The war on bodegas

Mamdanism—communism with a smile—hates the middle class

Bodegas are what they call little corner stores in New York City. They are mostly owned by foreign-born immigrants who use it as a means to achieve middle-class status

Puerto Ricans gave them the name in the 1940s. They gave way to Dominicans after the original owners moved on up (moved on up). Then Mexico and other Latin American groups came along, as well as many Yemenis. The bodegas are the boots that immigrants use to bootstrap.

Chinese, Koreans and Egyptians moved in and are moving on up (moving on up).

Before bodegas, Italians, Greeks, Jews, Irish and Germans owned many small groceries in earlier waves of immigration but largely moved on or sold to later arrivals.

Mamdani promised a string of city-owned grocery stores to compete with bodegas, which would put them out of business because bodegas have to pay taxes and rent, something a city-owned bodega would not have to do.

Despite this, the United Bodegas of America endorsed him.

That helped drive his support and turnout was the highest in a mayoral race in 50 years.

Most of his support came from foreigners, especially in the Democrat primary, which really decides elections in New York. If you think Governor Chatty Kathy Hochul won’t be re-elected, I have this trestle in Poca, West Virginia, that may interest you.

You get what you vote for, in this case bodega owners voted for a competitor that bodegas will finance through taxes that they pay.

Mamdani argued that grocery costs in the NYC metro area rose 56% from 2012–13 to 2022–23. Nationally, the rise was 46%, but don’t blame the grocers. Blame the system.

• Higher labor, real estate, transportation, and distribution costs in a dense urban area.

• Supply chain vulnerabilities and higher baseline prices.

• Stronger wage pressures and demand.

The war on bodegas is not about groceries. The mayor and his communist masters want to eliminate any means for the poor to rise out of poverty.

Communists and other tyrannies hate middle class people—the bourgeois—because they are not dependent upon government. What made the American Revolution unique was the wealthy led it as a fight for independence. Washington was not seeking to rule as president but to serve.

250 years later, 70% to 80% of Americans are middle class—using European standards.

60% to 70% of Europeans are middle class, again by European standards.

Interestingly, in the USA, 10% to 15% are lower class and 15% to 20% are upper class—by European standards. So we ave more wealty people than we ave poor people.

25% to 30% of Europeans are lower class and only 5% to 10% are upper class—by European standards.

But they beat the heck out of us in income equality.

Big deal. Nominal GDP per capita in current U.S. dollars here is $85,000 to $94,000.

In Europe it is $42,000 to $45,000.

I Grokked those numbers so you don’t have to. I won’t say that being poor in America is the equivalent of being middle class in Europe, but I will note that the income numbers do not include food stamps, rent subsidies, Medicaid or Medicare. The latter dropped the poverty rate for us old people from 30% in the 1960s (the worst age group) to 10% or so today (the least impoverished age group).

How can I call Mamdani communist? An interview by Martha McCollum proved it. Se interviewed Gustavo Gordillo, the architect of the election of the mayor.

Gordillo: “Landlords in New York have been making a 12% return on their investment.”

MacCallum: “How much should they make? What’s fair for the landlord to make?”

Gordillo: “We don’t think that anyone should have a constitutional right to double-digit returns on their investment.”

MacCallum: “What are you talking about?”

And later Gordillo said, “If one publicly owned grocery store that brings prices down in the neighborhood is enough to put someone out of business then maybe they shouldn’t have been in that business in the first place.”

Gordillo does not believe his economic nonsense as shown by this exchange.

MacCallum: “Your family came here from Peru really in the middle of the heat of the Shining Path. They were Maoist communist guerrillas in Peru. So why did your family come to America?”

Gordillo: “The economic situation in South America and Peru was in a really bad place much of what we could say was responsible for that actually was the imposition of capitalism and American imperialism. In many cases, it is actually what brings immigrants to the U.S. coming out of Latin America.”

MacCallum: “They come here because they don’t like the imposition of American imperialism in the country that they’re in.”

Gordillo: “Yes.”

Martha MacCallum: “That doesn’t make much sense.”

Oh but it makes plenty of sense. His parents escaped once Peru finally caught Shining Path’s leaders. Now their son wants to create in America a shining path to the hell of communism.

Instead of opening a bodega, his family opened a can of worms and crawled out.

You can bet your biscuits he ain’t middle class.