@Typo-MAGAshiv Thanks again for this resurrection! Something amazing about markets is how big bubbles can go before they pop. Hoeflation is reaching epic proportions that will keep historians busy in their AI inhabited virtual machines a thousand years from now amused.

Let's compare hoes to restaurants: I marvel back in the late 80's I whined about paying for women on dates. Even paying for the first or second date and I was told to "just give in, do an awkward ask out and act like you LOVE paying for dates, and you have a good chance at getting laid". It seemed like a way to sell my soul and it turns out, men collectively did. It just got worse and worse similar to, say, restaurants!

I still see lots of restaurants being built and I'm astonished. Here's something I took photos of. I'm going to post the permits for everyone's amusement because it's utterly shocking. SOMETHING is going on! Look at these permits for a French cafe restaurant being setup on a LEASED building.

Jesus Christ! I added up about $10,000 in building fees for them to even break ground. Then they put in an easy couple of hundred grand in. I see these restaurants going up and down all over the place. In the past 7 years, I've seen some sites with rebuilds twice.

Something similar happened to fast food. Someone remarked the death of good fast food is because starbucks, McD's, Wendys look alike because those old iconic buildings were so unique, they could get in/out cheap so now rebranding a Taco Bell to a McD's is merely changing some signage and paint.

I chatted with a friend whose been devastated by Stacked Ranking and H-1bs laying off everyone and she's been out of work for more than a year. I asked her about savings and she said "We spent it as fast as I earned it". She had a gorgeous wooden deck and nice cars. I drove up until recently a 20 year old Hyundai Elentra. I got mocked for my frugal ways, but it meant sleeping a lot better at night. Going out for $70 steak dinners weekly, or even bi-weekly is insane to me. (however you interpret bi-weekly, it's still insane!)

For me, simply being required to pay for a first date was offensive and I eventually cut that slack realizing I wasn't going to land a pretty wife otherwise. It's like me griping about paying 5 cents for ketchup. But now for young men, work 60 hours a week for an ungrateful blue haired face pierced wife? I cannot imagine.

@redpillschool @Typo-MAGAshiv Merci/Dziękuję for calling me to this thead. Quite enjoyable. Strange I didn't see the callout 2 weeks ago.

I think much of it is due to the COVID phenomenon which thinned the herd and also set lower expectations, yes? People felt bad so they overripped including for take-out. TAKE OUT.

Want a laugh? One of my favorite videos: www.youtube.com/watch?v=02arY49yjDg Part 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ehI3L9tOg8

So get this, 20% including on drink total which is basically gravy for restaurants and they often even "recommend" tips on the total+taxes. Since inflation was rampant, that means that a burger that cost me $5 to make at home now is $15 at the restaurant so a 20% tip is 3 bucks. If the waitress serving a table a check of $70 gets $14, and she waits about 6 tables at a time, that's $82/hour. There are some (that which cannot be named) Teddit posts from waitresses bragging about clearing $100k/year. So we're being squeezed by double inflation going out.

I also noticed that standards have shot way downhill. OK, pay the servers more either front or back end but still, the nose piercings are gross. Slow service. My wife nags me to tip at 20 percent no matter what. I'm Done. I'm on Mr. Pink's side now: www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4sbYy0WdGQ

I'm going to tip from now on in SCALE to actual work performed: If she has 6 tables and ok service, I'm calculating what is appropriate. If it's a $100 steak place, then I'm tipping 5% unless she looks and acts like Sydney Sweeney and runs the table super fast.

BOTTOM LINE: THEY ARE NOT GETTING PAID MORE THAN I EARN TO WAIT TABLES!!!!

Observation: Back about 30 years ago, the USA was a Mecca for “foodies” (or gastronomists). With cheap illegal immigrant indentured servant labor, inexpensive (albeit frankenfood) ingredients, and relatively cheap rents, I had Swiss friends visiting who put on 10 lbs in 2 weeks.

Now it’s the other way around: Europe is largely more affordable even by their standards. Funny that big American portions are no longer the norm due to shrinkflation and quality isn’t there either so what is the point? Aside from perhaps some exotic things difficult to make at home such as General Tso Chicken and such, Eff it. I found takeout places or good places for some stuff but sit-downs is no longer much of an option and that’s ok. That was the NORM for most families back 50 years ago anyway.

@Typo-MAGAshiv @adam-l I enjoyed this whole thread. Thanks for sharing it. I need to follow the TRP thread more consistently for great discussions like this.

I also pondered these issues and the problem with free market capitalism, in theory, is that it works until actual people get involved much like communism and feminism. I remember feminism being pitched back in the 1970's it would mean freeing men of the primary breadwinner/protector role and women would like men more, blah blah blah and, well, I bought into that until I saw what actually happened as an adult and then about 10 years total of just deciding that ANY feminism was bad including "gender equality".

I'm reminded of the joke that goes about different professions with accountants being able to tell you that you're broke, but not how to get unbroke. I don't know The Answer but we need to move forward from now because we're getting beaten over the head. Reagan "conservatism" has resulted in an ethnic cleansing and crony capitalism that's become a western existential crisis.

@Typo-MAGAshiv @qzone I just remembered one piece of cool relationship game advice a few years ago: When in the starting stages of a relationship where she wants you to "share your feelings", come up with a story that's vulnerable but not really yours. I'm reminded of "The Commode Story" from Reservoir Dogs: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP3BNTi35XI

Pink needed to tell a story to win camaraderie but, as an undercover cop, it couldn't be his. One idea is to repeat a story you heard from a dear friend but isn't too bad or icky, perhaps such as getting beaten up in High School because you had a Paw Patrol lunchbox and your parents didn't have anything else to give you at the time and how that caused you to be shy for a year or so.

Then when she pulls this out to attack you later during an argument: "Are you still crying about your Paw Patrol lunchbox, crybaby?!?!" Reverse Uno it and say you repeated the story from a friend because you KNOW she'd pull something like this.

Thoughts on “sexual harassment” and “reasonable woman/man” standards.

I had a father-daughter day today at the (overpriced) cat cafe today. So we went in with another family who looks like an urban biker gang: The women all tattooed but, in particular, a young woman with a septum piercing. I chatted with the biker-gang-like dad and mom, but otherwise didn’t interact with the septum pierced daughter because she simply made me feel uncomfortable. The feeling, like with most American women, was mutual (they rarely initiate contact with strange men).

I got to thinking how septum piercings on women make me feel uncomfortable. Someone has mutilated themselves and I don’t want to be around them, like someone with slashed wrists. If women can feel uncomfortable because of a man who makes fart jokes, what about men who feel uncomfortable around such women? Biker-dad was ok because this was NORMAL for men, tattooed are a masculine thing, but face piercings, even for men, are extreme but on women, freak show.

As a man, of course, I’m expected to just deal-with-it/suck-it-up, which is what I did. No biggie. I am amused, though, at Y2K how many Spießig women were so uptight about me simply for being a normal man and acted like I had somehow offended them with my existence. One even got offended when I simply was at a vendor event a decade later at a bar and didn’t even interact with her. I chucked: They’re so vulnerable yet so arrogant.

I asked my 9 year old daughter in the car afterwards about it: “They’re weird” she said, or something like that. I was focused on driving us home safely.

@Typo-MAGAshiv If you get their app, it's quite dangerous. They have a lot of specials. I'm a Gyro fan overall at different places and Arby's is quite affordable by comparison. Iron Chefs favor Arby's fries, while hyper calories, are delicious in that they are blanched and coated with seasoning/breadcrumbs before fried. McD's fries are bland by comparison, IMO. My wife is a fan of their Rueben and French Dip. The big problem for Arby's is my wife loves coffee as do cops and Arby's doesn't serve it.

Question for the group: What do you 'all think of Raising Canes? My wife and I drove by a recently opened location that was super busy so we went in to try it: $13.00 for a few chicken fingers and crinkle cut fries tasting like something from a Swansons TV Dinner. I suppose it's southern nostalgia?