Increasing Costs of Dining Out

Exactly and well said. A perfect meal out is a memorable treat, but being served what our son derisively calls “Tuesday night dinner” is disappointing to the point of being insulting. I won’t spend money on the ordinary when it is so easily surpassed at home. It’s about alternative use of occasion and calories!

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We have been going to Nobu ever since the original opened on Hudson and we go to the new downtown post pretty regularly. I got the Nobu cookbook as a gift many years back. I’ve tried making the recipe for the miso black cod probably 10 times. I can tell you that while it is ok, the cod is better at the restaurant. Period. You must have much better technique than I have as I can never get that combination of crisp char and moist flesh. My version tastes fine, but it is nowhere near close to what I get at the restaurant. And I’m never going to attempt the crispy rock shrimp tempura with creamy spicy sauce. The deep fry is key and while I’m good frying chicken and frites, seafood demands timing and temperature control that I don’t have.

I also have no problem ordering dishes in restaurants that I can prepare. I’ve had steaks and burgers and spaghetti carbonara, and I can make these as well as most restaurants. Just do it well and I’m happy.

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We confess to an exception that demonstrates our rule: Once arriving at Matsuhisa for lunch, who but Nobu himself was at the host station checking the reservation book (we guessed it being LA and all . . . ). So we did the touristy drill and ordered black cod, hoping if he were manning the broiler, he’d know which table had placed the order. We also ordered some sashimi and whatever else we thought he might have had a hand in preparing.

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Very much agree. My parents were raised in communism and so they instilled in me quite different values than I have today. To them, if you were smarter/more educated/more diligent/more talented, then you “deserved” a higher wage than those who were not. How else was anyone going to be motivated to achieve their best? So they could tell me that of course someone working at fast food was paid less than a doctor; they were less worthy. As I grow older, that seems so simplistic to me.

Governments, employers, societies have an obligation to their workers. I firmly believe it. If you work full time then we will pay you enough to put a roof over your head and food in your belly. It’s not about how much that labor is “worth” to the recipient. It is about dignity and the general worth of humanity. You can’t take all of someone’s hours and still not pay them enough to survive. And if that means that the price of the products or goods sold must be higher, then they must be higher.

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That’s why, here in the UK, the term “National Living Wage” is generally replacing the “National Minimum Wage” (although not for people aged 22 or younger where it’s paid at lower rates and is still called the NMS). One could argue, as I certainly would, that is not yet at a high enough rate but the change in terminology is a move in the right direction.

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And also so the opposite of communism, at least as expressed in Marx’s slogan, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. "

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When I try to understand their perspective, it’s all about a meritocracy. They deemed themselves to be smart and capable, but they could never actually make anything of themselves to improve their life until they emigrated. Partly this was the notion that everyone was equal. Partly it was anti-semitism they experienced that kept them out of the universities they wanted due to quotas. But there is a complete failure to recognize why certain people CAN live up to their full potential and others cannot, because they are held down by other forces outside their control. Perhaps it was because in their time, the USSR was pretty homogenous, very unlike the US. But in any case, their perspective still rankles me, because they have not updated it in the 45 years that they have lived here.

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Engels based most of his communist philosophy on the slums of Manchester, to the immediate north of the city centre, in the mid 19th century . My family was living there at the time with most working in one of the many iron foundries in the area.

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Now that is a history lesson for me. I did not know that.

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In my area, most restaurant workers can’t afford in town lodging. So you have people commuting many miles and hours every day. Most often both partners. Even with these 80 hours labor, the average couple is living marginally.

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Setting aside the economic consequence of that policy, as an employer I took on all the risk to create the enterprise and fully responsible if it fails, but yet also expected to pay a certain predetermined lifestyle irrespective of an employee’s value?

Entrepreneurs get the upside because they assumed all the risk of the downside. Those who want a better lifestyle need to invest in themselves to develop skills so the service they have to trade is valuable.

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These are different approaches of society you are describing- yours more a US driven approach with economy as the main driver for everything (and ultimately more important than the individual) whereas the other approach is more western Europe , e.g. Germany leaning with the success, support across society towards individuals often more important than (individual) economic success. Obviously this is a very much black-and-white short explanation and there are more shades of grey but it comes down to the importance for a society to have a social safety net or only individual responsibility.

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Some more about Engels’ time in the Manchester area in this BBC article

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The BBC runs a programme called “Dateline London”, where foreign journalists based in the UK discuss current issues here. It’s generally fascinating to see the different persepctives. I remember watching an episode several years back when Belgian journalist Marc Roche said that, in the second half of the 20th century, UK society had faced a choice - either go down the general European model of high taxes and high government spend or the general American model of low tax/low spend. He said that, clearly, from the 1980s onwards, we had chosen the American route.

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Who is talking about a certain lifestyle? We are talking about a roof overhead, utilities that work, and enough food not to starve. Every society has jobs that require minimum level of skill and education, and those jobs need to be done like any other jobs. For those people, if they work full time, they should be paid enough to survive and not be homeless or starving. End of story. If people have the means and desire to improve themselves, then they should be able to do better than the minimum wage. Anyone who does a job that needs doing is offering something of value.

As for entrepreneurs - you are making an investment. Using your capital to invest in yourself rather than the stock market or real estate of whatever. Don’t invest what you can’t afford to lose, but I don’t understand this notion that because you are taking a chance, that someone else who has the skill to do the work you need done should “improve themselves” before you consider paying enough for them to live on. When your business goes belly up, you’ve lost your investment. But they’ve lost their income.

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Enuf said.

That’s a pretty poor response.

Not interested in teaching Econ or business.

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That’s fine. I’d just say don’t bring things up in a public forum if you don’t care to defend your position.

I replied to a comment; didn’t start it. And the off-topic line is pushing site limits.