New York's Mayor Mamdani has promised city-run grocery stores that will sell food cheaper than private owners. Ovidiu Frusina grew up with state-run food in Bucharest under Nicolae Ceausescu, and in this segment Jenny Beth Martin asks him what he thinks. His first answer is about the first store he saw in America: a Kroger in Houston in 1990, which he asked the manager's permission to film so he could send the tape to his mother in Romania. She watched it and never believed it was real.
Then the economics, in his words. For a government to give anything for free, it has to take it from someone first, so whether you spend your money at a private store or hand it to the mayor and buy back what he gives you, it is still your money. There is no free. Romania's stores had food in 1965; by the mid-1980s there was not enough anywhere. Food is the hardest business there is, because it spoils in two days, and a city hall that fixes prices cannot fix that. Government has never been as efficient as the private sector, and the only ways it gets money are to print it, borrow it, or take it. In a market, materials, labor and profit set the price. In a socialist economy the state sets the price, and when the state is not efficient the profit goes negative, so the price goes up, because the one thing the system cannot do is get more efficient. They tried for fifty years.
Guest: Ovidiu Frusina, born in Bucharest, Romania, in 1967; computer science graduate, former consulting business owner and father of four, Houston, Texas.
In this segment:
• The Kroger store he filmed for his mother, who never believed it was real
• For a government to give it free, it has to take it first
• Romania 1965: full stores. Romania 1985: nothing on the shelves
• Why food is the hardest business to run at a fixed price
• Print it, borrow it, or take it: the only three ways government gets money
• Show me where government is more efficient than the private sector
• Fixed prices, negative profit, and fifty years of trying
Share this with someone who thinks a city-run grocery store sounds like a good idea. Then vote for liberty and our constitutional system this November, and help get out the vote at iwillsaveamerica.com. Watch the full interview on The Jenny Beth Show channel, and subscribe for daily analysis from Tea Party Patriots Action.
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00:00 — The Kroger store he filmed for his mother in Romania
00:57 — Mayor Mamdani's grocery stores: what do you think?
01:19 — For a government to give something free, it has to take it
02:14 — Romania 1965: the stores had food. Then they didn't
02:30 — Food is the hardest business: perishable goods at a fixed price
03:07 — Government does not make money: print it, take it, or borrow it
03:45 — No taxes under Ceausescu, because the state paid you what it chose
04:23 — Show me where government is more efficient than the private sector
04:48 — Materials, labor, profit: who sets the price
05:18 — Fixed prices, negative profit, and fifty years of trying
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