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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

#441

Post by TomMarius »

njharman wrote: post #382
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.

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.

Maybe it's the concept of public property financed by taxes that's wrong.

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

#442

Post by TomMarius »

Johnny555 wrote: post #251

If cities want employees to patronize local businesses, they they should start providing enough housing so employees can live near work. Stop forcing employees to live 30 miles away by restricting housing and then complain "But why won't they shop here!?"

No, they should stop getting in the way of housing. Definitely not provide it, that's just calling for a catastrophe as we can see from policies like this one.

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

#443

Post by pimmen »

WalterBright wrote: post #431
stcredzero wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As it turns out, poverty doesn't cause crime. It's relative poverty that causes crime. Basically, if people are low down enough on the dominance hierarchy, they feel like they have no hope of getting anywhere, then why shouldn't they start acting up? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3XYHPAwBzE (On the other hand, in societies where everyone is poor, there can be peace.)

Or maybe it's the other way around - crime causes poverty.

Crime can absolutely produce a bad feedback loop to a community, but I would love to see more research on what causes what. We can see that countries that become a lot richer and keeps wealth inequality under control has a connection with drops in crime, like in Australia for example. However, I don't think drops in crime caused the resource boom there and I don't think Detroit's crime rate caused the Japanese and German economies to become more advanced and outperform the American auto industry.

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

#444

Post by icebraining »

s73v3r_ wrote: post #332
thecommentary wrote: post #287

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.

And some of them were working in those private cafeterias. Not anymore, though; restaurateurs profits are more important.

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

#445

Post by Zak »

adrianN wrote: post #415
closeparen wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I was a BART commuter, I walked a gauntlet of slumped-over hard drug users, sprawled-out homeless people, human urine, and feces every day. Fortunately, I've only seen people drop their pants and take a shit on the sidewalk in front of me twice. Missed a random stabbing on the stairwell into my station by about 5 minutes. This is Civic Center Station, which serves Twitter, Uber, and Square. No amount of tech wo…

That's not an inherent problem of public transit. It's just a symptom of failing to take care of poor people in your society. Try taking public transit in a civilized country like Germany or Japan.

I have, in fact witnessed someone defecating beside an U-bahn track in Germany. It may be less common, but it still happens.

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

#446

Post by icebraining »

nostrademons wrote: post #341
jessaustin wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If zoning weren't legal, lots of things would change. Mostly for the better, but perhaps not entirely. There would be a lot more pedestrians and cyclists, and a lot fewer automobiles, in most urban areas. On the other hand you might live closer to a tavern. I lived in Denver for a few years; it's not so bad to live close to taverns.

There's actually a real example of this, and it basically shows the opposite of your point. The city of Houston has no zoning laws - you are free to build wherever, whatever, occupied by whomever, subject only to market forces and contracts. The result has been a sprawling, car-driven metropolis where to get anywhere, you need at least a 20-minute drive in a car. My sister lives in a development of over 10,000 people…

What's the problem with a sex shop near a preschool? Or even a residential home next to chemical storage - it should be perfectly safe to live next to those.

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

#447

Post by CPLX »

adrianN wrote: post #415
closeparen wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I was a BART commuter, I walked a gauntlet of slumped-over hard drug users, sprawled-out homeless people, human urine, and feces every day. Fortunately, I've only seen people drop their pants and take a shit on the sidewalk in front of me twice. Missed a random stabbing on the stairwell into my station by about 5 minutes. This is Civic Center Station, which serves Twitter, Uber, and Square. No amount of tech wo…

That's not an inherent problem of public transit. It's just a symptom of failing to take care of poor people in your society. Try taking public transit in a civilized country like Germany or Japan.

We don't have this problem in New York. From an outside perspective at least San Francisco seems to be a uniquely fucked up place in this department.

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

#448

Post by Zak »

sAbakumoff wrote: post #439
BurningFrog wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, it's not about the money. It's about slavery. Tech giants want their workers to spend as much time as possible near their working places. Even during their lunch time when people are supposed to get some rest from their jobs, walk to the nearby restaurant, maybe meet some new people instead of those faces they see every f'ng day. NO! Facebook, etc. don't allow any distraction. They wrap slavery in shiny candies…

I've read a number of definitions of slavery coming from a variety of political perspectives. Some go so far as to term hiring anyone who isn't independently wealthy to work for wages "slavery".

None of them included giving employees perks in the hope that it will increase their productivity.

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

#449

Post by HenryBemis »

spike021 wrote: post #150
marzell wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$10 for a full meal (not including tax and tip) is probably unrealistically low for the bay area. State and city minimum wages are increasing (SF is $14/hr and they have other mandates like healthcare coverage) so food and restaurant prices are going up (many meals seem to be in the $12-15 range, approaching $20 w/ tips). Many restaurants are closing, and are exploring alternate business practices, like pop-up stores…

Not sure where you're getting those numbers in your first paragraph (other than the minimum wage increases). I live and work in the downtown part of San Jose, and on some days of the week work in downtown SF (SoMa near Caltrain). I rarely spend $12-15 (more so in SJ but also in SF). Usually the significant cost is adding a soft drink of some sort (soda, juice, tea, etc.) because I'm finding restaurants are increasing…

> because I'm finding restaurants are increasing the price of those for whatever reason ($2.50 at some).

Soft drinks are easy money. Receive, unpack, refrigerate,sell.

A soft drink that costs $0.10 to buy in a store and sells for $2.5. That's a 2500% profit margin.

If the delivery system is not a bottled/canned productbut comes in a keg, and can deliver 50 litres instead of 330ml then the margin is higher.

Of course the expenses of electricity, storage, labor, remain, but it makes a sweeter deal for the restoranteur to employ their staff for 10% of the time with 2500% margin.

I remember watching Gordon Ramsay in many of his episodes stating that restos are/should be operating with a 25% margin.

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

#450

Post by tormeh »

mschuster91 wrote: post #407
closeparen wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I was a BART commuter, I walked a gauntlet of slumped-over hard drug users, sprawled-out homeless people, human urine, and feces every day. Fortunately, I've only seen people drop their pants and take a shit on the sidewalk in front of me twice. Missed a random stabbing on the stairwell into my station by about 5 minutes. This is Civic Center Station, which serves Twitter, Uber, and Square. No amount of tech wo…

> No amount of tech worker foot traffic is going to clean up an area if the government isn't willing to police it. And policing will just drive the problem somewhere else. What America desperately needs is a new approach to a lot of issues that goes way beyond ever more police, courts and jails: - drugs and addictions (now that enough white middle class people suffer from heroin or worse, something hopefully will be…

What's worse than heroin? I thought it was the most addictive thing we knew.
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