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Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

reuters.com

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Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#131

Post by lotsofpulp »

bevr1337 wrote: post #128
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they worked for a decade and never got a pay rise (other than minimum wage increases), why are they still working there? In an ideal world, you get wage and career progression over time, or move on to a different career otherwise.

> or move on to a different career otherwise. Folks rarely have this choice. What industry wants a barista outside food service? This is why we get stuck wearing a green apron for a decade, or working call center jobs, or any other crappy job.

People aren’t locked into being baristas. People immigrate from all over the world to the US, and become whatever they have to. Dry cleaners, landscapers, cooks, maids, nurses, etc.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#132

Post by basisword »

lqet wrote: post #59
isoprophlex wrote: post #50

> I’ve seen generations grow up. Some grandparents come in with their grandkids and say, “Anna, remember the jukebox?” > Today, however, young people no longer come to the bar. They came when we had the dance floor and the music. Today, they like to spend time with the smartphone; they even take it to bed when they go to sleep. What are we losing, what are we taking away from life, now that we ourselves have become a…

> Today, [young people] like to spend time with the smartphone; they even take it to bed when they go to sleep. Recently my parents (in their mid-60ies) were visiting us. At some point I realized that both of them had been quietly sitting at our dinner table for over on hour, eyes glued on their smartphones. They are massively addicted. I have noticed that they get nervous as soon as the smartphone is out of reach, o…

I feel like she's comparing the young people she sees today with the young people she saw 20/30/40/50 years ago. Not today's young people with today's older people. As you point out - people in their 50's/60's tend to be addicted to their phones too and in my experience have even less etiquette when in public or company.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#133

Post by lotsofpulp »

bojan wrote: post #84
nalnq wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the pensions in Italy are anything like in Spain, she’s making more money off it than young people are making working. Plus she’s probably defrauding the pension system by both collecting her pension and working.

Is it defrauding it if you contributed to it all your working life?

A defined benefit pension (or any other retiree benefit such as healthcare) is a claim on future productivity.

“Contributing” cash to it may not be enough, if the cash didn’t convert into sufficient automation to offset declines in humans due to declining birthrates.

So the question gets more interesting if it’s “Was contributing whatever amount calculated (using tenuous assumptions) many decades ago enough, especially if you chose not to have well raised kids who in turn could provide society with the retiree benefits?”

And then that opens up a can of worms about who was and was not expected to have well raised kids, and it gets messy very quickly, yet at the same time, we see a clear macro problem of taking more and more from a smaller young population and giving it to a bigger and bigger old population.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#134

Post by District5524 »

trymas wrote: post #61
isoprophlex wrote: post #50

> I’ve seen generations grow up. Some grandparents come in with their grandkids and say, “Anna, remember the jukebox?” > Today, however, young people no longer come to the bar. They came when we had the dance floor and the music. Today, they like to spend time with the smartphone; they even take it to bed when they go to sleep. What are we losing, what are we taking away from life, now that we ourselves have become a…

Socrates would have drawn the line at writing and reading texts.

Socrates said no such thing, no writing of Socrates has survived. He was just a character is Plato's book, Phaedrus. Please do find the original paragraphs before accusing Socrates of this. https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/plato/dialogues/benjamin-j... Of course, you can read and interpret that same book a thousand different ways, like he was talking about knowledge not being the same as writing things down, or whatever you want. But we don't even pretend to read the things we talk about. We just repeat nice narratives we have supposedly read somewhere else, digested by someone else, somehow.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#135

Post by lm28469 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #127
lm28469 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> than be someones actual slave for example. Some argue you're still one, they give you just enough crumbs so that you shut your mouth and bow your head while you work from birth to death, being taxed every step of the way, with more and more limited privacy and liberties. Meanwhile the top 1% still live like kings, laws barely apply to them, they're in charge of everything even though most of them haven't been elect…

I would guess an actual slave would find that comparison horribly offensive. And kings were born into their position, but there is quite a bit of churn in leadership during my lifetime, so I struggle to see that equivalence either.

> but there is quite a bit of churn in leadership during my lifetime, so I struggle to see that equivalence either.

You means these people who all come out of the same 3 unis, all attend the same parties, have the same networks, &c. ?

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#136

Post by nluken »

TurkishPoptart wrote: post #108
8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Italian morning caffè ritual is already extremely fast: the barista works at the speed of light and the coffee you get is pretty standard, but in exchange you get a moment to rub shoulders "al banco" with others like you about to go into work, or elders just getting out of the house, a mother taking her kid to school, a policeman taking a break. You say hi to the same few people you've been seeing at the establis…

I used to love this, until a latte started to cost $8. Now it's a luxury, and we can make this at home with a Nespresso for about ~$1 per drink.

Despite worries about creeping prices, coffee in Italy averages around €1.20 for an espresso or €1.50 for a cappuccino [1]. Way different than in a major American city.

[1]: https://www.ft.com/content/ccd7ef60-cef2-4b03-b4a4-63fa32854...

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#137

Post by 8f2ab37a-ed6c »

TurkishPoptart wrote: post #108
8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Italian morning caffè ritual is already extremely fast: the barista works at the speed of light and the coffee you get is pretty standard, but in exchange you get a moment to rub shoulders "al banco" with others like you about to go into work, or elders just getting out of the house, a mother taking her kid to school, a policeman taking a break. You say hi to the same few people you've been seeing at the establis…

I used to love this, until a latte started to cost $8. Now it's a luxury, and we can make this at home with a Nespresso for about ~$1 per drink.

Definitely easier on the wallet in Italy where an espresso is say, 1.15 euro or in that ballpark.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#138

Post by timerol »

almostgotcaught wrote: post #31
amarant wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia seems poised to invade Europe in the near future. If they do, and succeed, Rome could become part of the new Soviet Union(which Putin has explicitly said he wants to bring back) Once that happens, it's likely to lead to poverty. At least that's what happened in the last USSR

> Russia seems poised to invade Europe in the near future. If they do, and succeed Is this a joke? There is literally no chance this ever happens.

Yes, this was in fact an explanation of a joke. "In Soviet Russia, Rome is a poor city" requires both a currently-existing Soviet Russia, and Rome to be a part of it. Both of those are far-fetched. "Russia seems poised to invade Europe in the near future" is a bad explanation, since they are currently invading a country geographically in Europe.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#139

Post by BigGreenJorts »

basisword wrote: post #132
lqet wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Today, [young people] like to spend time with the smartphone; they even take it to bed when they go to sleep. Recently my parents (in their mid-60ies) were visiting us. At some point I realized that both of them had been quietly sitting at our dinner table for over on hour, eyes glued on their smartphones. They are massively addicted. I have noticed that they get nervous as soon as the smartphone is out of reach, o…

I feel like she's comparing the young people she sees today with the young people she saw 20/30/40/50 years ago. Not today's young people with today's older people. As you point out - people in their 50's/60's tend to be addicted to their phones too and in my experience have even less etiquette when in public or company.

And it's probably notable bc youth is marked by the energy and spirit you have that becomes hard to maintain as your body grows old and weary. Old people swapped reading and knitting and cards and yapping for smartphones, while the youth swapped dancing and singing and meeting new people for smartphones.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#140

Post by BigGreenJorts »

sgerenser wrote: post #106
sho_hn wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never seen this either. I'm just interpreting what I think OP meant. I used to live in Seoul, and new special food or drink items definitely would cause fad waves and would appear on Instagram feeds (Seoul is notorious for this), but I doubt it was the major parts of Starbucks' business.

The sweet latte-based drinks are a huge part of Starbuck’s business. They make far more money on these things (and frappucinos and iced lattes, etc.) than coffee or espresso. But it’s mostly just selling them to people who like the taste (and don’t really care for plain coffee at all). The people posing for instagram are a small minority.

Yeah most chains these days have specialty items that are 3 times the price of their staple items where they make a lot of money and draw in new and old customers. I think Starbucks was just one of the first to do it so regularly.
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