I predict this will be remembered as a bad idea.
CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — Panera Bread Co. is asking customers at a new restaurant to pay what they want.
…Customers are told to donate what they want for a meal, whether it’s the full suggested price, a penny or $100.
…If it can sustain itself financially, Panera will expand the model around the country within months. It all depends on whether customers will abide by the motto that hangs above the deli counter: “Take what you need, leave your fair share.”
Ah, the food-aisle version of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” A winning formula wherever it’s tried!
Maybe I’ll be wrong. Maybe people won’t flock to the place like gulls to breadcrumbs looking to get something for free. But. Remember this?
And this?
DETROIT — Detroit’s homeless and low-income residents have another opportunity for a chance at millions of stimulus dollars.
The money is available to help low-income residents from becoming homeless and homeless residents to find housing.
Thousands of people lined up Tuesday.
Offer something for free, and people will come and get it. Hey, I hope it works out for them one way or another. I just don’t think it will.
Hat tip Boots and Sabers
Comments are closed.
The Panera experiment will be interesting … but they’re not actually practising the socialist mantra “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”
Why? Because they aren’t using the threat of, or actual violent force to make it happen. Nor are they targeting one group of customers to pay more than the others (again, by force).
It may not work, but it’s actually a very laissez faire way of going about it. After all, it’s completely voluntary. Collectivism on the other hand, is by force.
The Communist ideal is also voluntary, isn’t it?
I think more than 100 million deaths proves otherwise. The propaganda may claim voluntarism, but reality requires violent force.
I have no way of predicting whether Panera’s experiment will work or not, but we should be hopeful it does. It will prove freedom works better than government force.
I know a lot of musicians are making money without copyright protections. I run my blog on the open source version of WordPress, my computer is a free version of linux, etc. and they’re making tons of money.
So I hope the Panera experiment works, because it’ll prove the government wrong yet one more time (not that that gets us anywhere, they double-down on their mistakes).
I understand that the reality of communism was involuntary. But (and I’ve never read Mao or Marx, so I could be wrong) its fathers believed it would be voluntary.
Same thing here: Panera thinks people will voluntarily pay whatever they can afford. I think they’re wrong.