300800+ entries in 0.189s
mircea_popescu: they did have a law re "illicit profits" on
the books
tho did
they
phf: but
there might've been some
twist
there, like pastry was
the kind of pastry you couldn't buy anywhere else because "specially made only here on
thursdays"
phf: mircea_popescu: you know
that is weird, seems like sop was accessible prices even at fancy places, but was discouraged from attending. i might be misremembering something
phf: well, right, prole stolovaya prices from
the same
time would be in .10-.50 range for full servings, so it's an outrageous price.
phf: i don't actually know, but i
think i recall some высоцкий records with 30kp markings?
☟︎ mircea_popescu: actually a major passtime for locals post 1989 was
to go check it out, for first
time in life.
mircea_popescu: there was also "belvedere", rather scenic up on a hill. available for upper class wedding receptions, otherwise open for... well not
the public.
mircea_popescu: pretty much
the only restaurant doing decent aspics in
the whole country for a decade + was inside
the ro capitol building. meal
there less
than what happy meal cost.
phf: oh,
that's not restaurants i'm
thinking of. i'm
thinking places
that would have names, and
that certain kind of su crowd would reminisce over, like "Prague" or "Astoria"
phf: given
that u.s. entry level engineer is somewhere in
the 60k,
that's like paying $1200 for a cup of coffee with pastry. and i realize
that it's a
totally meaningless analogy
mircea_popescu: dude... i dunno. complete (romanian style, 5 course) meal at
the "university house", ie, restaurant for high ranking profs etc, ~20 lei. which was
the 3rd largest bill, 1% or so of average salary.
phf: i
think restaurants in su were still question of money. grandpa designed rockets, so my mom would go
to restaurants with girlfriends growing up (later she worked at Sovicenter, which is a whole different level of access), and she would quote prices like 2.30 for a coffee and eclair. i
think junior engineer salaries were somewhere around 90, a well
to do pleb's end-of-career would be around 140, grandpa was making somewhere in upper
mircea_popescu: partly understandable,
the patron menagerie is outrageous.
mircea_popescu: anyway. waitstaff in
the us etc is miserable for
turnover anyway. mostly because it's almost entirely manned by out of work strippers and other college students. who stick for a job on a project-base, she needs an abortion, works
three weeks
pete_dushenski: perhaps
too expensive
to enforce against such a
transient population
pete_dushenski: aha.
that. ya, quite strange
that it's not minimum 6mo or 1yr
mircea_popescu: who
the fuck hires noobs as free agents. if you
train
them,
they either pay or indenture wtf.
pete_dushenski: i never could quite understand
the 'no
tipping' blather. never seemed like much of a
trend.
turns out, i was right!
pete_dushenski: e set of skills necessary, and
they would generally give notice and move
to other restaurants in our community who were still on a
traditional
tip economy."
pete_dushenski: lol!1 i always
thought
torahs (torot?) were carried in brinks
trucks or similar
a111: Logged on 2015-04-07 00:10 mircea_popescu: just like having a car doesn't alow having gasoline. it's
true
that often people who have cars also independently have gasoline, but
the
two are fundamentally unrelated, and
there is such a
thing as
the fool's breakdown, ie, car's outta gas on
the side of hte road.
pete_dushenski: mircea_popescu: depends where.
though with weed about
to be legal, probably more places soon
to be.
pete_dushenski: asciilifeform: do you know for a fact
that khodorkovsky didn't stock
tp up
to
the rafters ?
pete_dushenski: both quite seriously. car washes seem
to run $600k - 1 mn around here. claimed revenue around $150k per annum
mircea_popescu: pete_dushenski
tell
them
to hire chicks for lewd and lascivious washing
pete_dushenski: lel. couldn't be more relevant. i have not one but
two amigos who are actively searching for... car washes
a111: Logged on 2016-05-11 19:33 mircea_popescu: fwiw, young males
that aren't entirely dumb go almost universally
through
this phase of "fantasy busienss" where
they keep doing various coups in
their heads, start a carwash
then buy a shoestore with
the proceeds
then
trade
that in for a chain fo restaurants etc etc etc.
pete_dushenski: but in
the mid-term, all
the shit will coalesce, no doubt
mircea_popescu: pete_dushenski did you also read
the stories about how you needed a sniper assassination squad just
to visit your own outhouse ?
pete_dushenski: in
the meantime, it just needs
to be kept dry and pest free
pete_dushenski: asciilifeform: you give beebs
too much credit. a warehouse full of
tp will go unmolested for maybe a decade or
two,
then ya, when push comes
to shove you get some security
pete_dushenski: reminiscent of stories i've read from croatia (and rest of east bloc presumably) where
tp was golden after
the fall.
BingoBoingo: <asciilifeform> amazon is an actual store. << More a vehicle for various LLC's incorporated at a single home in Wyoming
to play store
mircea_popescu: "iaurt", which is not merely yoghurt, but a very speciffic
thing ; sana ; lapte batut (sort of like buttermilk) etc
mircea_popescu: yeah but
the milk specialties are gone and
the pastries are shit
pete_dushenski: afaik
these
types of cafeterias are still known in eg. poland. 'milk bars'
mircea_popescu: funny how
that shit works, nothing spells collegiate cunt quite like Sana
mircea_popescu: pretty much
the same effect on my hindbrain as i suppose
the "NUDE GIRLS" shows for vegas habituals
mircea_popescu: right, or else in
those stand-up bufes with milk specialties and breads
mircea_popescu: dough. wtf dough. commie restaurant meals were ~
the price of a loaf of bread
mircea_popescu: if you had
the dough you could go explain how you got it
to
teh militsya
mircea_popescu: su restaurant ~= nomenklatura.
they'd kick uppity proles right out.
pete_dushenski: speaking of ebay, i always
thought pitney bowes (oft forced upon shipping intermediary) was a subsidiary. looks like not.
pete_dushenski: the
thesis reduces
to 'old soviets didn't have it so bad, new soviets have it worse
than
they realise'
mircea_popescu: aha. quite advanced
too. i jusrt assumed ebay must be doing something
to stay in
the game
mircea_popescu: asciilifeform crediting linkedin for finding work is like crediting
the
toilet stall for finding a new future ex wife.
mircea_popescu: somehow it doesn't occur
to
them
that
the sort of people
they reach don't have fucking gold bars;
mircea_popescu: THAT is
the frucking busienss model of all
these internet shits, linkedin,
twitter, facebook, you name it.
mircea_popescu: "imagine - if we put a garbage can in every campus, people could
throw GOLD BARS!! and FAST CARS! in
there".
mircea_popescu: linkedin and
the rest of
the post-senility berkshire investments are all a "here's where you can give us stuff".