MORGAN: From Stalin's breadlines to Toronto City Hall — the dangerous fantasy of government-run groceries

The food production and distribution system in the Western world is an incredible marvel. With modern advancements, food production has expanded beyond population growth and continues to do so. In 1950, farmers in North America averaged 40 bushels of corn per acre. Today, those same fields have yields surpassing 180 bushels per acre. Soybean, wheat, canola, and other staples have seen similar rises in yields. Meat and dairy production have also greatly increased.Specialty crops and meats are also more prevalent than ever. Niche producers have rural retail operations and supply farmers’ markets and local sections of grocery retailers throughout the continent.For internationally produced goods, the selection is higher and more affordable than ever. Even in the depths of winter in frozen cities in Canada, a person can get fresh fruit and vegetables at reasonable prices. This is due to an incredible and vast distribution network with rail, trucks, and flights moving refrigerated products. For overseas goods, frozen transport has opened the world. Ironically, the avocado toast crowd tends to be from the urban living socialist set, demanding people buy local.While there are only a small number of major grocery companies, there are still dozens of options for people to choose from if they want to go to smaller outlets. Prices tend to be a little higher at the smaller stores due to economies of scale and reduced distribution ability, but they provide an option. Competition among retailers is high, and consumers are well served by the ability to shop around.For people pressed for time or with money to burn, home delivery of groceries has become commonplace..All this affordable convenience is due to the free market evolution of the food industry.And morons within Toronto’s city hall want to undo it all.From the 1920s until the 1990s, the Soviet Union grew as well, but its food production and distribution abilities didn’t. Government-managed food systems led to chronic food shortages and hunger. Food distribution was used by the state as a weapon, killing millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s. Ukraine was one of the highest grain-producing nations in the bloc, but due to punitive quotas mandated by Moscow, starvation became rampant. This was convenient for Stalin, who was trying to quell an independence movement in Ukraine. The world saw the dangers of leaving food production solely in the hands of the government. Socialists of today still haven’t learned that lesson, though.By the 1970s, the Soviets had managed to modernize their food systems enough that starvation became uncommon, but shortages still persisted, and selection was terrible. I toured the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, and while they were fantastic hosts, it was a few weeks of the worst dining I have ever endured. And I was presented with a much better layout of food in my hotels than the common Russian was given.Today, a generation of spoiled and poorly educated fools is gaining power in North America by taking control of municipal governments. Extremists are being elected by a naïve, snowflake generation into city halls, and the administrative offices are being filled by the same twits. In Calgary, they even have a little room for city staff to cry in and play with toys if the stress of public hearings overwhelms them. The offices of municipal halls are infested with these emotionally inept souls..Now, in Toronto, by a vote of 21-3, the city council voted to task their bureaucratic team of incompetents with opening four government-run grocery stores. They feel the people who can’t efficiently fill a pothole or collect garbage can manage to run a business as complicated and with as narrow margins as grocery retailing.Food is different than many things that the government gets into the business of. For example, unlike with bridge construction, food delivery can’t withstand delays of years while city staff try to work through their own bureaucratic mire. It will spoil.Another difference is that they are entering an already competitive market. If the city-run grocery stores don’t deliver services and goods as efficiently as the private stores do, people won’t use them. The city won’t have a monopoly.So why do these people think they can succeed in the grocery market?To use a quote from Hayek, “If socialists understood economics, they wouldn’t be socialists.”.They honestly believe that grocery provision is easy and that retailers are secretly hiding massive profit margins. They don’t understand logistics, competition, or staffing.These grocery stores will fail catastrophically. The only question is how many millions of tax dollars will be sunk into these poorly run, union-dominated storefronts suffering from a lack of selection due to incompetent management before they shut down?This dip into Soviet-style food distribution in Toronto will serve as yet another working example of why governments must stay out of services that private enterprise already does well enough. People of common sense will see the lesson here.Socialists never will.

MORGAN: From Stalin's breadlines to Toronto City Hall — the dangerous fantasy of government-run groceries

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