A public option for grocery stores?

The not-so-radical promise of city government socialism

Groceries.
(Image credit: Illustrated | NATALIIA OMELCHENKO/iStock, larryrains/iStock, Library of Congress)

The small Florida town of Baldwin, population roughly 1,600, is not the kind of community you'd expect to incubate incipient socialism. Donald Trump won it by 68 percent in the 2016 presidential race. Yet, as the Washington Post notes, textbook socialism is what the town has practiced since 2018, when the city government chose to open and run a local grocery store.

The case of Baldwin demonstrates how, on the ground, ideological distinctions between "socialism" and "capitalism" lose their salience. More to the point, it's a model for meeting economic needs that Americans would do well to expand.

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.