Bowser repealing minimum wage increases. What

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC voted for a law that increased the cost of doing business for restaurants by a double-digit percentage and now is shocked that restaurants are closing. The white mediocrities who were behind this are all like, "Hmmm, it's probably greedy landlords" while most restaurants are in the middle of their 10-year leases when they close, with a locked-in price for five more years.

I hope everyone enjoys the future of dining out in DC: Ultra-fancy restaurants or take-out. There will be no in-between because of I-82.

This is nonsense disseminated by the restaurant lobby. The law imposes no such costs.

Are you really this stupid?

https://x.com/JHWeissmann/status/1918321448533340256

The problem is that your whole argument rests on assuming that consumers are stupid and don't factor their expected tip into the cost of a meal when deciding to eat out or not.

The bill is designed to allow restaurants to steadily increase menu prices to absorb the higher wages that they will be required to pay their wait staff (which was maybe not the best approach, but let's put that aside for now).

Before I-82, wages of wait staff were shared between base wages and tips. Menu prices were lower, but customers factor in tips. After I-82 (if it is ever allowed to be fully implemented), wages of wait staff will be fully paid by restaurants but menu prices will increase to compensate. If customers don't tip, restaurants have to make up the difference and there is absolutely no change in the wages they are legally required to pay their wait staff (although business costs for restaurants engaging in wage theft will increase).

So, yes, one can pedantically argue that I-82 increased costs of business (all other things equal) by a double-digit percentage, but it also increased revenue (all other things equal) by a double-digit percentage. Of course the problem is that no one is really smart enough to factor out everything that has changed from before I-82 and so the lobbyists for the restaurant industry mislead everyone into believing that the heady days of 2019 will return if only we do we away with the menace that is I-82.

It's plainly clear though from everywhere else that uniform minimum wages for restaurant workers that restaurants can be profitable by setting menu prices that incorporate the cost of paying their employees wages. And it's plainly clear that such policies are better for consumers and fairer for restaurant workers generally (if not beloved by high-earning wait staff).

Where I-82 went wrong was trying to do this gradually. In retrospect, it would have been better to make the change overnight and let restaurants adapt. Doing it they way that has been has created a halfway house that has left consumers confused as to what they are supposed to pay for and allowed scurrilous restaurant owners to exploit that confusion for personal profit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC voted for a law that increased the cost of doing business for restaurants by a double-digit percentage and now is shocked that restaurants are closing. The white mediocrities who were behind this are all like, "Hmmm, it's probably greedy landlords" while most restaurants are in the middle of their 10-year leases when they close, with a locked-in price for five more years.

I hope everyone enjoys the future of dining out in DC: Ultra-fancy restaurants or take-out. There will be no in-between because of I-82.

This is nonsense disseminated by the restaurant lobby. The law imposes no such costs.

Are you really this stupid?

https://x.com/JHWeissmann/status/1918321448533340256

The problem is that your whole argument rests on assuming that consumers are stupid and don't factor their expected tip into the cost of a meal when deciding to eat out or not.

The bill is designed to allow restaurants to steadily increase menu prices to absorb the higher wages that they will be required to pay their wait staff (which was maybe not the best approach, but let's put that aside for now).

Before I-82, wages of wait staff were shared between base wages and tips. Menu prices were lower, but customers factor in tips. After I-82 (if it is ever allowed to be fully implemented), wages of wait staff will be fully paid by restaurants but menu prices will increase to compensate. If customers don't tip, restaurants have to make up the difference and there is absolutely no change in the wages they are legally required to pay their wait staff (although business costs for restaurants engaging in wage theft will increase).

So, yes, one can pedantically argue that I-82 increased costs of business (all other things equal) by a double-digit percentage, but it also increased revenue (all other things equal) by a double-digit percentage. Of course the problem is that no one is really smart enough to factor out everything that has changed from before I-82 and so the lobbyists for the restaurant industry mislead everyone into believing that the heady days of 2019 will return if only we do we away with the menace that is I-82.

It's plainly clear though from everywhere else that uniform minimum wages for restaurant workers that restaurants can be profitable by setting menu prices that incorporate the cost of paying their employees wages. And it's plainly clear that such policies are better for consumers and fairer for restaurant workers generally (if not beloved by high-earning wait staff).

Where I-82 went wrong was trying to do this gradually. In retrospect, it would have been better to make the change overnight and let restaurants adapt. Doing it they way that has been has created a halfway house that has left consumers confused as to what they are supposed to pay for and allowed scurrilous restaurant owners to exploit that confusion for personal profit.

Yeah, this is absurd.

[Anonymous]

Initiative 82 sucked the joy out of going out to eat.

Prices became ridiculous.

All the sneaky fees tacked on at the end made you feel cheated.

No one knows whether you're still supposed to tip.

Even paying the bill became incredibly awkward when the waiter hands you a credit card reader with a HUGE number and no explanation of how the bill could possibly get that big.

No thank you. Cooking is more fun, anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC voted for a law that increased the cost of doing business for restaurants by a double-digit percentage and now is shocked that restaurants are closing. The white mediocrities who were behind this are all like, "Hmmm, it's probably greedy landlords" while most restaurants are in the middle of their 10-year leases when they close, with a locked-in price for five more years.

I hope everyone enjoys the future of dining out in DC: Ultra-fancy restaurants or take-out. There will be no in-between because of I-82.

This is nonsense disseminated by the restaurant lobby. The law imposes no such costs.

Are you really this stupid?

https://x.com/JHWeissmann/status/1918321448533340256

The problem is that your whole argument rests on assuming that consumers are stupid and don't factor their expected tip into the cost of a meal when deciding to eat out or not.

The bill is designed to allow restaurants to steadily increase menu prices to absorb the higher wages that they will be required to pay their wait staff (which was maybe not the best approach, but let's put that aside for now).

Before I-82, wages of wait staff were shared between base wages and tips. Menu prices were lower, but customers factor in tips. After I-82 (if it is ever allowed to be fully implemented), wages of wait staff will be fully paid by restaurants but menu prices will increase to compensate. If customers don't tip, restaurants have to make up the difference and there is absolutely no change in the wages they are legally required to pay their wait staff (although business costs for restaurants engaging in wage theft will increase).

So, yes, one can pedantically argue that I-82 increased costs of business (all other things equal) by a double-digit percentage, but it also increased revenue (all other things equal) by a double-digit percentage. Of course the problem is that no one is really smart enough to factor out everything that has changed from before I-82 and so the lobbyists for the restaurant industry mislead everyone into believing that the heady days of 2019 will return if only we do we away with the menace that is I-82.

It's plainly clear though from everywhere else that uniform minimum wages for restaurant workers that restaurants can be profitable by setting menu prices that incorporate the cost of paying their employees wages. And it's plainly clear that such policies are better for consumers and fairer for restaurant workers generally (if not beloved by high-earning wait staff).

Where I-82 went wrong was trying to do this gradually. In retrospect, it would have been better to make the change overnight and let restaurants adapt. Doing it they way that has been has created a halfway house that has left consumers confused as to what they are supposed to pay for and allowed scurrilous restaurant owners to exploit that confusion for personal profit.

The cost of everything -- workers, food, supplies, natural gas -- also has skyrocketed, so those revenue gains are, at best, nil. Asking restaurant operators to add to their outlays by double-digit margins, which everyone knew would happen with I-82, at a time of massive inflation was simply foolish.

[Anonymous]

Because 20% service fee plus expected 20% tipping is unacceptable for diners

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC voted for a law that increased the cost of doing business for restaurants by a double-digit percentage and now is shocked that restaurants are closing. The white mediocrities who were behind this are all like, "Hmmm, it's probably greedy landlords" while most restaurants are in the middle of their 10-year leases when they close, with a locked-in price for five more years.

I hope everyone enjoys the future of dining out in DC: Ultra-fancy restaurants or take-out. There will be no in-between because of I-82.

This is nonsense disseminated by the restaurant lobby. The law imposes no such costs.

No, it was not nonsense. The law is terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because 20% service fee plus expected 20% tipping is unacceptable for diners

I ate at a place last week with a menu that clearly outlined that customers were not expected to tip on top of the service fee. I'd rather they just bake the service fee into the menu prices, but I'm not going to argue with that.

On the other hand, unscrupulous restauranteurs trying to increase their margins by charging both a service charge and letting customers tip while sowing confusion to incite the repeal of I-82 deserve to have no business at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC voted for a law that increased the cost of doing business for restaurants by a double-digit percentage and now is shocked that restaurants are closing. The white mediocrities who were behind this are all like, "Hmmm, it's probably greedy landlords" while most restaurants are in the middle of their 10-year leases when they close, with a locked-in price for five more years.

I hope everyone enjoys the future of dining out in DC: Ultra-fancy restaurants or take-out. There will be no in-between because of I-82.

This is nonsense disseminated by the restaurant lobby. The law imposes no such costs.

No, it was not nonsense. The law is terrible.

The behavior of the restaurant lobby is terrible. Overturning the will of the people is not going to end well for them.

[Anonymous]

There's always a huge helping of magical thinking in DC policymaking. Whether it's Initiative 82 or bike lanes or pot legalization or whatever, it's like the underpants gnomes are in charge of designing these policies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's always a huge helping of magical thinking in DC policymaking. Whether it's Initiative 82 or bike lanes or pot legalization or whatever, it's like the underpants gnomes are in charge of designing these policies.

74% or DC voters are underpants gnomes? (Whatever the hell an underpants gnomes is, not that any of us really want to know.)

And god forbid DC voters might think that restaurants in DC could figure out how to operate the way that restaurants and almost every other business functions almost everywhere else in the world.

But, no, they throw a fit with all sorts of junk fees and nonsense charges just to piss all the customers off, childishly branding I-82 as responsible for their own crappy behavior, and then go crying to Mommy Bowser to get their way.

Well, it ain’t gonna work. There aren’t the votes for this on the Council. Not even Mendelsohn is going to vote for it. And you think that after this, DC voters are going to be even more eager to eat at your restaurants? Please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's always a huge helping of magical thinking in DC policymaking. Whether it's Initiative 82 or bike lanes or pot legalization or whatever, it's like the underpants gnomes are in charge of designing these policies.

74% or DC voters are underpants gnomes? (Whatever the hell an underpants gnomes is, not that any of us really want to know.)

And god forbid DC voters might think that restaurants in DC could figure out how to operate the way that restaurants and almost every other business functions almost everywhere else in the world.

But, no, they throw a fit with all sorts of junk fees and nonsense charges just to piss all the customers off, childishly branding I-82 as responsible for their own crappy behavior, and then go crying to Mommy Bowser to get their way.

Well, it ain’t gonna work. There aren’t the votes for this on the Council. Not even Mendelsohn is going to vote for it. And you think that after this, DC voters are going to be even more eager to eat at your restaurants? Please.

It wasn't 74 percent of DC voters. It was 74 percent of the people who voted in that election, or around 28 percent of the registered voters in DC. I know critical thinking isn't your strong suit, but please try.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's always a huge helping of magical thinking in DC policymaking. Whether it's Initiative 82 or bike lanes or pot legalization or whatever, it's like the underpants gnomes are in charge of designing these policies.

74% or DC voters are underpants gnomes? (Whatever the hell an underpants gnomes is, not that any of us really want to know.)

And god forbid DC voters might think that restaurants in DC could figure out how to operate the way that restaurants and almost every other business functions almost everywhere else in the world.

But, no, they throw a fit with all sorts of junk fees and nonsense charges just to piss all the customers off, childishly branding I-82 as responsible for their own crappy behavior, and then go crying to Mommy Bowser to get their way.

Well, it ain’t gonna work. There aren’t the votes for this on the Council. Not even Mendelsohn is going to vote for it. And you think that after this, DC voters are going to be even more eager to eat at your restaurants? Please.

Google it. It's from South Park, and it's shorthand for people who have some goal but have no clue about how to reach it. The idea that the city could pile on massive costs on an industry with famously thin margins and they would just somehow figure how to make it work is just moronic. I would expect more critical thinking from a high school student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s amazing to see DC politicians responding to market forces. Our politicians have spent most of the last decade acting like they could just push whatever far left flavor of the day.

This is what happens when we elect 13 people with exactly ZERO private sector experience. Not a single day in the business world among 13 lifetimes. From a statistical perspective this is about a 1,000,000,000 to 1 outcome, but somehow the voters of DC have pulled it off. Collectively, they are an incredibly unimpressive lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tipped wage, marijuana decriminalization, excessive bike lanes, and defunding the police have made DC incredibly hostile to businesses.

This is not what has made DC hostile to businesses. Bike lanes are great. When DC required that we stop providing subsidies for parking (dumbest law ever), at least my young employees can bike to work.

My organization has 150 employees downtown. What makes DC hostile is red tape. It's more expensive to have a business here. No one has to be in DC. We could move to VA and it would be easier and cheaper. Everyone thinks that there is this "business elite" and they have so much money they can waste millions of dollars trying to navigate DC.

Initiative 82 is stupid. DC needs to be more business friendly. If you don't like it, move.

Restaurant owners in 2021: Tipped wages and bike lanes in front of my store will bankrupt us.

DC progressives in 2022: No, I read a study that this was not true one time in Brooklyn. Living wages and bike lanes are super cool.

Restaurant owners in 2025: See you in Virginia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's always a huge helping of magical thinking in DC policymaking. Whether it's Initiative 82 or bike lanes or pot legalization or whatever, it's like the underpants gnomes are in charge of designing these policies.

74% or DC voters are underpants gnomes? (Whatever the hell an underpants gnomes is, not that any of us really want to know.)

And god forbid DC voters might think that restaurants in DC could figure out how to operate the way that restaurants and almost every other business functions almost everywhere else in the world.

But, no, they throw a fit with all sorts of junk fees and nonsense charges just to piss all the customers off, childishly branding I-82 as responsible for their own crappy behavior, and then go crying to Mommy Bowser to get their way.

Well, it ain’t gonna work. There aren’t the votes for this on the Council. Not even Mendelsohn is going to vote for it. And you think that after this, DC voters are going to be even more eager to eat at your restaurants? Please.

It wasn't 74 percent of DC voters. It was 74 percent of the people who voted in that election, or around 28 percent of the registered voters in DC. I know critical thinking isn't your strong suit, but please try.

This is why DC's ballot-initiative laws either need to be changed or simply scrapped. DC's electorate is notoriously apathetic and barely shows up to the polls no matter how important the race, and deciding city law because a tiny percentage of city residents votes for it is problematic. The law needs to be changed so that there's a threshold that needs to be met for ballot initiatives, namely 50.1 percent of the registered voters in DC -- not the percentage of people who actually voted in that election -- need to vote yes. Otherwise, the Council is completely within its rights to reverse laws that only a small group of people support.