Are Dollar Stores Bad for People Who Buy From Them?

There are two kinds of Dollar Store shoppers, it seems. There are people who go there because there are deals on some particular items. As a parent, it's the go-to for disposable crap like gift bags, balloons, wrapping paper, and various junk needed for school projects. This is typical middle-class-mom in-and-out Dollar Store hit-and-runs. It's a miserable experience to be sure.

Then there is the rest of the shoppers. The seemingly destitute, scraping their nickels together (and EBT cards) to eek out a minimal subsistence on god-awful prepared junk food. That's probably the large majority of customers.

Yes, it is sad and ugly. It's worse than the stereotypical Wal-Mart shopping experience because the latter has plenty of First-World products. The Dollar Store doesn't. It has developing-world knock-off toys and decorations, cooking ware, utensils, etc.

Tucker's should know better than to blame the free market.

We don't have a free market. We have a highly regulated market, an unchecked government, a crushing tax system, a crazy expensive government-controlled medical system, and politicians and bureaucrats who picks winners and losers.

The rich get richer because they're part of the political class. The rest of us are their marks.

He says it's gotten worse in his lifetime, and I think there's truth to that. It hasn't all gotten worse, but it should have gotten a lot better in his lifetime in all ways -- that's what free market capitalism would have done.

You have to ask yourself: Why are there so many poor people despite the trillions in welfare spending? Why is our infrastructure crumbling Third World quality despite trillions in infrastructure spending every few years? Why are our schools and universities declining in quality despite mind-blowing budgets?

It's because the system is rigged. It does benefit the big players in capital markets, university administrators, NGO executives, "green" corporate executives and asset managers, the poverty and homelessness industrial complex, etc.

That's not capitalism. It's corrupt cronyism.

It is grotesque, and yes, Tucker: it makes everything uglier and worse off.