Shot in the Dark

I Have Seen The Future…

“Living Wage” activists carp that without labor, there’d be no business.  To follow that logic, one would assume if you gathered ten drive-through and fry-line workers together, a fast food restaurant would spontaneously form around them.

Less facetiously, we note that a “marxist” restaurant in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which promised “vegan, vegetarian and raw food” and promised no bosses or managers and a “Living wage” for its employees collaborators, has closed.

Worse still, while the food earned Bartertown a spot on VegNews’s “10 Hot New Vegan Restaurants” list, customers complained that it was almost impossible to get a meal at the diner.

People frequently noted on the restaurant’s Facebook page that they waited more than 40 minutes for a sandwich—and that’s when the diner was even open. Because the employees set the shop’s hours by group decision, the restaurant opened and closed at random times, leaving potential sandwich buyers totally confused.

Oh, don’t laugh.  With its minimum wage and sick time ordinances, Minneapolis is about to follow suit.  Saint Paul is rarely far behind.  And the only thing standing in the way of Bloomington following blindly behind would be the Mall of America – the only notable thing in Bloomington – saying “um, no”.

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Mitch Berg

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14 responses to “I Have Seen The Future…”

  1. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    Spontaneously? Could happen. Some of my cousins get together and break out the beer, somebody makes a run to the store for chips, next thing you know, they’re roasting a hog while the band sets up . . . .

  2. Scott Hughes Avatar
    Scott Hughes

    Rumor had it that a new Fogo De Chao was going to open next door that would’ve put extreme pressure on available parking….wink

  3. Seflores Avatar
    Seflores

    If you have ever lived with roommates where no one was in charge and you watched the trash pile up in the kitchen because actually taking the trash to the can was nobody’s job, you have some sense of what a workplace without ‘bosses’ is like.
    It’s too bad reality Tee-Vee is really unreality Tee-Vee. Would have been fun just to watch the ‘workers’ natural interactions via hidden camera as this joint spun in.

  4. kel Avatar
    kel

    seflores aside from the terminally drab decor of the place, the primary charm (it certainly wasn’t the food) of the New Riverside Cafe when it still existed was listening to the workers ironing out the political ramifications of dish busing and washing duties on a daily basis. It seemed that everyone believed their contribution to the collective didn’t require they engage in demeaning tasks. Plus there was a lot of shirking on the part of those who felt their greatest contribution was their ability to socialize. For several years they used 2 pkgs of coffee per carafe instead of one which meant it was the one place on the West Bank where you could get a cup of strong black coffee. Then someone read the instructions and everything went to hell.

  5. Alt-right Jethrene Clampett Avatar
    Alt-right Jethrene Clampett

    Normally I avoid The Economist like the plague. It’s articles are supposedly un-bylined to conceal the fact that most of its writers are recent college grads willing to work cheap.
    But ne’ertheless:
    “Why Do Firms Exist?”
    http://www.economist.com/node/17730360
    The article gives a summary of the work of economist Ronald Coates.
    “His central insight was that firms exist because going to the market all the time can impose heavy transaction costs. You need to hire workers, negotiate prices and enforce contracts, to name but three time-consuming activities. A firm is essentially a device for creating long-term contracts when short-term contracts are too bothersome.”
    In a way, it sounds like the role of the state in marxism-leninism. Except in a firm the association is voluntary.

  6. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    Yea, Mitch, Bloomington is becoming a cesspool of DemonRAT corruption.

    It has been revealed that Bloomington has added a surreptitious tax on their residents via a franchise fee. It’s showing up on both or our Xcel and Centetpoint Enerrgy bills. I was unable to attend the last City Clowncil meeting, but my neighbor did. There were about 30 people there protesting and none of the elected morons could (or would) explain why they sprung that on us with no justification. Someone apparently shouted out that maybe it was time to drain the swamp in Bloomington, which caused a noticeable reaction by the clowns. It’s funny that Mayor Gene Winstead had the money to buy into 2 Ike’s restaurants, both located in some very pricey locations.

  7. Scott Hughes Avatar
    Scott Hughes

    Boss, These actions piss me off to no end. The insidious bastards sneak in a tax or fee in damn near everything. A few pennies here and a few there and pretty soon we’re trying to figure out why we don’t have any dollars to fold and put into our pockets. When I look at my phone bill my blood pressure soars. Go to have your hair cut and they hit you with sales tax! Now I know why so many men are shaving their heads, they haven’t figured a way to tax that YET! Oh wait, they tax the needed supplies. To complement my supply of lead I’m thinking I should put up some tar and feathers.

  8. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    It strikes me, when we’re talking about minimum wage laws, that it is fairly straightforward to automate a burger joint like Chez Mac, but a lot more difficult when we’re talking about more interesting fast food like asian styles, pizza, delis, and the like. So what the left really wants is the end of interesting food that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

    And then they will look down their noses at those eating the burgers that are the only thing going, of course, at least until people figure out how to do a good burrito or pho with robots.

  9. Chuck Avatar
    Chuck

    What’s funny is a bunch of me and my capitalists friends could run a “communist” business because all of our decisions would be based on making the business as successful as possible. We’d make the sacrifices necessary for that to happen. I suppose that would be more of a partnership with no employees.

  10. Chuck Avatar
    Chuck

    The commies should have set up their restaurant as as normal for-profit business with profit sharing. That and dropped the murals of mass-murderers.

  11. The Big Stink Avatar
    The Big Stink

    Corporate America can absorb a $15/hr wage by simply raising their prices and colluding to outlast mom-and-pop-shop restaurants Guess what’s going to disappear if $15/hr becomes law?

  12. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    Scott,

    I’m just trying to figure out why Bloomington is so full of morons that don’t even look at there tax burden. Of course, we all know that ignorance is bliss to a libidiot.

  13. Bill C Avatar
    Bill C

    Chuck, business success and communism are two diametrically opposed concepts. A communist business can’t be successful (without a gun to back it up) and a successful business cannot be communist.

    And profits are evil and anti-communist. That’s one of the reasons the vegan place folded. They didn’t care about profits. Unfortunately, their suppliers DID care about their profits. Because their suppliers are not communist/marxist.

    Stupid stupid people. They will never ever learn that communism is directly antithetical to the most basic human instinct – self-preservation – and is doomed to fail without the force of government power. That’s also why communism has killed 120 million people in the last 150 years.

  14. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    Bill, communism has killed 120 million people in the past 100 years, not 150. Not that the left cares to remember.

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