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America could have $4 lunch bowls like Japan but for zoning laws

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Re: America could have $4 lunch bowls like Japan but for zoning laws

#231

Post by vel0city »

potato3732842 wrote: post #220
vel0city wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people don't make a point to go out of their way to avoid having rules applied if they're intending on following the rules. I don't think its that big of a leap. You're also misreading my comment. I'm not saying they definitely will do a sub-par job, but that its now an option, that they can do it. And given its the cheaper option (up front at least), it probably will happen more often. And especially when it co…

Once again this is a take predicated on bad assumptions. If you're just doing something and intend to meet or exceed the rules then dealing with government enforcement apparatus is pure overhead. You were always gonna do the right thing so you gain zero upside and have to deal with a potentially capricious and unaccountable (in any practical way) enforcer which is a huge downside. Second, the rules are chock full of…

> you gain zero upside

There's a lot of upside to the fact the next owner isn't going to have to question if things were done properly, that insurance isn't going to be able to push back when something does go wrong.

Re: America could have $4 lunch bowls like Japan but for zoning laws

#232

Post by dismalaf »

mckeed wrote: post #11

I wonder if you could partially get around this by using the "ghost kitchen" model. Offer food only for delivery, but then "hire" customers to deliver their own meals if they want it cheap.

Delivery apps eat into revenue way too much. Also most ghost "restaurants" aren't small businesses, they're a second (or nth) brand for an existing restaurant.

Re: America could have $4 lunch bowls like Japan but for zoning laws

#233

Post by trinix912 »

mjr00 wrote: post #149
systemtest wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A yes, why didn't I think of that! Let me just completely ignore the broken housing market, the 15+ year waiting list for social housing and scrape together... lets checks... €400k for a small appartement with a 45 minute commute to work. Do you have any clue how privileged you sound here? This is peak "have you tried not being poor" attitude.

While I don't know about European countries, given this is an article about America it's worth pointing out that you can, in fact, vote in the US while homeless[0], using a friend/family's home, shelter, or religious center as your address. [0] https://vote.gov/guide-to-voting/unhoused

It’s like that in many countries in Europe as well.

Re: America could have $4 lunch bowls like Japan but for zoning laws

#235

Post by sarchertech »

pantalaimon wrote: post #14
alephnerd wrote: post #7

Pay Japanese salaries, get Japanese prices [0]. That $4 kombini bento feels like a $13 burrito or Cava bowl when on a Japanese salary. Japan only appears cheap if you earn in USD, GBP, and Euros. For most Japanese households, costs have risen higher than salaries [1][2] and they are now facing inflation due to tourist spending [7][8][9]. It also doesn't help that the median household income in Japan is around $25,000…

> Japan’s minimum wage ($6.68 an hour) is similar to America’s ($7.25).

Minimum wage doesn’t tell you as much as you’d think. McDonald’s in my lowish cost of living area starts at $14 an hour.

The US federal minimum wage hasn’t increased in nearly 20 years. Japan raises it regularly.

Re: America could have $4 lunch bowls like Japan but for zoning laws

#236

Post by dismalaf »

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #26

Ok… if this is the case, then why are food trucks charging $18 for a burger and fries now? It isn’t all zoning laws.

Dude, there's a million regulations for food trucks. Not only do zoning laws typically still apply to them (of course it varies a lot by municipality) there's usually extra regulations on top of that (can't park within X metres of a restaurant for example) and cities often have extortionate fees for permits. It's often tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in permits...

Re: America could have $4 lunch bowls like Japan but for zoning laws

#237

Post by jeffbee »

lux-lux-lux wrote: post #134
postflopclarity wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's a great place to live and there will always be high demand. there would be more supply if not for restrictive zoning laws. and more supply = lower prices

SF has a relatively high ratio of housing units to population compared to other cities in the US and a 9.7% vacancy rate. By the numbers, it has an oversupply of housing.

That is not a valid interpretation of the data. The ratio you cite, which is a pointless one, is mostly influenced by household size. SF has a relatively small household size compared to the state and nation. The vacancy rate you cite is also not a useful one that people generally understand. There were 19000 units for sale or rent during the last ACS survey, out of 418000 physical dwellings, and that's only 4.5% which is very low by historical standards.

Re: America could have $4 lunch bowls like Japan but for zoning laws

#238

Post by dismalaf »

floatrock wrote: post #36
SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #26

Ok… if this is the case, then why are food trucks charging $18 for a burger and fries now? It isn’t all zoning laws.

from the article: > But the restaurant industry fights to limit food trucks. On average, food trucks must handle 45 separate regulatory procedures and spend $28,276 on associated fees. Lets napkin-math this. If we assume a food truck has margins at the upper end of the fast-casual industry of 9%, then each $18 burger-and-fries nets 1.62 in profit. $28,276 / 1.62 = 17,454 burgers-and-fries. If you were open every day…

Dude when industry wide margins are considered it's net margin. Gross margin on food is typically 70%. Of course, that margin does still get eaten up by a million things and the business is still brutal but they're definitely making gross margin of way more han $1.62 on burgers.

Re: America could have $4 lunch bowls like Japan but for zoning laws

#240

Post by lern_too_spel »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #218
lern_too_spel wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was because they thought that landowners would direct the votes of the people who lived on that land. The same reason was given for not allowing women to vote. https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1645 This comes directly from a historical British restriction on voting rights that in turn is an artifact of feudalism. https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_2_1s3.... Ancient democracies, including th…

> Ancient democracies, including those of Greek city states like Athens, restricted voting to landowners because prior to the invention of the printing press, only aristocrats could understand the issues being voted on. This is such bullshit. Pre-literate societies were not ignorant societies, they were not stupid societies, they were not issue-free societies. The printing press gave rise to literacy which then gave…

> This is such bullshit

So are the justifications of Adams and Blackstone. Literacy was the justification given by early Greek democracies with written legal codes, though some, like Athens, later broadened eligibility.

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