Socialist Bodegas

If free or subsidized groceries sound like a great idea, it’s not. According to Eric Patterson, president of the Victims of Communism Museum and Memorial Foundation, a new project of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani reveals what is ultimately wrong with democratic socialism. 

As a candidate, New York’s mayor, self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, promised low-cost groceries, subsidized rent, free public transportation, an army of new social workers, and other freebies. This summer, the public is carefully eyeing his plan to impose big-box, state-funded grocery stores across New York. 

How should we evaluate all of this? The place to begin is with our fundamental principles of stewardship and accountability. 

Just last week, a group of small businesses, many of whom are immigrants to the U.S., sued Mayor Mamdani over his grocery store plan. Why? Because New York is home to over 13,000 neighborhood grocery stores, known as “bodegas.” These independent mom-and-pop grocers operate across the entirety of New York. They fear that subsidized, state-run grocery stores will drive them out of business. For example, Mamdani’s plan calls for a state-run mega grocery store in a neighborhood where there are five family businesses within a two-block radius. 

How can they compete when Mamdani plans to subsidize groceries by 30 percent? To be clear, taxpayers will fund the building of Mamdani’s superstores. Taxpayers will also subsidize cheap groceries at Mamdani’s superstores. 

Ensuring that people have access to food is an important aspect of the common good. Civil government does have a role to play to ensure a baseline of public safety and the rule of law so that basic necessities are available. And it’s true that we have seen some inflation. We should be concerned about costs. But one must wonder if all these freebies are about common good stewardship, or are they a campaign ploy to buy votes for the next election? 

We ought to begin by thinking about elements of stewardship, meaning cultivating common good approaches that are efficient, effective, accountable and sustainable. We ought to also think about whether this or that government policy is in line with the basic American principle of limited government and the idea of sphere sovereignty. 

When it comes to effectiveness, there is no evidence that state-run grocery stores will cause a real rise in employment or improve the lives of average citizens. Government intervention usually results in bureaucracies and bureaucratic procedures. Think about your most recent experience at the DMV! Most of us can recall just how empty the shelves of state-run grocery stores were in the superpower, Soviet Union. Why go back to that?   

Critics from both sides of the political aisle have recognized that the attack on New York’s bodegas is a larger assault on the principle of private property. It is not just grocers, but also homeowners, landlords, taxi drivers, small businesses and others who may feel the pressure from government takeover of their livelihoods. 

The Christian concept of sphere sovereignty argues that different sectors all contribute to the public good but have their own areas of expertise and governance. Thus, there are distinctions between the spheres of private business, education, agriculture, medicine, the arts, science and different levels of civil government. In contrast, New York City’s government wants to exercise more and more control over groceries, transportation, communications, education, business, and other spheres. 

America has a long tradition of limited government because our predecessors have long been concerned with the accumulation of power in the hands of fallen men and women. This summer’s power play by the so-called ‘Democratic Socialists’ calls for a true revolution: a massive increase in government influence, and even appropriation, of the financial and economic sectors.   

At the national level, the DSA’s new party platform also calls for a revolution in American government institutions by destroying many of the checks and balances of our system: abolishing the Senate, abolishing the Electoral College, and dramatic changes to the presidency and judiciary. They even pledge to rewrite the Constitution. 

Overthrowing the separation of powers, federalism and checks and balances is an attempt to erode government accountability. 

Back to the bodegas. Throughout the Bible, one element of good stewardship is studying conditions and counting the cost. Look at Proverbs 21:5, Proverbs 27:23-24 and Luke 14:28. We have learned that Mayor Mamdani has not followed this principle. Last month, his budget team admitted that there has not been a complete study of the impact of state-run grocery stores on New York’s small businesses. 

New York is an expensive place, but it is the ingenuity and competition between countless small, medium and large businesses that innovate to provide for most New Yorkers’ needs. The bodegas are the epitome of stewardship because they must count their costs every day. They are accountable to their customers and to market conditions. They provide a valuable service and demonstrate American pluck and determination. Only time will tell if they can withstand an outright attack by Big Government. 

That was Eric Patterson, president of the Victims of Communism Museum and Memorial Foundation.

 Photo Credit: ©Gemma/Unsplash

John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.

The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.

BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.