XPost: or.politics, alt.politics.trump, alt.politics.elections   
   XPost: alt.politics.immigration, alt.conspiracy   
   From: robberbaron@invalid.ut   
      
   Baxter wrote:   
   > You barely remember the Biden times at all, except in nightmares.   
      
   The reality of CmmmieLa:   
      
   You knew their Marxist agenda was not going to stop with drug prices,   
      
   Hell no, they want to control ALL our food too!   
      
   Next stop on the clown car - Venezuela, USA:   
      
   https://x.com/RobertMSterling/status/1824840348008391127   
      
   @RobertMSterling   
   People need to stop overreacting about Kamala’s plan to reduce food   
   inflation, as if it would lead to communism, mass starvation, and the   
   end of America.   
      
   I worked in M&A in the food industry. Here’s a step-by-step summary of   
   what would actually happen:   
      
   1. The government announces that grocery retailers aren’t allowed to   
   raise prices.   
      
   2. Grocery stores, which operate on 1-2% net margins, can’t survive if   
   their suppliers raise prices. So the government announces that food   
   producers (Kraft Heinz, ConAgra, Tyson, Hormel, et. al.) also aren’t   
   allowed to raise prices.   
      
   3. Not all grocery stores are created equal. Stores in lower-income   
   areas make less money than those in higher-income areas, as the former   
   disproportionately sell lower-margin prepackaged foods (“center of the   
   store”) instead of higher-margin fresh products like meat (“perimeter of   
   the store”). Because stores in lower-income areas aren’t able to cover   
   overhead (remember, even if their wholesale costs are fixed, their   
   labor, utilities, insurance, and other operating expenses aren’t fixed…   
   yet), grocery chains start to shut them down. Food deserts in rural   
   areas and in low-income urban areas alike become worse.   
      
   4. Meanwhile, margins for food producers are also quickly eroding. Their   
   primary costs (ingredients, energy, and labor) aren’t fixed, and their   
   shrinking gross profits leave less cash flow available to cover   
   overhead, maintain facilities, and reinvest in additional production   
   capacity.   
      
   5. Grocery chains, which have finite shelf space, start to repurpose   
   their stores (those they didn’t have to shut down, I should say) to sell   
   more non-price-controlled items—everything from nutrition supplements to   
   kitchenware to apparel—and less price-controlled food products. Your   
   local Kroger or Safeway starts to look and feel more like a Walmart.   
      
   6. Food producers stop making products with lower margins. Grocery chain   
   start competing with each other to secure inventory. Since they can’t   
   compete by offering stronger prices (remember, producers aren’t allowed   
   to raise prices here, and, even if they could, grocery chains no longer   
   have the gross profit to bear price increases), they compete on things   
   like payment terms.   
      
   7. Small grocery chains start to shut down entirely, or get sold to   
   larger chains like Kroger. In addition to not being able to cover fixed   
   costs, a major reason for this is because they can no longer reliably   
   secure delivery of products, due to producers prioritizing sales to   
   larger customers, which are able to leverage their stronger balance   
   sheets to offer superior payment terms.   
      
   8. Smaller food producers—which typically sell via distributors, rather   
   than directly to grocery chains—start to go out of business. Because   
   these producers have an additional step their value chains, and because   
   they have lower volumes over which to spread their fixed costs, their   
   cost structure is inherently disadvantaged compared to major food   
   producers. When grocery stores aren’t able to raise prices, cutting   
   product costs becomes all the more important, and deprioritizing   
   purchases from smaller producers is an easy way to do so.   
      
   9. As supply chains break down, lines start to form outside grocery   
   stores every morning. Cities assign police officers to patrol store   
   parking lots, and food producers draft contingency plans to assign armed   
   escorts to delivery trucks.   
      
   10. The federal government announces a program to issue block grants for   
   states to purchase and operate shuttered grocery stores. The USDA also   
   seizes closed-down production facilities.   
      
   11. The government announces that prices for all key food costs—corn,   
   wheat, cattle, energy, etc.—are also now fixed, to stop “profiteers”   
   from gouging the now-government-operated food industry.   
      
   12. Shockingly, the government struggles to operate one of the most   
   complex industries on the planet. The entire food supply chain starts   
   imploding.   
      
   13. Communism, mass starvation, and the end of America quickly ensue.   
      
   Hey wait a second...????   
   --   
   ⛨ 🥐🥖🗼🤪   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)