These are the same people that think having one government-run store (think G.U.M. in the former Soviet Union), would be a great idea.
When I was a teenager, I was in the German exchange program and went to Germany, including East Germany. They took us to their showcase department store in East Berlin. It was the most miserable place I ever saw — I remember being shocked that their showcase store was a dump. They took us to lunch at a nice restaurant there. The food was horrible. We got soft ice cream after lunch. The vanilla ice cream I got in my cone had a red tint to it. That is what Slate wants for all of us.