5 ms·

There's a family-run bakery near my house that specializes in cheesecakes. They make the best cheesecakes I've ever tasted. They only make a certain number (~

There's a family-run bakery near my house that specializes in cheesecakes. They make the best cheesecakes I've ever tasted. They only make a certain number (~200, say, I dunno really) per day, they always sell out, then they close for the day. Every year they take a two-month vacation. That's it. That's the whole business. Anthony Mangieri was downtown for a few years here in SF before he went back East. https://www.unapizza.com/about https://www.unapizza.com/about I got to eat there one time. Sublime. Unbelievable. All he does all day every day is pizza. Something like that (and a good accountant) and you're set for life, eh?

roughly 6y ago
That’s the truth - and it’s a good life, too. Easy to sleep at night, at least. Ed: man, I had that pizza too - it was hyped to the roof and I didn’t want to admit it, but damned if that wasn’t the best pizza in the city...
teddyh 6y ago
> sell out, then they close for the day. Every year they take a two-month vacation. What is stopping their landlord from raising the rent, since they obviously have money to spare?
- benhurmarcel 6y ago
  Real estate prices depend on the market rate, not the buyer's wealth.
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    Market rate depends on what the buyers will bear, on aggregate. Given that rents are sticky - it costs a lot to move yourself, and even more to move a business - the landlord could eat into a lot of their margins, if the landlord was so inclined.
    - scatters 6y ago
      And it also costs a landlord when a business moves. How likely would they be to find new tenants if the previous tenants mention that they were forced out by an above-market rent increase? You're tilting at windmills.
      - TeMPOraL 6y ago
        I'm not tilting at windmills, it's a common business question: how much can we exploit the other party without driving them away?
- Red_Leaves_Flyy 6y ago
  Principles? Morals? Ethics? The small things preventing humanity from murdering, raping, enslaving, and torturing one another. It's easy to forget that these exist and that everyone must always be on guard, defending the world against ones own baser instincts and defending oneself against humanity at larges baser instincts. As we collectively forget, or consciously ignore, our duty to one another we mortgage humanities future with collective suffering today. Eventually the bill on these ills come due, one way or another the sociological debt is always repaid.
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    Indeed. That's why I'm worried when I see interpersonal relations being replaced by market rules. Markets have no morals, principles and ethics by default, and generally consider these factors to be inefficiencies.
    - hammock 6y ago
      >Markets have no morals, principles and ethics by default That's not exactly true. "Markets" are made of people, and the morals principles and ethics of each participant imbue any given market with certain characteristics. The market doesn't reflect the exact morals of one particular actor, but it is nevertheless a product of them. Think matrix multiplication. For examples look at Roman civilization, Jewish civilization, the meeting of the two. Or look at the Wire.
      - TeMPOraL 6y ago
        I agree that "morals principles and ethics of each participant imbue any given market with certain characteristics". I was highlighting that these are incidental, not structural in the market. And my main point is: these characteristics are not stable. More than that, these characteristics are actively being diminished, ground down by the market - and that is a structural aspect. This happens through competitive pressure. If, as a market player, do something slightly shady to get an edge, I'll get ahead and my competitors will either have to do the same, or risk losing. When enough market players go along, the slightly shady things becomes a baseline, "standard business practice", and morality on the market is that much eroded. Then someone else starts getting ahead on being even more shady, and the process repeats. (Ironically, we often call this chipping away at ethics/morality "innovation".)
- hammock 6y ago
  Competition from other landlords

roughly 6y ago

That’s the truth - and it’s a good life, too. Easy to sleep at night, at least. Ed: man, I had that pizza too - it was hyped to the roof and I didn’t want to admit it, but damned if that wasn’t the best pizza in the city...

teddyh 6y ago

> sell out, then they close for the day. Every year they take a two-month vacation. What is stopping their landlord from raising the rent, since they obviously have money to spare?

benhurmarcel 6y ago
Real estate prices depend on the market rate, not the buyer's wealth.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  Market rate depends on what the buyers will bear, on aggregate. Given that rents are sticky - it costs a lot to move yourself, and even more to move a business - the landlord could eat into a lot of their margins, if the landlord was so inclined.
  - scatters 6y ago
    And it also costs a landlord when a business moves. How likely would they be to find new tenants if the previous tenants mention that they were forced out by an above-market rent increase? You're tilting at windmills.
    - TeMPOraL 6y ago
      I'm not tilting at windmills, it's a common business question: how much can we exploit the other party without driving them away?
Red_Leaves_Flyy 6y ago
Principles? Morals? Ethics? The small things preventing humanity from murdering, raping, enslaving, and torturing one another. It's easy to forget that these exist and that everyone must always be on guard, defending the world against ones own baser instincts and defending oneself against humanity at larges baser instincts. As we collectively forget, or consciously ignore, our duty to one another we mortgage humanities future with collective suffering today. Eventually the bill on these ills come due, one way or another the sociological debt is always repaid.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  Indeed. That's why I'm worried when I see interpersonal relations being replaced by market rules. Markets have no morals, principles and ethics by default, and generally consider these factors to be inefficiencies.
  - hammock 6y ago
    >Markets have no morals, principles and ethics by default That's not exactly true. "Markets" are made of people, and the morals principles and ethics of each participant imbue any given market with certain characteristics. The market doesn't reflect the exact morals of one particular actor, but it is nevertheless a product of them. Think matrix multiplication. For examples look at Roman civilization, Jewish civilization, the meeting of the two. Or look at the Wire.
    - TeMPOraL 6y ago
      I agree that "morals principles and ethics of each participant imbue any given market with certain characteristics". I was highlighting that these are incidental, not structural in the market. And my main point is: these characteristics are not stable. More than that, these characteristics are actively being diminished, ground down by the market - and that is a structural aspect. This happens through competitive pressure. If, as a market player, do something slightly shady to get an edge, I'll get ahead and my competitors will either have to do the same, or risk losing. When enough market players go along, the slightly shady things becomes a baseline, "standard business practice", and morality on the market is that much eroded. Then someone else starts getting ahead on being even more shady, and the process repeats. (Ironically, we often call this chipping away at ethics/morality "innovation".)
hammock 6y ago
Competition from other landlords