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"San Francisco Restaurants Can’t Afford Waiters." Uhhhh. No - that is really the wrong way to say it. There's a supply/demand mismatch obviously. Clearly the

"San Francisco Restaurants Can’t Afford Waiters." Uhhhh. No - that is really the wrong way to say it. There's a supply/demand mismatch obviously. Clearly the wealthy residents of SF simply don't want to pay ... for some reason. I think there is something sneaky going on - when I lived in SF, restaurant prices were disturbingly cheap. As a Canadian, I'm used to not very good prices. But in SF, I couldn't grasp it. I know that they employ a lot of undocumented labour, and I suggest this might have something to do with it - i.e. - a resto starts employing undocumented workers in the back simply to 'stay alive' - but then it forces other restaurants into the same competitive bind. And then they start moving into other jobs - forcing those layers of the value chain to have 'real wages' that are under minimum wage. This is effectively what has happened in farming - and the same thing could be hitting restaurants - it's one of the more pernicious aspects of irregular immigration and employment.

efficax 8y ago
SF is full of rich people but it also has a normal share of middle and lower income residents. As high rents eat up more and more of their budgets, they have less and less money left over for other things, like dining out. If the restaurants raised their prices to pay a better wage, then only the rich could afford to eat at the restaurants, and there not being enough rich people, they would go out of business. Maybe the Bay area should be forced to feel the effects of its insane housing market in this way, but the individual restaurant owners aren't going to respond to these pressures by going out of business, they're going to try and reduce costs so they can keep prices low.
- frgtpsswrdlame 8y ago
  Yes but their response is to create demand for a foreign, undocumented underclass in place of raising wages for native workers. In fact that impulse is part of what makes it so that the Bay doesn't have enough people who make enough to eat out enough to support business. Ending our reliance on a captive labor force will raise prices but it'll raise wages too.
  - sonnyblarney 8y ago
    Yes, that's it. It's nice that we can provide employment to people, and I understand the argument of 'jobs for things American's won't do anyhow' - but there are better ways to move civilization along. Make sure workers are documented, have decent conditions, minimum wage and some kind of healthcare. The factories and farms that are not sustainable will move to places like Mexico where jobs will be created to help entire communities and families live well - not just those who risk an illegal life in the USA. Young Mexicans don't want to join cartels, people would rather a 'decent job with respectable pay' any day. A well run Toyota factory could provide such a powerful economic basis for the community and allow them to re-take control of their communities. There's no reason for strife and struggle in 2018, we have all the knowledge and technology for everyone to be 'ok' - we can't blame it on the Gods for famine and disaster anymore, it's 100% all on us! We have to organize ourselves conscientiously.
  - SilasX 8y ago
    I agree that’s an unfortunate development [1], but that’s getting kind of off topic. The article is discussing legal, non-shady, non-socially destructive ways of reducing labor costs: providing less service to the customer. [1] as is the popularity of the Orwellian euphemism “undocumented”.
JumpCrisscross 8y ago
> they employ a lot of undocumented labour Having spoken to a few restauranteurs in carpools et cetera, it does appear the Bay Area restaurant labor pool contains lots of undocumented persons.

efficax 8y ago

SF is full of rich people but it also has a normal share of middle and lower income residents. As high rents eat up more and more of their budgets, they have less and less money left over for other things, like dining out. If the restaurants raised their prices to pay a better wage, then only the rich could afford to eat at the restaurants, and there not being enough rich people, they would go out of business. Maybe the Bay area should be forced to feel the effects of its insane housing market in this way, but the individual restaurant owners aren't going to respond to these pressures by going out of business, they're going to try and reduce costs so they can keep prices low.

frgtpsswrdlame 8y ago
Yes but their response is to create demand for a foreign, undocumented underclass in place of raising wages for native workers. In fact that impulse is part of what makes it so that the Bay doesn't have enough people who make enough to eat out enough to support business. Ending our reliance on a captive labor force will raise prices but it'll raise wages too.
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
  Yes, that's it. It's nice that we can provide employment to people, and I understand the argument of 'jobs for things American's won't do anyhow' - but there are better ways to move civilization along. Make sure workers are documented, have decent conditions, minimum wage and some kind of healthcare. The factories and farms that are not sustainable will move to places like Mexico where jobs will be created to help entire communities and families live well - not just those who risk an illegal life in the USA. Young Mexicans don't want to join cartels, people would rather a 'decent job with respectable pay' any day. A well run Toyota factory could provide such a powerful economic basis for the community and allow them to re-take control of their communities. There's no reason for strife and struggle in 2018, we have all the knowledge and technology for everyone to be 'ok' - we can't blame it on the Gods for famine and disaster anymore, it's 100% all on us! We have to organize ourselves conscientiously.
- SilasX 8y ago
  I agree that’s an unfortunate development [1], but that’s getting kind of off topic. The article is discussing legal, non-shady, non-socially destructive ways of reducing labor costs: providing less service to the customer. [1] as is the popularity of the Orwellian euphemism “undocumented”.

JumpCrisscross 8y ago

> they employ a lot of undocumented labour Having spoken to a few restauranteurs in carpools et cetera, it does appear the Bay Area restaurant labor pool contains lots of undocumented persons.