inflation and confuse the issue.
What makes it worse is the media loves to cite these short term fluctuations because they are convenient and click baity, but when central banks print money you get inflation, this is an absolute fact but everyone seems to love to ignore it or disregard it.
It’s so damn frustrating to see people do this over and over and over again.
Anyway sorry for the long winded comment basically just aggressively agreeing with you, I just needed to vent after I saw yet another person above try to disregard the truth yet again.
damn commies. Don't they know that the big grocery stores need to make ANOTHER billion dollar profit? I mean, if the CEOs don't buy those billion dollar yachts, who will? THINK OF THE YACHT COMPANIES!
This isn't supposed to be snarky, by the way. I love what Mamdani's doing, this is just about the photography and the editorial choice to use that photo instead of one three seconds later where they might be smiling
The funniest headlines from NYP and Fox are simultaneously promoting socialist democrats and criticizing the DNC centrist they are aiming to replace lol.
Also when you scroll down on the page, the background gets more red. Is that a subtle "we're turning more communist" joke? (Ok, it says linear-gradient(180deg,#e2f3ff,#ffecd9), which isn't really red)
Scalping. What is preventing people from buying out the store in bulk and reselling outside the store for a profit.
30% of what? If private grocery stores drop their prices/profits to be competitive, will these municipal stores drop their prices again? I would think a set profit rate for a municipal store would cut out price gouging, but allow private grocery stores to continue operations.
What are actual profit margins that grocery stores in the city are running on? Many articles say 1-3% profits are typical for grocery stores. Is this true for NYC?
Is this expected to a budget expense or a self funded operation after the initial investment?
EDIT: To be clear I want this to succeed. Questioning the government's implementation should be encouraged
The details aren't all there yet, but potential options:
scalping - put an upper limit order value or max number of an item in place. You can't completely remove scalping, but if they can maintain stock, there isn't a real need to go to a scalper.
30% of what is the current grocery price. If other stores drop their price then I would expect the price differential will drop but the objective will be met then.
Odds are the municipal store won't compete on every item, but more the essentials. I'd expect it to look more like an Aldi than a store with 60 options. Lower prices should cause higher turnover of perishable items and lower variety would minimize hitting expiration dates. Shrink is where a lot of profit is lost in grocery stores, so it's a good thing to target. Municipal store should also be able to use some government beuracracy (food stamps, food banks) already in place to have lower overhead.
it should be able to be self funded but realize it will likely start linking together food security programs (food stamps, wic) which would look like it is getting extra gov funding even though the tax burden wouldn't change.
Other people going to the store doesn't stop scalpers from clearing the shelves. If they restock overnight, scalpers can and do wait for stores to open just so they can clear them out.
Logic implies that the prices are being compared to other stores.
Imagine this scenario. Private grocery store (PGS) sells bread for $5 a loaf. Municipal grocery store (MGS) sells bread for $3.50. PGS decides to cut their profits margins (citation needed) and sell at a competitive $3.50. MSG sells bread at $2.75 (after all this is 70% of 3.50). This repeats until the PGS goes out of business and the operating cost of MSG is much higher than expected.
Stores are often easily able to put a limit per transaction. I don't think a scalper is going to go through the till 500 times to clear the store of its 1000 jugs of milk limited to 2 per person.
I don't think anybody is going to buy wholesale quantities of bootleg food at only slightly better cost than normal. If this one store runs out, there's all the competitors that still have normal priced whatever it is.
Like this is like an elementary school math problem, this wont make a difference to the store if somebody buys 40 pies.
During the press conference a journalist asked the question on scalping and the EDC director said that they would have mechanisms in place to prevent it.
Scalping. What is preventing people from buying out the store in bulk and reselling outside the store for a profit.
You're going to buy out all the lettuce and expect to move the volume of a grocery store on your lonesome? With all the labor of buying it out of their storefront, repacking, etc? If you want it that bad, go for it. Do you do this now, or something?
You simply underestimate how many people will be lining up to buy bootleg lettuce out of the back of a van so that they can save 10 cents off the for-profit store price while not having to suffer the indignity of going to the commie store. Only have to move a few tons a day to make a tidy profit, it's easy money!
a core basket of everyday groceries will be 30 percent cheaper at the five new municipal grocery stores. The basket will include all fresh produce, meat and seafood, along with roughly 20 additional categories of pantry staples, dairy and refrigerated goods
First off, the headline on this post does not match the current one on the article.. The current headline on the article is:
Mayor Mamdani Unveils 30% Discount — Including All Produce, All Meat and Key Pantry Staples — at New Municipal Grocery Stores
So the discount is not on everything. It's basically on healthy foods and staples. I would assume that the margins on the rest of the items will be set to cover the costs of the discounted ones. Also, a store like this is not supposed to be a profit center.
It's supposed to make healthy foods available to people who struggle to afford it. If the store breaks even after rent, utilities, and payroll, then I would call it a glorious success.
I see no reason to assume there is a subsidy involved. Grocery stores make money. The initial outlay to build and stock the stores is going to come from city taxes, I assume. But the discounts, as my prior post said, are only on some items. The revenue from the higher margin, non-discounted items can cover the costs of the discounted ones assuming they price things right. The store only needs to break even to be a resounding success.
You understand the groceries still cost something right? Your acting like their giving them away for free. A public option doesn't have to support billions in profit for the CEO, executives, and investors, so reducing price is much much easier if your only goal is to break even. The goal is no cost to the taxpayer, no profit for the city.
leaving aside the answers other people have given, if NYC can afford a world class private military with a ~$10B USD budget, they can afford to cover a minor deficit in food budget. It's like food stamps but cuts out a layer of bureaucracy and thus lower cost.
The 'extra' money comes from jacking up the prices in other items in the same store, like candy and sodas. And from not spending as much money on other stuff like marketing and bonuses.
There are two sides to the profit equation: expenses and revenue.
In order for a store to make more profit, they can either increase their revenue (by raising prices, for example), or they can decrease their expenses (by laying people off, buying from cheaper suppliers, or paying executives less, for example).
So these stores are lowering prices on some items. And making it up by some combination of RAISING prices on other items, and LOWERING their costs in other areas like marketing, executive bonuses, etc.
People are giving you uninformed answers, but to be fair, you just could have searched it yourself.
The stores haven't even opened yet. The first are expected to open by the end of 2027.
The plan says they get the real estate from the city for free or very cheap. Also subsidies for groceries in the "core basket".
The City, through NYCEDC, will provide the foundation and deliver grocery-ready sites, cover rent and property taxes, fund initial buildout, and establish a single public brand for all N.Y.C. Groceries locations. The City will also set clear requirements for affordability, job quality, transparency, and performance.
To support this effort, the City has committed $70 million in capital funding for store construction and fit-out.
So the answer is city subsidies, payed for with tax dollars.
Where those dollars will be coming from within the city budget has not yet been announced, but seeing as they have time until end of 2027, there's likely going to be a lot of budget-shuffling and negotiations until a budget-position is going to be revealed.
Might be in the NYC budget already, but I don't see reporting on it, nor do I have the time to go over that.
In my opinion it's a relatively good and easy way of redistributing money from top to bottom. You know, like schools, libraries, public pools (or free universities in better countries). Because it directly addresses a need of the poorest New Yorkers without just handing them money and implements a "food as a human right" response to corpos profiting off of societies need for groceries.
Yes, that's my guess too, rent in NYC has to be a huge part of any supermarket budget. But this is still a subsidiary as loss of income is budgetary the same as an expense.
I thanked them because they actually provided an answer that no one else did, as they pointed out in the first sentence. You still don't know what sealioning is.
Likely the same reason "Chinese groceries" are so cheap...
The absolute vast majority of Americans get their food from the same handful of corporations that all have insanely high markups at every step of their vertical integration to obfuscate profits.
The "Chinese groceries" have built up their own infrastructure that buys from small farmers all over the nation and transporta fresh produce more effectively than corporations. Because corporations just prioritize shelf stability and looks over flavor and nutrition.
Now, to be fair this is also true to a lesser extent for Hispanic and other "ethnic groceries" as well, but more often than not they're plugged into the Chinese infrastructure as well, especially for produce that isn't in season locally. It's really the only option a small restaurant has to make it these days.
Which means they're the safest to eat at during widespread outbreaks like were seeing now. Because all the chains use the same giant suppliers.
That was a joke answer. You probably aren't familiar with the western internet meme culture. This was a mockery of people not wanting to answer your question.
For the city. If it was owned privately, the owner would min-max everything for more profit. Having it run by the city could mean just operating at break-even
Trying to argue ethical purities is pretty pointless. I don't know where the piefed.world server is hosted but it's probably not powered the same way. Regardless, there is environmental damage caused by any kind of consumerism, such as the creation and shipping of your bicycle or the generator it's connected to, unless you built the bicycle out of bamboo and the generator out of rocks. And that's ok. You don't need to justify that to anyone. Being ethical can just mean being a minimal consumer to a reasonable degree. Which it sounds like you are.
A lot of people don't know how to cook vegan meals, or that you can get a full balanced nutrition from vegan meals, or how to shop for vegan meals. You can't force people to buy vegan-only food or to eat vegan.
Sure, pricing them out of meat might encourage them to eat vegan, but that just adds to social stratification because anyone who can afford it will still eat it. It would be better to reform the agriculture system as a whole, not try to reduce meat consumption by pricing the poors out of it while the rich gorge themselves.
That would be like trying to save the environment by making commercial flights more expensive. Rich people will still use private jets, which are the main contributor to emissions. Commercial flights are more efficient than personal vehicles on a per-passenger basis for medium- and long-hauls
While you are technically correct (fellow vegan here), this ain’t the time or place. The rest of the world isn’t vegan, and we can’t afford to be split up over moral differences.
Let’s advocate for animals after the threat of having targets painted on our backs is gone. We can’t advocate for animals if we’re exiled, thrown in jail or at worst, shot for expressing our political beliefs. We need to rally behind the Mamdanis in this country.
I agree with you in spirit. Also, even if we converted 10k nonvegans to vegans today, it wouldn’t begin to put a dent in the trillions of animals suffering per year for human consumption.
You can’t ignore intersectionality. We can get a few vegans onboard in a capitalist context, but it’s like trying to light a match underwater.
Undo capitalism, and veganism can spread like wildfire. People are always going to put their human concerns first.
193 Comments
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 91 pts · 18d
The only thing that can stop a primary candidate with a platform like Mamdani, is depressed Dem primary turnout...
The DNC chair didn't endorse him in the primary, because this chair will never even glance at the scales during any primary.
But literal days after Mamdani became the candidate, he gave a PBS interview talking about how if Dems want to win, we need to run candidates like Mamdani.
We'll get a fair primary with nothing holding us back, and voting in the Dem primary comes with zero obligations in the general. There is absolutely zero reason to stop voting in Dem primaries now. It's more important than it's ever been, because it'll be the first fair one in at least 30 years.
But all the stuff Mamdani is doing in NYC today, can be done nationwide in just a couple years if we don't give up right before the finish line of a marathon
Septimaeus@infosec.pub · 20 pts · 18d
By the same token, now is the time to promote this message of hope and action wherever you see it, and proactively address expressions of doom and defeat, however harmless they may seem. We all share responsibility for this to the extent that, taken together, these attitudes constitute a climate of action or inaction.
Now is not the time to give up and stay home, yet there are many currently in a state of deep hopelessness they feel compelled to spread. These comrades are effectively deactivated right now, and would deactivate others if only as a comfort to themselves, to validate their fear and justify their inaction. They don’t realize, or simply aren’t considering, how contagious and harmful it can be.
Edit: If you ever wondered what JFK meant by “fear itself,” wonder no further. We’re all living in such times.
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 18d
Its important to see that candidates are winning by offering something to the voters. They aren't running in orange man bad. They can feel that way, but it's not why they are running
There are like a bajillion studies relating voter psychology and political preferences. If you want conservatives to vote you run on anger, holding onto what you have, fear of the other. You want the other side to vote, you have to present a vision of what's possible.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 17d
Which upcoming dem primary are you referring to when you say "it'll be the first fair one in at least 30 years"?
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 17d
The only one the DNC is supposed to be involved in...
And in case you don't know what that is because since slick Willy was in office (30 years ago) the neoliberals have kept their finger on the scal s and in all the pies:
The presidential primary
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 17d
Got it, thanks. What leads you to believe that the neoliberals will not have their finger on the scales in the next presidential primary?
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 17d
That the current DNC chair was the state party chair of Minnesota for a decade with a proven track record of doing so...
That the way the neoliberals controlled politicians and entire state parties was withholding funding thru the victory fund and the current chair has immediately and without strings dumped that money back on the state parties...
That the current DNC chair said Mamdani is the type of candidate we need for president both in policy and charisma...
And a bunch of other reasons.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 17d
Thanks. I guess I hadn't been keeping an eye on the DNC over the last couple of years. I hope that this will pan out!
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 17d
It already is...
The reason why we keep winning special election is with the funding from the DNC, everywhere has been operating at campaign levels for a year and a half.
Normally that's only for 2 maybe 3 months before the general.
Trump controls the RNC, and if they give anyone money it'll only be the most extreme maga candidates who are likely to lose.
The cards are dealt, we just haven't laid them down yet.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 17d
Interesting, thanks. Does that mean that progressive candidates actually have a chance of getting DNC money or at least fair treatment this time around?
Jaysyn@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 17d
The neoliberals lost control of the DNC after the 2024 election.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 17d
Thanks. I wasn't really aware of the DNS goings on, so it's good to know.
BigMacHole@thelemmy.club · 67 pts · 18d
I can't WAIT to VOTE him OUT so I can pay MORE for Groceries again!
-LITERALLY Republican Voters!
Surp@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 17d
Excuse me for wanting to be poor!
holy_scroller@lemmy.zip · -6 pts · 17d
Not a Republican, but there is a lot of nuance.
He can sell groceries at a loss because the money comes from other places...all of which is eventually paid for in taxes (in this case there is probably a small resitribution from rich to poor which I am happy with).
I don't mind Democrats getting caught helping their constituents. But let's not pretend he found some cheap grocery loophole; grocery store are already incredibly efficient, they only make ~3% profit. I am just speculating that the logistics needed to spin up govt groceries is much larger than the existing ~3% markup from the private sector.
potpotato@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 17d
Ag/food production is already subsidized, so it’s not like buying from for profit stores eliminates social aspects of the industry. On the other side, what NYC is doing is removing CEOs with multimullion dollar comp packages from the equation.
holy_scroller@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 17d
The problem is we are only talking about grocery stores where the revenue is only about 3%. Ton of problems with Big Ag which as you said is heavily subsidized. I don't mind the redistribution. I think it is great optics. But I just think it is ineffective, because grocery stores (only talking stores) are in fact very efficient already.
bowsertattoo@piefed.social · 4 pts · 17d
grocery stores are efficient for their owners, but not for food. grocery stores waste a lot of food. source: i used to eat grocery store dumpster food
holy_scroller@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 17d
If they were efficient for their owners, there profit would be a shit ton more than 3% of revenue.
Food dumping is its own issue. I bet the government grocery stores will have to follow the exact same laws.
The Piggly Wigley or the Bodega are not raking it in.
quarkquasar@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 16d
It's true, the people who own the stores make barely anything.
We all know capitalists just help people out of the goodness of their hearts. That's why America has free health care and no gun worries.
holy_scroller@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 16d
I would suggest you look up exactly what they make. Plenty of grocery stores are publicly traded companies. Go ask a bodega owner.
cheers_queers@lemmy.zip · 60 pts · 18d
and the tankies are soooooooo butthurt. calling him a libtard and stuff. at least he is doing SOMETHING USEFUL.
underisk@lemmy.ml · 22 pts · 18d
I don’t know of anybody who could be accurately described as “tankie” who would be against anything he’s done. They might say it doesn’t go far enough, but I wouldn’t describe that as “butthurt”. Where are you encountering comments like that?
Instigate@aussie.zone · 25 pts · 18d
I’m not the same commenter as the one you’ve replied to, but I’ve definitely seen tankies shitting on people who support Mamdani. I didn’t save any of those comments so I can’t directly point to any right now, but many of your comrades over on .ml are continuing to sow dissent on the left; pushing anti-voting rhetoric; and suggesting that even Mamdani doesn’t pass the purity test. It’s unhelpful at best and actively helping Republicans at worst.
Rekhyt@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 18d
My favorite are the ones who have been like "He hasn't said a single word about Palestine since the election!" that I was seeing a few months ago. Even more hilarious with his recent very public statements.
3abas@lemmy.world · -9 pts · 17d
What's hilarious about his recent public statements?
He literally ran on the idea that he would arrest netanyahu, and his recent statement was "he's a war criminal, but whoopsie I actually can't arrest him, sorry"
That his very political backtracking is hilarious to you is very concerning. He's not a horrible mayor, Americans would be way better off with people like him in power, but of course socialist will shit on him as he maintains the imperial status quo. He'll talk about Palestine and keep using it as rhetoric, but so far all he's done is call netanyahu a war criminal and say he can't arrest him, and he is working very closely with several Zionists on his team.
The problem with liberals is they worship individuals instead of ideals and ideas. You can't criticize mamdani without being called a maga or tankie, there is no room for discussion, he's perfect and can do no wrong because "his moral compass points to good".
wanderingmagus@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 17d
What do you propose he do then?
3abas@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 17d
*does nothing
I propose he doesn't run on issues he never had intentions to deliver on. He shouldn't make promises he could never keep.
He was either woefully unprepared and didn't know that obviously he has no jurisdiction to arrest netanyahu under the ICC warrant, or he knew and lied. I don't think he's incompetent.
You may enjoy the short term benefits he brings domestically, but as an imperialist, he serves the ruling class like the rest of them. You can both celebrate wins and criticize flaws.
Stop worshipping politicians.
wanderingmagus@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 15d
So, what are you doing for the cause, comrade? Other than going online and denigrating those actively improving the lives of other people. Where's your praxis?
underisk@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 18d
My “comrades” are like people who signed up to the same email server, were not all familiar with each other. There’s not some meeting or private chat I can bring the matter to.
Is there anybody of significance, or significant number of people, saying these things? Or are we letting the trolls dictate the worst takes for everyone?
Instigate@aussie.zone · 13 pts · 18d
https://aussie.zone/post/34009816/23629202
https://aussie.zone/post/34788654/24037514
https://aussie.zone/post/34745780/24008930
https://aussie.zone/post/34745780/24008953
Just a handful of examples I found lazily searching for a couple of minutes - and that's only specific to criticising Mamdani. If you want a list of .ml users encouraging people in the US to stop voting altogether, that list would be much longer.
Of course you don't personally know everyone from .ml but you've been here long enough to know exactly the kind of person that maintains and posts from an account on .ml. Tankies spouting No True Scotsman, anti-voting, leftist-dividing, Russia/PRC dick-sucking rhetoric are par for the course. It's why as soon as someone comments from a .ml domain the rest of us collecvitely sigh and brace ourselves before we read what you have to say.
I'm not denying that there are reasonable and rational people from .ml - you yourself seem to be one of them - but there is so much bad faith whataboutism and tankie nonsense that people like yourself who continue to maintain a .ml account end up getting lumped in with them.
Enkrod@feddit.org · 11 pts · 17d
I have been blocking .ml for a couple of days now after having been argued with in bad faith, having words put into my mouth and basically having been declared one of "Hitlers Helpers" for just talking about my lived experience with the GDR and being a social democrat instead of a communist.
Lemmy in its entirety has become so much more pleasant and the amount of posts and comments that go "voting makes no sense at all" that I see has plummeted to basically nothing. It's very refreshing.
CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 17d
When I originally joined Lemmy I joined .ml because it seemed like the default instance. It's hosted by the devs! It seemed like a good choice. But as this platform has grown and especially during the lead up to the 2024 election the awful side of that instance really started to show and I decided to leave. I'm glad I did. It sucks that the dev-hosted instance is such a cesspit as that is where I would expect new users to end up.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 17d
Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of lemmy.ml?
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 17d
Honestly, I would not be surprised if something like 80% of those that identify as tankies online are just paid actors working to try to depress Democratic turnout.
PotatoPie@lemmy.zip · -2 pts · 17d
You need to understand the difference between shitting on people and calling out hypocrisy
Let's follow this train of thought that ended with people believing that rare instances of successful compromised socialism through voting is more socialist than marxism
When a Israel parade takes place in NY people will call it out and demand support for genocidal ethno state cease completely, of course the mayor wants to do that but the power you gain from being voted in is limited, limited by the people allowing you to stay in office, take a look at khan in ICC, this isn't very good because it makes democracy look like a failed system, it isn't we just like to consider the powerful as morally just people that will adhere to it, thinking otherwise is too scary to consider, listen i don't get paid enough to hate governments
So naturally democrats wanting to get any sort of legitimacy for voting even though a pedophile was voted into office(the goal is to maintain stability at the sacrifice of change) will label this criticism or pointing out limits of power of the voted in representatives as an attack on change, the idea here is that any concession allowed by the ruling class must not be judged or criticized, turning the struggle against them into a struggle for them, they did permit us to have Mamdani so we should not question it further and just focus on throwing away the original principles that the movement stood for and instead have Mamdani become the movement to highlight how successful it is, he was the 1 in 100 good apple the system leaked through so there's no way he's suppressed or contained, did i say concession earlier, i meant victory
Now that we've adapted to this new successful view(the 1 in 100 Mamdanism) that keeps giving legitimacy to democracy we can shit on anyone, especially people who used to criticize us, like tankies! But wait we were both against the epstein class, wars in middle east how come we're against them now? Well they must have veered away from their principles of socialism, see socialism is all about democracy(alarm bells) trust me and tankies criticize our democratic representatives, we also agree with them on criticism for 99/100 of the representatives but listen, tankies are enemies, not just any enemies, a bigger enemy than misrepresentation even! If they judge any representative we don't judge then they're against the 1in100Mamdanism movement which is socialism(through elections but don't bring that up now, we made progress here), if they do agree well that's good but it doesn't show greatness of elections and stability so why focus on it
It's better to point at tankies as the evildoers who tried to get in our way whenever the 1in100Mamdanism succeeds again, than to point to the Democrats and republicans that did a smear campaign against him, because we are a fair and functioning democracy, and pointing the latter puts a question mark on something that should never be questioned
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 18d
Because when you are terminally online, nothing irl will ever be good enough.
cheers_queers@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 18d
it was .ml or hexbear, cant remember which
13igTyme@piefed.social · 12 pts · 17d
Tankies just want to talk about Socialism in a perfect vacuum. Why would they want to talk about someone actually doing things. That requires effort.
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 17d
Oh and they love spending lots of time and effort trying to make "blue maga" happen, LOL.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · -2 pts · 17d
I feel like it's the complete opposite. The people that I see online who end up being labelled as "tankies" are usually the ones asking the hard questions about how to actually achieve socialism in the real world, while liberals and social democrats are the ones dreaming in a vacuum, basically arguing that we'll just have to ask the billionaires and imperialists nicely to give up their money and power, etc., ad infinitum.
aaa999@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 17d
mamdani is aes and the soviet union isn't, deal with it nerds
PotatoPie@lemmy.zip · -6 pts · 17d
They are? I feel like you're butthurt about tankies advocating for marxism that any success the ideology has needs to be stripped away from it and announced as against it?
I've never seen a single tankie hating on mumdani if anything they just keep hating on everyone who's hating on mumdani, because mumdani actually pushes socialist policies
I'm getting very confused what i'm supposed to be arguing against here, is your point that tankies aren't socialist?
...?
KulunkelBoom@lemmus.org · 55 pts · 18d
Even the Egyptian kings knew if they kept the populace fed, sheltered, and somewhat entertained that the public would do what they were told. Now with so many homeless and so many joining the ranks quickly they're voice is being shut out by the same people who are causing famine, disease, and chaos in order to profit from it.
Mr. Mamdani is a student of history and realizes this, not so much because he wants to control the populace but because he's a good person. He has a moral compass that points to "good" - for the good of all.
raze2012@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 17d
It's literally bread and circuses. Meanwhile capitalism has decided to take away bread and jack up the price of circuses and they are surprised the people are turning on it. Thoughts and prayers don't fill stomachs: actions do.
kreskin@lemmy.world · 39 pts · 17d
This guy has some style. Who would have thought serving the publics needs would play so well?
DNC, do you see any of this?
IhaveCrabs111@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 17d
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 17d
you kidding? you can take a ton of bribes. you just can't take them twice
bitjunkie@lemmy.world · 38 pts · 17d
This dude balanced the budget while increasing school funding and this? It's almost like the DNC is full of thieves…
hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip · 29 pts · 17d
Look at this guy. Finally, people who are able to bring together a broad front of the left, in order to actually fight. Who thunk it’d be an unapologetic “hardcore” socialist party that includes Marxist-Leninists, anarchists, social democrats, pro-electoral socialists, union socialists and even progressive liberals.
The fascists were able to effectively organize and seize power because they were able to bring together a front that included moderates, independents, white supremacists, randians, neo-Nazis and bible thumpers, all who disagreed on some level but found common ground on hatred, classism and selfish greed.
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 16 pts · 17d
The fascists didn't have popular support, though. They only won because it was a coup. The US is not a democracy.
Fix the election system, and we'll get leftists in the White House.
hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 17d
True. And the DSA platform includes doing away with the senate. I’d also do away with the executive and have a prime minister appointed instead by congress. One person should not have their own cabinet with complete control of the administration of bureaucratic agencies. We could all benefit from a parliamentary system, especially with representation for DC, US territories, representatives from the collective of tribal nations and Puerto Rico.
Maybe we have a shot at catching up with the rest of the world, instead of remaining in the political Stone Age.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 17d
Can you please clarify what you mean? While I agree with your conclusion, I don't follow your two statements leading up to it, especially the coup part. Are you talking about the last presidential election or something else?
brownsugga@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 17d
There are multiple lawsuits alleging fraud in the 2024 election, on the part of Trump, Elon and various republican factions
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 17d
Thanks. I'll have to read up on those allegations. The official counts appear to show that Trump received over 2 million more votes than Harris, so it seems to me any fraud to make this happen would have needed to be massive. We do have the electoral college system so I guess it's possible that smaller efforts could have flipped the result, but we barely hear anything about any of this in the media. Given that, my first instinct to the idea that Trump's win in 2024 was a coup is to think that it's a liberal version of MAGA's 2020 election fraud claims.
brownsugga@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 17d
https://ballotpedia.org/Election_lawsuits_and_litigation,_2024
There were (are) a bunch of lawsuits about it. The DOJ being firmly in the hands of the Trump administration is actually one of the reasons many of these cases aren't seeing light, not to mention all major media outlets are now owned by Trump supporters.
One I remember in particular were several counties in NY state where votes for a Dem senator were recorded, but NO votes for president were recorded. Many thousands of times.
The coup is in progress; and we won't know if it succeeds or not until November I guess
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 16d
Thanks for the link. I have no doubt that lawsuits fly with every election, especially national/presidential ones, but the main question for me would be how many more legitimate lawsuits were filed in response to 2024 compared to 2020, 2016, 2012? I have a hard time believing that there was widespread fraud and a coup this last election if nearly no one talks about it, not just in major media outlets but also non-major media, alternative media, social media. I can count on my fingers the number of times I've seen this mentioned.
boonhet@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 17d
Well, Trump did say that his buddy Elon is very good with computers, including voting machines, and would ensure a victory... That alone should trigger an alarm bell
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 17d
We also do need to convince normies we're right
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 3 pts · 17d
Normies are progressive. That's my point.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 17d
They often are right up until you tell them they're being progressive or you hit upon a topic they've been sufficiently propagandized against
Jaysyn@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 17d
As someone that used to buy produce wholesale at the same warehouse that several local supermarkets did, you have no idea how much produce is marked up for retail. None at all.
ryper@lemmy.ca · 15 pts · 17d
I suppose there's a big markup to account for what they'll end up throwing out, and then the high price is part of why there's so much unsold and needing to be disposed of.
VinegarChunks@lemmus.org · 1 pts · 17d
A ton of produce looks unappetizing, goes bad and has to be thrown out.
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 16d
a lot of that ugly produce is what goes into canning and pre-made products.
This is just supposition on my part based on personal experience, but it seems ever since the tariff bullshit started, the availability of quality produce has crashed for me in america, and not only are the "ugly" ones ending up on shelves now, but even damaged ones. . as if theres not enough produce coming in to to allow stores to be selective on what appears on shelves vs what goes into canning/etc.
I've noticed potatos are smaller, often heavily blemished, meaning I might get 2/3rds of a the weight of edible potato with 1/3rd going to scrap because of damage/etc.
Tomatos too, tend to be smaller, often bruised, and i've found rot inside more tomtatos since tariff bullshit started, than in all the decades before.
Carrots are thin, spindly, and barely have any crunch to them.
Lettuce is now giving everyone Trumparrhea
Onions, even worse than potatos, are blemished or mouldy, and I might be lucky to get half a pound of edible onion for every pound I buy.
and its same with everything else I've not mentioned in the produce section.
I imagine some of this may be regional as well, so that people on the opposite side of the country from me might not have the same experience.
osanna@lemmy.vg · 2 pts · 17d
I often go for the "ugly" produce, because i know others won't. if it saves a bit of waste, then why not. Not like it tastes any differently.
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 16d
Everything is marked up crazy compared to its wholesale producer pricing
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 16d
Everything is marked up for retail. Anything you buy in a mall is at least 200%.
boonhet@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 16d
A lot of produce goes bad as well. They regularly throw out a lot of it (unfortunately much of it into bins, but I guess there's a food safety issue with giving it to homeless people).
Grocery stores in my country are operating on a 2-5% profit margin. All companies' annual reports are public and shareholders can't take dividends unless there's profit AND there's no tax on profit, only on dividends, so there's little incentive to hide profits. And no, grocery prices aren't cheap here either, they're up a lot in the last 6 years and change.
If Mamdani could cut costs 30%, either the stores aren't turning a profit (which they don't need to since they're being run for the benefit of New Yorkers), or Americans have it much worse in terms of price gouging. I suspect it might be the latter if there aren't as many competing chains in the US. Here we've got 3-4 even in many small towns, 6-7 in the cities, and of course small independent ones in some places. And one of them is a co-op. But I'd still expect NYC in particular to have healthy competition, it's such a huge market and so dense, room for a lot of competing stores.
Where the markup is criminal IMO is nonperishable goods. Fucking regular pens with a 300% markup in office supply stores, etc. Stuff they don't have to throw out after a few days.
architect@thelemmy.club · 24 pts · 18d
I like this guy.
DeathsEmbrace@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 18d
I wonder if he can crack down on covinflation. That's a cancer that spreads and grows.
BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 18d
Large scale covid inflation was caused by FED printing too much money. This isn't something Mamdani can fix he can only do band-aid solutions on top of the issue.
TheRealKuni@piefed.social · 5 pts · 18d
Was it? Considering the inflation was global I figured it was more impacted by lack of supply and an increase in disposable income for those who were able to still work but not go anywhere.
fizzle@quokk.au · 11 pts · 18d
Really? Actually I thought it was caused by retailers taking the opportunity to increase prices when everyone thought prices would increase due to covid.
BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 18d
Basically all central banks did the same thing. Lack of supply was an issue, but it was massively worsened by all additional spending. If you look at asset prices everything was going up, from stocks to bitcoin, not just consumption goods
chahn.chris@piefed.social · 3 pts · 17d
While you are absolutely correct here I’m only commenting to say that nobody ever accepts that money supply is the main driver of inflation because there are a lot of factors that impact short term inflation and confuse the issue.
What makes it worse is the media loves to cite these short term fluctuations because they are convenient and click baity, but when central banks print money you get inflation, this is an absolute fact but everyone seems to love to ignore it or disregard it.
It’s so damn frustrating to see people do this over and over and over again.
Anyway sorry for the long winded comment basically just aggressively agreeing with you, I just needed to vent after I saw yet another person above try to disregard the truth yet again.
sportsjorts@lemmy.zip · 16 pts · 17d
Dude is the America that I want. TIL that America has municipal grocery stores.
tresspass@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 17d
Nooo but how will the private grocery stores compete with this 😭😭😭
osanna@lemmy.vg · 6 pts · 17d
damn commies. Don't they know that the big grocery stores need to make ANOTHER billion dollar profit? I mean, if the CEOs don't buy those billion dollar yachts, who will? THINK OF THE YACHT COMPANIES!
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 13 pts · 17d
Why do his backup singers look so grumpy?
This isn't supposed to be snarky, by the way. I love what Mamdani's doing, this is just about the photography and the editorial choice to use that photo instead of one three seconds later where they might be smiling
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 17d
My god, what kind of hellhole is this Communist turning NYC into?
mlg@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 17d
The funniest headlines from NYP and Fox are simultaneously promoting socialist democrats and criticizing the DNC centrist they are aiming to replace lol.
jtrek@startrek.website · 5 pts · 16d
Neat.
Also when you scroll down on the page, the background gets more red. Is that a subtle "we're turning more communist" joke? (Ok, it says
linear-gradient(180deg,#e2f3ff,#ffecd9), which isn't really red)homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 18d
Boom
blaggle42@lemmy.today · 5 pts · 17d
Does anyone have a list of addresses for the grocery stores and their planned dates?
osanna@lemmy.vg · 3 pts · 17d
Eww. why? you must be one of those commie bastards that are... checks notes... just trying to survive :(
Also, in a more serious, i found this: "including the selection of the first two sites in East Harlem and Hunts Point;" on here: https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/07/mayor-mamdani-unveils-30--discount---including-all-produce--all-
apftwb@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 17d
Concerns with this model.
EDIT: To be clear I want this to succeed. Questioning the government's implementation should be encouraged
Duckingold@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 17d
The details aren't all there yet, but potential options:
daychilde@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 17d
Others can just go to the store.
One assumes these stores are not trying to generate profit. Logic implies that the prices are being compared to other stores.
Your other questions don't interest me enough to look further, but I'm sure someone will.
apftwb@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 17d
Other people going to the store doesn't stop scalpers from clearing the shelves. If they restock overnight, scalpers can and do wait for stores to open just so they can clear them out.
Imagine this scenario. Private grocery store (PGS) sells bread for $5 a loaf. Municipal grocery store (MGS) sells bread for $3.50. PGS decides to cut their profits margins (citation needed) and sell at a competitive $3.50. MSG sells bread at $2.75 (after all this is 70% of 3.50). This repeats until the PGS goes out of business and the operating cost of MSG is much higher than expected.
Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 17d
Stores are often easily able to put a limit per transaction. I don't think a scalper is going to go through the till 500 times to clear the store of its 1000 jugs of milk limited to 2 per person.
Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 17d
I don't think anybody is going to buy wholesale quantities of bootleg food at only slightly better cost than normal. If this one store runs out, there's all the competitors that still have normal priced whatever it is.
Like this is like an elementary school math problem, this wont make a difference to the store if somebody buys 40 pies.
daychilde@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 16d
40 pies? That's as many as four tens. And that's terrible.
yonderbarn@lazysoci.al · 2 pts · 17d
During the press conference a journalist asked the question on scalping and the EDC director said that they would have mechanisms in place to prevent it.
Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 17d
You're going to buy out all the lettuce and expect to move the volume of a grocery store on your lonesome? With all the labor of buying it out of their storefront, repacking, etc? If you want it that bad, go for it. Do you do this now, or something?
dehyzer@piefed.social · 2 pts · 16d
You simply underestimate how many people will be lining up to buy bootleg lettuce out of the back of a van so that they can save 10 cents off the for-profit store price while not having to suffer the indignity of going to the commie store. Only have to move a few tons a day to make a tidy profit, it's easy money!
thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 17d
sigma
quick_snail@feddit.nl · -2 pts · 17d
Anyone know how the prices will compare to the Park Slope Co-op?
quick_snail@feddit.nl · -3 pts · 17d
They're gonna have to closely count the number of people inside to stay under the occupancy limit. There's gonna be a line around the block every day
BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 17d
Also, that costs a lot of money for a small grocery store
quick_snail@feddit.nl · -4 pts · 17d
30% discount from what? This doesn't make sense.
NotEasyBeingGreen@slrpnk.net · 11 pts · 17d
It's right there in the link.
quick_snail@feddit.nl · -2 pts · 17d
Your quote doesn't answer the question.
30% cheaper than what?
HulkSmashBurgers@reddthat.com · 9 pts · 17d
I'd assume 30% cheaper compared to non-municipal grocery stores.
quick_snail@feddit.nl · -6 pts · 17d
Which ones? The State doesn't mandate the prices, and prices vary significantly from market to market.
30% is not a qualitative figure. It's very quantitative. But it's absolute bullshit without actually saying what is the actual baseline.
HulkSmashBurgers@reddthat.com · 10 pts · 17d
From ddg:
Mayor Zohran Mamdani says the NYC municipal grocery stores will be about 30% cheaper than average retail grocery store prices.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/mamdani-vows-30-lower-prices-120100437.html
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 0 pts · 17d
That's meaningless
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 17d
standard retail, which is pretty easy to find for any given item
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 0 pts · 17d
That is a very wide price range.
So 30% could be somewhere between 10% or 200%, depending on which shop.
Which makes the claim of "30%" absolutely a pile of bullshit
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 17d
So I take it you've never worked as a buyer
NatakuNox@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 17d
For the health and well-being of the community. It makes sense if you remove the profit motive.
artyom@piefed.social · -4 pts · 18d
And how is he able to do that?
Manjushri@piefed.social · 17 pts · 18d
First off, the headline on this post does not match the current one on the article.. The current headline on the article is:
So the discount is not on everything. It's basically on healthy foods and staples. I would assume that the margins on the rest of the items will be set to cover the costs of the discounted ones. Also, a store like this is not supposed to be a profit center.
It's supposed to make healthy foods available to people who struggle to afford it. If the store breaks even after rent, utilities, and payroll, then I would call it a glorious success.
artyom@piefed.social · -14 pts · 18d
That didn't answer my question?
Manjushri@piefed.social · 6 pts · 18d
Then rephrase your question, please. What exactly are you asking? Are you suggesting he doesn't have the authority to set the prices at these stores?
artyom@piefed.social · -9 pts · 18d
I'm asking where the money is coming from to support these subsidies
Manjushri@piefed.social · 4 pts · 18d
I see no reason to assume there is a subsidy involved. Grocery stores make money. The initial outlay to build and stock the stores is going to come from city taxes, I assume. But the discounts, as my prior post said, are only on some items. The revenue from the higher margin, non-discounted items can cover the costs of the discounted ones assuming they price things right. The store only needs to break even to be a resounding success.
artyom@piefed.social · -20 pts · 18d
The money has to come from somewhere. These groceries don't just magic themselves onto the shelves...
jumjummy@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 18d
Based on the posts in this thread you are either sealioning, or are just dense.
If the goal of the store is not to make a profit (and either break even, or have some tax dollars allocated to it), the prices go down.
Where are all your posts asking for where the NYPD’s cosplay warrior gear comes from? That certainly doesn’t magic itself into existence.
MonkRome@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 18d
You understand the groceries still cost something right? Your acting like their giving them away for free. A public option doesn't have to support billions in profit for the CEO, executives, and investors, so reducing price is much much easier if your only goal is to break even. The goal is no cost to the taxpayer, no profit for the city.
decolo@piefed.social · 4 pts · 17d
leaving aside the answers other people have given, if NYC can afford a world class private military with a ~$10B USD budget, they can afford to cover a minor deficit in food budget. It's like food stamps but cuts out a layer of bureaucracy and thus lower cost.
This is what taxes should actually be funding.
FrostyTheDoo@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 18d
The 'extra' money comes from jacking up the prices in other items in the same store, like candy and sodas. And from not spending as much money on other stuff like marketing and bonuses.
There are two sides to the profit equation: expenses and revenue.
In order for a store to make more profit, they can either increase their revenue (by raising prices, for example), or they can decrease their expenses (by laying people off, buying from cheaper suppliers, or paying executives less, for example).
So these stores are lowering prices on some items. And making it up by some combination of RAISING prices on other items, and LOWERING their costs in other areas like marketing, executive bonuses, etc.
Hope that helps.
Enkrod@feddit.org · 10 pts · 17d
People are giving you uninformed answers, but to be fair, you just could have searched it yourself.
The stores haven't even opened yet. The first are expected to open by the end of 2027.
The plan says they get the real estate from the city for free or very cheap. Also subsidies for groceries in the "core basket".
So the answer is city subsidies, payed for with tax dollars.
Where those dollars will be coming from within the city budget has not yet been announced, but seeing as they have time until end of 2027, there's likely going to be a lot of budget-shuffling and negotiations until a budget-position is going to be revealed.
Might be in the NYC budget already, but I don't see reporting on it, nor do I have the time to go over that.
In my opinion it's a relatively good and easy way of redistributing money from top to bottom. You know, like schools, libraries, public pools (or free universities in better countries). Because it directly addresses a need of the poorest New Yorkers without just handing them money and implements a "food as a human right" response to corpos profiting off of societies need for groceries.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 17d
There are enough rich people in NYC that taxing them properly will be enough to cover the subsidies
VAK@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 17d
Biggest savings are free real estate probably though
Enkrod@feddit.org · 1 pts · 17d
Yes, that's my guess too, rent in NYC has to be a huge part of any supermarket budget. But this is still a subsidiary as loss of income is budgetary the same as an expense.
artyom@piefed.social · 0 pts · 17d
Thank you for looking into that.
mabeledo@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 17d
You’re thanking the guy because he spent three minutes searching for the answer you were so clearly sealioning for.
Good job I guess.
artyom@piefed.social · 1 pts · 17d
I thanked them because they actually provided an answer that no one else did, as they pointed out in the first sentence. You still don't know what sealioning is.
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 18d
Likely the same reason "Chinese groceries" are so cheap...
The absolute vast majority of Americans get their food from the same handful of corporations that all have insanely high markups at every step of their vertical integration to obfuscate profits.
The "Chinese groceries" have built up their own infrastructure that buys from small farmers all over the nation and transporta fresh produce more effectively than corporations. Because corporations just prioritize shelf stability and looks over flavor and nutrition.
Now, to be fair this is also true to a lesser extent for Hispanic and other "ethnic groceries" as well, but more often than not they're plugged into the Chinese infrastructure as well, especially for produce that isn't in season locally. It's really the only option a small restaurant has to make it these days.
Which means they're the safest to eat at during widespread outbreaks like were seeing now. Because all the chains use the same giant suppliers.
pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 18d
Probably less profit
artyom@piefed.social · -8 pts · 18d
Less profit for whom?
BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 18d
yes
artyom@piefed.social · -19 pts · 18d
Thanks for confirming you don't know.
BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 17d
That was a joke answer. You probably aren't familiar with the western internet meme culture. This was a mockery of people not wanting to answer your question.
artyom@piefed.social · 1 pts · 17d
Oh no, I got it. And your joke answer confirmed that you didn't have a real one.
pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 17d
For the city. If it was owned privately, the owner would min-max everything for more profit. Having it run by the city could mean just operating at break-even
artyom@piefed.social · -2 pts · 17d
So how much money was the city making before? And what were they doing with those profits?
quick_snail@feddit.nl · -21 pts · 17d
All essentials fine.
But it's fucked up that this includes meat and dairy
SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world · -83 pts · 18d
Giving a thirty percent discount on milk, eggs and chicken shows that Mamdani doesn't care about animals' welfare.
SGGeorwell@lemmy.world · 67 pts · 18d
Your use of electronic media to post this message shows you don’t care about the environment.
SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world · -39 pts · 18d
I'm powering my computer with generator mounted to a stationary bicycle which proves that I do care about the environment.
Lydia_K@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 18d
Pedal harder slave! I have posts I wish to reply to.
SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world · 15 pts · 18d
I have three children so they take turns pedalling.
toomanypancakes@crazypeople.online · 7 pts · 18d
Division of labor, smart
MumboJumbo@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 18d
Take turns? Get more bikes.
Zier@fedia.io · 2 pts · 18d
Are they your children or do we need to send patrol cars over???
artyom@piefed.social · 8 pts · 18d
Trying to argue ethical purities is pretty pointless. I don't know where the piefed.world server is hosted but it's probably not powered the same way. Regardless, there is environmental damage caused by any kind of consumerism, such as the creation and shipping of your bicycle or the generator it's connected to, unless you built the bicycle out of bamboo and the generator out of rocks. And that's ok. You don't need to justify that to anyone. Being ethical can just mean being a minimal consumer to a reasonable degree. Which it sounds like you are.
SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world · -12 pts · 18d
That’s all and good but there is no reason to eat or use animal products and less of a reason to discount them.
Especially if the guy calls himself progressive.
ToaofTime@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 27 pts · 18d
I got ragebaited by this HARD bro.
homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 18d
So did 26 others as of this writing.
Sweet.
Edit: 48 now. brb popcorn
SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world · -9 pts · 18d
Since when is it considered 'ragebait' to give a damn about animals?
architect@thelemmy.club · 2 pts · 18d
Boring
Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de · 18 pts · 18d
I'm an animal and he's providing me cheaper goods. Some animals are more equal than others
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net · 8 pts · 18d
Eggs are not animals.
Women's rights!
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 17d
Eggs are chicken periods. This is menstruvore erasure!
nsrxn@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 16d
chickens don't have periods
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 16d
Then what are chicken eggs?
nsrxn@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 16d
they're eggs. chickens lay eggs. they don't have periods.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 16d
Eggs are periods. Where do you think they come from? What do you think they do?
nsrxn@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 16d
birds don't menstruate
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net · 1 pts · 17d
They are, white ninja told me that.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 17d
Is that a blogger?
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 2 pts · 17d
Also milk is rape
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 8 pts · 17d
Oh fuck off. I know you're mostly a satire account but this is just ignorant and unhelpful.
Reforming agriculture is important, but we can find a way to do that without forcing the urban poors into debt and starvation
SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world · -2 pts · 17d
I just care about animal rights.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 5 pts · 17d
So do I, but you're not going to get the entire population of NYC to become vegan overnight.
Reforming agriculture is important, but so is reducing hunger and poverty.
SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world · -2 pts · 17d
Vegan food is cheaper, healthier and fills people up just the same as meat so it's more effective to only offer the discounts on it.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 17d
A lot of people don't know how to cook vegan meals, or that you can get a full balanced nutrition from vegan meals, or how to shop for vegan meals. You can't force people to buy vegan-only food or to eat vegan.
Sure, pricing them out of meat might encourage them to eat vegan, but that just adds to social stratification because anyone who can afford it will still eat it. It would be better to reform the agriculture system as a whole, not try to reduce meat consumption by pricing the poors out of it while the rich gorge themselves.
That would be like trying to save the environment by making commercial flights more expensive. Rich people will still use private jets, which are the main contributor to emissions. Commercial flights are more efficient than personal vehicles on a per-passenger basis for medium- and long-hauls
SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world · 0 pts · 17d
It's not a ban on meat it is just not subsidizing it.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 17d
FTFY
nsrxn@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 16d
for some people
hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 17d
While you are technically correct (fellow vegan here), this ain’t the time or place. The rest of the world isn’t vegan, and we can’t afford to be split up over moral differences.
Let’s advocate for animals after the threat of having targets painted on our backs is gone. We can’t advocate for animals if we’re exiled, thrown in jail or at worst, shot for expressing our political beliefs. We need to rally behind the Mamdanis in this country.
SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world · 1 pts · 17d
It's always the time and place to respect animal rights.
hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 17d
I agree with you in spirit. Also, even if we converted 10k nonvegans to vegans today, it wouldn’t begin to put a dent in the trillions of animals suffering per year for human consumption.
You can’t ignore intersectionality. We can get a few vegans onboard in a capitalist context, but it’s like trying to light a match underwater.
Undo capitalism, and veganism can spread like wildfire. People are always going to put their human concerns first.