{"id":64913,"date":"2026-08-04T07:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T11:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=64913"},"modified":"2026-08-04T07:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T11:30:11","slug":"the-government-is-not-the-answer-it-is-a-major-part-of-the-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=64913","title":{"rendered":"The Government Is Not The Answer–It Is A Major Part Of The Problem!"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, The Center Square<\/a> posted an article about the discussion prompted by the closure of seven Save A Lot grocery stores on Chicago’s South and West sides.<\/p>\n

The article reports:<\/p>\n

The closure of seven Save A Lot grocery stores on Chicago’s South and West sides has renewed debate over whether government subsidies can effectively address food access in underserved neighborhoods, with one free-market policy expert arguing the shutdowns highlight the limits of public intervention.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The stores, operated by Yellow Banana, closed after Save A Lot ended its operating agreement with the company, citing financial challenges that included a sharp decline in SNAP purchases.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chicago had invested $13.5 million to renovate six of the seven locations as part of an effort to expand grocery access in neighborhoods often described as food deserts.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nicole Huyer, a researcher with the Heritage Foundation, said the closures were “the predictable outcome of bad policy.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Dumping millions upon millions of dollars into these stores without addressing the root causes of grocery unaffordability, like city regulations, high taxes, even crime, without addressing those things, just dumping more money into artificially inflating these grocery stores, it’s not going to solve the problem,” Huyer told The Center Square.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So what would it take to keep grocery stores in major cities open? First of all, how does the crime rate in these cities impact the profit margin of the stores? What is the cost of insuring these stores against theft, vandalism, etc.? How does the city treat the criminals who steal from or vandalize these stores? Are the criminals punished enough to keep them off the street and discourage other criminal activity? How would simply dealing with the crime rate in these areas affect the ability of these stores to stay open? What is the tax rate in these cities? What tax incentives might encourage grocery stores to locate in these cities? The only government interventions that might even be remotely helpful in keeping grocery stores in major cities would be better law enforcement, punishment for crimes committed, and possible tax incentives. Simply throwing money at the problem will NOT work.<\/p>\n

The article concludes:<\/p>\n

She (Nicole Huyer, a researcher with the Heritage Foundation) argued that crime, taxes and regulations can discourage grocery operators from investing in particular neighborhoods.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Rather than the city going in and having a city-owned or operated grocery store, the first step should be addressing the root causes,” Huyer said. “The government just dumping millions of dollars into a city-run public option isn’t going to really address the problem. You’re just going to waste taxpayer dollars in the process.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Huyer also cited examples of publicly supported grocery projects in places such as Kansas City and Baldwin, Florida, as evidence that government involvement has struggled to produce lasting success.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The free market works when it is allowed to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, The Center Square posted an article about the discussion prompted by the closure of seven Save A Lot grocery stores on Chicago’s South and West sides. The article reports: The closure of seven Save A Lot grocery stores … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[739,8048,1843,11293,19902,437,17178,19903],"class_list":["post-64913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chicago","tag-crime-rate","tag-heritage-foundation","tag-regulations","tag-save-a-lot-grocery-stores","tag-taxes","tag-the-center-square","tag-yellow-banana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64914,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64913\/revisions\/64914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}