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

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

#381
This is pure political theater and a distraction from real issues. This has two possible outcomes:

1. The "Progressive" majority on the Board of Supervisors passes it and Mayor Breed vetoes it, giving Progressives yet another "you're a shill for big tech!" line of attack

2. It doesn't make it out of committee and everybody quickly forgets what an ass Aaron Peskin is

Just ignore it and donate to reform-minded leaders like Theo Ellington, Sonja Trauss, and Christine Johnson.

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

#382

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.

You do understand that taxes on strong economic base like restaurants is what pays for street cleaning and infrastructure improvement, right?

But, yeah this is stupid.

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

#383
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If all tech workers went out for lunch every day that would be a huge boon to the local low skill labor market.

What about all the employees that work in the cafeterias at Facebook?

Those employees don’t contribute to the campaigns of the relevant politicians while local business owners are highly involved.

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

#384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So over 20,000 employees would leave the Googleplex every day at noon to get lunch? This just means the next massive campus complex will not open in Mountain View. Big profitable companies and their hordes of tax paying employees will go elsewhere, and definitely will not be supporting MTV's local businesses. Welcome to the wonderful world of unintended consequences!

Is there anything stopping the next campus from opening a restaurant and not charging their employees?

Some thing exactly like that will happen.

"We don't serve free food to our employee, we charge $0.000001 per meal".

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

#385

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.

> Solving the basics is incredibly important. Ah, but you see, it is also difficult! "Dirty streets" and "traffic congestion" are big, messy problems, requiring careful planning, managing projects and contractors, adversarial factors, etc. By contrast, passing laws that apply to corporations is so easy! They are generally law abiding, so you just tell them "no more free food for you!", and they obey. Until, you know,…

I don't think that the corporations really leave they Bay Area. It seems to me that they, especially the largest one's are expanding, here not elsewhere.

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

#386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If two companies offer offer same salary and similar in every other sense, but one doesn't offer free food, I will choose one that does. If the company that doesn't offer food has +$20 salary per day, I would probably still choose one with food. It's easier, more convenient and probably healthier as well.

"If two companies offer offer same salary and similar in every other sense, but one doesn't offer free food, I will choose one that does." ... but in reality there are hardly any jobs that are so directly equal. I used to always 'go for the money' when I was younger, but now ... all the other factors matter so much. Just the temperament of your direct reports matter so much. One fewer headache a week? What's that wor…

I would argue that figuring out where to go for lunch, getting there, waiting in line with the dozens if not more other people who had a similar hankering, getting my food, eating in a crowded area or taking it back to work, are way more than one headache a week. I would consider that a daily migraine. In fact, that was my daily migraine before I just stopped going out for lunch altogether.

Free food isnt just about the food. Its also the convenience. I already have to fight traffic getting to work, and I fight through the crowds any time I go shopping or anywhere remotely popular in the area. Having to deal with that madness in the middle of a work day when I just want a meal would certainly be a dealbreaker for me.

And from my understanding, you wouldn't get any free microwave burritos -- those would be illegal.

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

#387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be nice if politicians had to disclose conflicts of interest when proposing legislation. I'm sure this shot to the top of the priority list not out of some moral imperative, but because someone somewhere was losing a buck, or could make a buck if this passed.

... Peskin is many things, but he's not someone who proposed legislation because someone bought him off.

Having a direct financial interest is not the only reason someone can propose bad legislation. Politics run on favors and negotiations. I might not be bought off by an outside interest, but I might owe one to my friend, who might owe one to his friend, who turns out to have a deal with the outside interest...

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

#388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wonder what it will take to kill this Golden Goose. Bay area employees are already a big premium over employees in other areas, but companies still really want to be here. No free food is almost asinine... but it's not a big thing compared to the extra cost in salaries.

Wherever Amazon puts HQ2 will be the next Valley. Not because companies can’t already move, but because it will be an easy excuse to focus there.

I haven't worked there, but from a lot of anecdotes I hear it's not a happy place. Quality of life is a thing.

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

#389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could easily break a tie. If I can save an hour everyday because I don't have to figure out lunch/dinner, then that's more time for me.

People in literally every where else in the world live for that hour of lunchtime away from work, so I think (hope?) you're in the minority.

Getting away from work doesn't have to mean getting away from your coworkers and your workplace. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty good about leaving my work at my desk -- when I get up to wander around, or to take a break, I don't have to leave my workplace to be 'away from work'.

And is trading your coworkers for pushy crowds of strangers and traffic nightmares really that good of a deal? Because in MTV, that's what you're trading for. Getting away from work at lunch means dealing with even bigger and even more annoying crowds.

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

#390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't you deserve the free food more? It's a job benefit that the company provides to entice talent (and yeah to keep people at their desks). Do you not deserve the high pay as well any more than any other random worker?

No. I can tell you that most minimum wage workers are working far, far, far harder than most of the people in this board, myself included.

How much revenue is a minimum wage worker generating? There is your answer.
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