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Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

businessinsider.com

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Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#321

Post by [deleted] »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #221
dunpeal wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm wondering the same. Two growing trends that I'm observing: 1. Businesses moving out of California, especially NorCal. Sergey Brin already said two years ago that he would not have started Google in NorCal today. He was right. There's a lot more interest in other locations, such as Austin. 2. Remote work, and fully remote virtual offices. Personally I know a bunch of people who declined offers in the SFBay to avoi…

> There's a lot more interest in other locations, such as Austin. Which, I hear, is quickly catching up to Bay Area in terms of cost of living.

[deleted]

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#322

Post by sampo »

necubi wrote: post #290
mc32 wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're just pandering to special interest groups --groups they believe will like this move, and since there is no alternative party in the Bay Area, they know most tech workers will not break Repub, so they can do what they want. They still get the tech voter and now they will endear some small progressive cause. But, yes, it's utterly incomprehensible. It's reductionist. Like I said before, ban Uber, ban MUNI, they…

> They're just pandering to special interest groups --groups they believe will like this move, and since there is no alternative party in the Bay Area, they know most tech workers will not break Repub, so they can do what they want. It's true that basically all elected officials in SF are Democrats, but in practice there are two semi-official parties: "progressives" and "moderates." The supervisors pushing this, Aaro…

> "progressives" and "moderates."

How did the people who oppose pretty much all progress, came to be named "progressives"?

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#323

Post by ntsplnkv2 »

gamblor956 wrote: post #313
dunpeal wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was reading articles about people and companies picking up and moving out of California to places like Nevada...thirty years ago. That's like saying "I was reading about government deficit 10 years ago, and look at it, it's still growing and we're still here and the deficit is even larger!". It's a growing problem. California grows less attractive as more of these exploitative measures and taxes pile up, and the…

It's a growing problem. California grows less attractive as more of these exploitative measures and taxes pile up, and the impact is noticeable. No NorCal location was in the shortlist for Amazon's 2nd HQ, for instance. Hahaha. California is a very nice place to live, and very many people want to live here. Last year, California's economy grew so much that it took back its spot as #5 in the world...behind only the US…

> Last year, California's economy grew so much that it took back its spot as #5 in the world...behind only the US, China, Japan, and Germany,

That's not really saying much given its population AND its land area. It should be performing right where it is.

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#324

Post by gamblor956 »

noarchy wrote: post #283
null000 wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really not compelling them. Employees are free to bring their food from home, or order outside the shopping center. It's keeping a handle on incentives, which is what any good government should be doing - incentivizing behavior that's good for the community and disincentivizing behavior that isn't. In this case, they're removing the ability for facebook to keep the path of least resistance for food on campus to…

>incentivizing behavior that's good for the community and disincentivizing behavior that isn't. Or what this very small minority thinks is good for the community, and forcing it on everyone else. That's how it goes with all government decisions, of course.

In this case, the minority is the many millions of people in the Bay Area that don't work in tech...

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#325

Post by s73v3r_ »

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #145
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #98

> The ban wouldn't be retroactive, however, so on-site food at companies like Google and Twitter would still be available Cool, so start-ups lose a potential hiring perk to the incumbents. (Does anyone know the story behind this bill? Which politicians and restaurants supported it? I’d like to avoid the latter going forward.)

>Cool, so start-ups lose a potential hiring perk to the incumbents. They could just do something similar to what colleges do: - increase salaries just a bit - but the increased salary goes to a food card - employees can't easily turn this into cash - you swipe it and "pay" - the company is essentially paying for the employee's food Money changes hands, but no one is at a net loss than what a free food perk would cost…

Why jump through all those hoops, instead of stopping at "increase salaries"?

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#326

Post by gamblor956 »

someguydave wrote: post #305
sidlls wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And regressive state politics and terrible culture and weather. Tech companies hiring in Texas is a negative signal.

What does "regressive" even mean? The state doesn't interfere with private contracts?

No, it means that Texas only interferes in medical decisions, domestic decisions, childrearing, labor relations, and religion, and most other private aspects of your life.

Pretty much anything that isn't regulated by a private contract, really.

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#327

Post by s73v3r_ »

ironjunkie wrote: post #31

This is one of the most stupid policy I have ever seen in the bay area (and there are a lot of stupid ones over here). As much as I dislike some of the big tech cos and the TechBros working there bragging about the free food all the time, I still believe a company should be able to decide if they want to offer food or not. Restaurants were unable to turn a profit, so they lobbied successfully and now everyone beside…

A pretty big nitpick, but the world is infinitely more complex than anything in an 'Econ 101' class would be able to actually explain. 101 level classes often simplify things to the point of uselessness.

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#328

Post by jstandard »

justinzollars wrote: post #114

I'm sorry but this is so f*cking stupid. As a Bay Area resident my priorities are the cost of housing, cleaning our dirty streets and alleviating traffic congestion. This is an example of progressivism gone awry. Solving the basics is incredibly important. Our quality of life is in decline (in the bay area) and this is the best our politicians can do? I'm enraged.

These things aren't mutually exclusive. Local governments have many constituencies they need to support, small business being one of the most important.

On the flip side of your rage are people who run local businesses having to shutdown, so local officials of Mountain View saw a way to respond to this.

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#329

Post by BurningFrog »

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #145
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #98

> The ban wouldn't be retroactive, however, so on-site food at companies like Google and Twitter would still be available Cool, so start-ups lose a potential hiring perk to the incumbents. (Does anyone know the story behind this bill? Which politicians and restaurants supported it? I’d like to avoid the latter going forward.)

>Cool, so start-ups lose a potential hiring perk to the incumbents. They could just do something similar to what colleges do: - increase salaries just a bit - but the increased salary goes to a food card - employees can't easily turn this into cash - you swipe it and "pay" - the company is essentially paying for the employee's food Money changes hands, but no one is at a net loss than what a free food perk would cost…

The benefit of a company cafeteria is mostly that you don't lose half an hour walking to a restaurant, waiting in line, ordering etc.

It's not about the money.

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#330

Post by s73v3r_ »

ghein wrote: post #106
Roritharr wrote: post #80

This is very interesting for me for a very different reason: We're in Germany where this is taxed heavily. If you offer your employees free meals, this becomes part of their taxable income, so you actually have to give them a raise to even this out, and then you have employees that want to opt-out to get the hands on that cash... I always wondered how Google Germany deals with this. There is a minimum below which it…

It's taxable in the US as well. There have been occasional attempts to enforce the law - IRS recently made noises in 2014/15. The challenge is that it's taxable to the employees but hard to track and prove, it's for relatively little money per employee, and the firms argue that it's for their benefit to secure information/improve productivity/build cohesion... Google can and will fight far harder than the IRS is will…

How is it hard to prove? These companies offering free food is very well known. It's not like the food is in a back alley behind a heavy door you have to knock on and say, "Walt sent me".
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