Quote:
Originally Posted by GranteedEV
The idea that government run enterprises are inefficient is always a talking point but barring total corruption, they typically provide services for people that private enterprise isn't conserved with. It's kind of the Canada Post or Library thing. We don't have these things because they are meant to be profitable money makers. We have these things because they improve conditions for Canadians.
Would it be taxpayer subsidiary of groceries be essentially what you describe?
Yes.
Is that a good thing?
Yes. Because it takes money away from enterprises like Loblaws that in turn tax shelter their profits and buy up every independent grocer out there.
It keeps the industry accountable at a time when five corporations own just about every grocery store in the country and find loopholes to avoid paying tax on their profit.
The market has its place, but
- food
- water
- shelter
- heat / electricity
- firefighters
- health care
are just basic human needs and we cannot have capitalism controlling food.
Our tax dollars SHOULD subsidize them. Even if they lose money.
|
I think a big thing people will always fail to consider with the idea of a public grocer is that even if we each are contributing $500 in tax dollars to make it happen, it is worth it if we end up saving any number that is more than $500 of post tax money when buying groceries. Having a public grocer gives an affordable option but it also drives down the prices in the private corporations as they will have a harder and harder time justifying their significantly higher prices.
So ya, we may subsidize it via taxes but if each of us end up saving more money than we pay into it then that is a win.
Not to mention the opportunity to support other services. Like if we want to have $10/day daycare that actually feeds the kids good food, you could use the publicly funded food distribution network to supply the daycares that are feeding kids. Then go a step further and use the same system to feed kids (and teachers) in the public schools. And feed the patients and staff in hospitals.
There are ways that the savings could be multiplied by integrating the services.
The private sector hates the idea of any of this happening because it takes away from their profits. Hence they run aggressive campaigns about how governments are bad at doing things like this even when there are examples of governments being good at it and people benefiting from the services.