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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

#31

Post by ironjunkie »

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 them got a worse outcome.

This is economy 101. A highly visible group of people lobbied hard (in this case the restaurants), and they put a small burden on everyone else to have their issue resolved. However when you calculate the outcome, the burden on everyone else is bigger than the gain that the highly visible group got out of it. Everyone is worse off.

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

#33

Post by rayiner »

chatmasta wrote: post #20
ggg9990 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing in the constitution says that a jurisdiction can’t ban free food.

You can’t tell corporations how to spend their money either, as money is a form of speech. Isn’t that the gist of the Citizens United decision?

No, of course not. Citizens United says you can’t limit a corporations ability to create and distribute a political movie by pretending to regulate money not speech.

It has no bearing on what sorts of non-speech activities you can regulate, even though they happen to involve money.

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

#34

Post by uberman »

chatmasta wrote: post #5

Can anyone comment on the legality of this? IANAL and it’s just a feeling, but it seems like this must be unconstitutional somehow?

While I think it is totally bonkers, I think it is probably within the city's authority to forbid institutional food prep and/or a kitchen within spaces zoned for commercial use but not generally accessible to the public.

I don't think they have really thought this through though. For example, would this forbid a soupe kitchen that serves hot meals, how about a nursing home or a hospital?

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

#36

Post by dragonwriter »

chatmasta wrote: post #20
ggg9990 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing in the constitution says that a jurisdiction can’t ban free food.

You can’t tell corporations how to spend their money either, as money is a form of speech. Isn’t that the gist of the Citizens United decision?

No, it's not.

CU (and before it Buckley v. Valeo) stands (in relevant part) for the idea that the right to spend money on Constitutionally protected expression is itself part of the scope of the right protected. It's not “money is speech” but “the freedom to spend money on speech is part of the freedom of speech”; the former makes a better soundbite and can be a useful memory aid, but loses critical information if taken as the core message.

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

#37

Post by ng12 »

jorts wrote: post #13
exabrial wrote: post #8

"The restriction aims to increase business for local food retailers." Wow. Incredibly corrupt. I'm guessing next lunch boxes are going to be banned?

The stupid thing is that most of the tech companies, outside of the giant ones, get their food from local retailers.

Not only that but they employ chefs and kitchen staff to run these cafeterias -- generally under better conditions than most restaurants.

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

#38

Post by gregschlom »

jorts wrote: post #13
exabrial wrote: post #8

"The restriction aims to increase business for local food retailers." Wow. Incredibly corrupt. I'm guessing next lunch boxes are going to be banned?

The stupid thing is that most of the tech companies, outside of the giant ones, get their food from local retailers.

This proposal would ban the construction of office cafeterias so if you're just serving free catered food (which is what most small and medium companies do, I'd guess) it's fine.

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

#39

Post by optimusclimb »

grahamburger wrote: post #2

A place that I worked (not in the bay area) had a cafeteria where employees could eat one meal for free per workday by using a meal ticket. They also cut deals with nearby restaurants so the meal tickets could be used as basically $5 vouchers at the restaurants. That seemed like an OK compromise. Not sure how it worked behind the scenes.

Why should there even be a "compromise"?

My employer gives me free health care. Should that be restricted so I have to spend my own dollars and not get the benefit of a group plan?

Should employers not be allowed to give a transit subsidy because it hurts Lyft/Uber?

Maybe tech companies should not be allowed to offer stock based compensation because it's unfair to other city residents who work jobs without such things.

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

#40

Post by acchow »

throwaway426079 wrote: post #10
idbehold wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's taxable income then, no?

Even if it is, it's just a few pennies per day.

No, if your employer is giving you $10k worth of meals (their cost to produce them) and charging you $100 for it, you are taxable on the $9,900 benefit.
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