this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
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Not objecting, but what is the motivation of the Mexican government to do this? Have they done similar things before?
I don't think they've done something exactly like this, but they have aggressively tackled obesity in recent years, going as far as labeling all foods with excess fats, salt, and sugar. It's very visible on the package and it does influence what I buy.
But this is the way I found out we're doing this now. 😅
Actually doing something? Good on them!
But also I think because all the existing cocoa producers are evil enslavers. This will help something like 1800 Mexican farmers.
Nestle is notoriously evil - I'm hoping Mexico can compete
The only thing that EU has yet to stiff-arm on.
Government should probably provide the cheapest food and set the standard.
However ideology like this leads to issues in reality.
If a competitor gets lower prices would hint at some questionability. Government correction becomes suppression. Suppression leads to . . .?
Issues for who? The consumer? Or the capitalists?
It would hint that it's a shitty product, presuming no foul play by the government and the product is not overpriced (doesn't appear to be).
Government correction how? From suppression I think you mean lowering their price? The scenario you're laying out doesn't make sense.
The point of this kind of product is to be the baseline, no capitalist should be able to afford to offer the same product for less, because the government already has the lowest possible margin.
You start by making a better product, and you can charge whatever people decide the improved product is worth. It's a good thing that an asshole capitalist can't market a $7 bar of chocolate when a very good quality one is $1. At that price difference, your chocolate better be amazing.
Don't bother trying to correct them. They are convinced its a bad idea because its what they would do if they were in power.
So focused on hate and want you only see the consumer and capitalist, but not the worker's back. However, all three shall crumble under such a fumble.
The lower price would mean lower quality traditionally yes, but also implies cost cutting measures beyond that. Then creating regulation as a governance is expected the lowest prices. Did they circumvent regulations, taxes, etc.
Government correction can overextend their force with control of the fields and markets. Just look at the farming or fiahing history in most nations who had regulated government contracts.
HENCE, how could a capitalist compete, leaving only inferior or circumvention of regulations. Needing recitifying. Over extension of power leads to suppression of the workers, field owners, and consumers. With capitalism winning.
Your last paragraph is ludicrous, start by making a better product. Reflecting in cost and raising the value of the product reaching the end user. Antithetical to your previous point.
You have so little experience with the pain of the world that you can only dream your comforts.
So what does suppression of the people lead to?
Cope better. There was no hate.
No no no, it's not lower quality, it's just not luxury. It's better than the $5 Hershey bars available to you in the US. This is not a law of economics, it's a capitalist assumption. Lower prices can mean lower quality in for-profit contexts because companies cut costs to maximize profit. But in a nonprofit, state-run model, the goal is different: providing a high-quality public good at an accessible price. This is a de-commodification of a necessity or cultural staple. Chocolate in Mexico has deep indigenous and historical roots.
I don't know, did they?
The insinuation here is that the government is cheating the system. But if the government is the one setting or adapting the regulations, this is not circumvention, it's governance. State-run enterprises often don't need to chase profit margins because their revenue model isn't extractive.
Correct, that’s the point. The state provides a baseline to protect people from price-gouging and artificial scarcity. Capitalists can compete, but they must add value, not by suppressing wages or cutting quality, but by genuine innovation or diversification.
This is similar to how public healthcare in many countries sets a baseline: if private healthcare wants to exist, it must offer more, not extract more.
This is incoherent nonsense. Capitalism "winning" through the suppression of workers is not a bug; it's a feature. State efforts to offer goods affordably often arise precisely to counteract capitalist suppression.
The idea that public chocolate production suppresses workers more than Nestlé or Hershey's, companies with notorious labor violations, is laughable.
That’s just a rhetorical grenade, you’re not engaging with what I said, you’re trying to discredit me personally. And honestly, it’s frustrating. You’re implying that lived suffering and collective solutions can’t go hand in hand, but that’s just not true. Some of the fiercest, most committed advocates for public goods come from deep struggle, especially across the Global South.
This meaningless, conceited ramble could have been more effective simply by pointing out that state industry can force an unfair competition simply by subsidizing its products with tax revenue, hiding the actual costs and potentially forcing any rivals out of business even easier than private industry can.
Uhh what?
It’s called competition. Having a competitor in the market who’s goal is to keep people fed instead of making money hand over fist would both bring prices down and bring quality up on higher priced items.
If we have to do capitalism, let’s get some not-for-profit competition happening.
In an ideal world, yes that would be the competition. However, in reality if the governance sets the standard, they can have almost always the cheapest prices. Wide reach, built transportation systems and probably incentivized contracts. Essentially everything that fucked up India with the British during ww2.
Well if another company can go lower, it inherently implies they are skimping somewhere so quality is lost or regulations circumvented. Any government correction can overstep.
Go start your not-for-profit competition. Farm for yourself, grow crops at home, reduce your footprint. Find community in your neighborhood.
Yes, and yes, but why are either of these a bad thing? Cheap, good quality food seems like a good thing to me.
If the British provided cheap food, they could actually have avoided the Bengal famine. (Unless you mean some other fuckup I'm not aware of.)
Less profits for shareholders? And that is unacceptable!
/s
Reducing obesity.
With a chocolate bar? I see it has less refined sugar, but it could still have the same amount of sugar.
When reducing unhealthy food in your diet, having less-bad alternatives to the unhealthy thing you're craving can be a big help as your metabolism adjusts to the new diet.
For a personal example I've been greatly reducing sugar in my diet and sometimes I just crave something sweet. I've found ice cream to be the least sugary option, and I consume less sugar by having a bowl of ice cream than I would by having a few chocolates. My wife has a significant soda drinking habit and when she really craves a soda she's been turning to the Poppi and Olipop sodas as less-bad alternatives
Yikes, ice cream is one of the worst things you could be eating, super high calorie density and extremely high fat content. Here is a far better ice cream alternative that can be made at home.
refined sugars are processed by the digestive system faster and are turned to fat.
Processed or not, sugar is only turned to fat in the body if it is 1) fructose, or 2) more than what you need. Every cell in our bodies can store sugar in the form of glycogen. If our glycogen stores are low, any consumed sources of sugar will be enzymatically broken down, the fructose converted in our liver, and the glucose converted to glycogen and circulated in our blood to replenish the rest of our stores. Then after this process the excess will be converted to fat.
As for fatty acids themselves, they generally go to our muscles first if needed, and then the rest fills our fat cells.
They sneak in just a little of that fentanyl. It's to die for.
Americans have such a shitty life that they're addicted to drugs and can't stop buying them, but sure, it's Mexicans sneaking it in.