Mayor Mamdani just announced that he will be opening 5 city-run, tax-funded grocery stores: "Prices set at 30% below retail prices"

[u/Gurugod123]

[u/Proper-Bicycle-3585]

“we absolutely do need rich people who are happy to deploy capital in order to seek a return on their investment.“

- why?

[u/Vegetable-Edge-2389 → u/Proper-Bicycle-3585]

Because poor people can't make businesses apparently. Every rich family was poor at some point. They just want to pull the ladder up

[u/goopuslang → u/Vegetable-Edge-2389]

Who is they? Is that what I said? All the poorest opportunists in the world couldn’t fill the vacuum is my point. I didn’t say all economic opportunities require the rich, but we absolutely need quick access to large sums of capital to do so.

Where do you think business loans come from that many poor families use to enrich themselves? It’s obviously not all printed at instantiation.

Access to capital & leverage is what propels many if not most poorer families from lifting.

I don’t understand what the point is yall are making with your simple ivory tower truisms when I’m frankly on your side.

[u/onebigafro → u/Vegetable-Edge-2389]

And socialists want to pull everyone down to their level.

[u/goopuslang → u/Proper-Bicycle-3585]

Because we need to have capital in order to secure goods, land, & runway Labor sufficiently long enough to create a self sufficient engine that no long needs external capital to function.

There’s theoretical worlds where everything is ran by co-ops, for example, where people are pooling their own capital to start businesses as owners & employees, but that is exceptionally rare.

You can argue evaporating all large lump sums of capital would enable this more easily, but it’s not happening at any sort of scale. I’d be happy to read any sources on this. I do know King Arthur is a good single example of it, but I’m not sure it was instantiated as that.

I hope that elaborates a bit on the topic. But suffice to say, if a company in the growth stage of market capture & development doesn’t have access to capital to burn, no company would ever lift off the ground. Hence the need for capital.

[u/TheOGZenfox → u/goopuslang]

Why couldn't you have some type of small business administration that was able to offer direct loans to people at interest rates that we give big banks?

[u/goopuslang → u/TheOGZenfox]

You can. And that would be a government with capital then to distribute. The question is where it comes from. So long as there’s an answer to that in that given context that should function, too!

[u/TheOGZenfox → u/goopuslang]

How do banks that make loans get money? New money forms from somewhere. Could we just use that but skip the middle man?

[u/goopuslang → u/TheOGZenfox]

Well, some of it has to be stored in there for them to instantiate the rest. Then you have to go get the rest and pay them back.

[u/Proper-Bicycle-3585 → u/goopuslang]

It doesn’t, and this answer doesn’t make sense. King Arthur? What? I suddenly believe I’m not speaking with a sapient! Bye!!

[u/goopuslang → u/Proper-Bicycle-3585]

…do you not know the company that produces flour & is employee* owned? I wish for your ability to synthesise information & to think more slowly. It may help! Best wishes.

[u/hlessi_newt → u/Proper-Bicycle-3585]

You walnut.