I saw the news when this “avante – garde” (e.g., true socialism in action) small biz opened and decided to throw out all of the regular rules of capitalism (and, not to be too obvious, capitalism) and run it strictly according to socialist thought. Apparently, they thought that they were “the Right People” socialists have been looking for to implement it. Ah, the sad (but knowable) end (reformatted, emphasis mine):
The end has come for a popular Grand Rapids restaurant known as much for its creative vegan dishes as its progressive business model.
…Not only was the menu unconventional, so was the business model. Bartertown was a collective, which meant there were no bosses, according to Cappelletti. The inspiration for the worker-owned restaurant was based on Cappelletti’s own restaurant experience. “Because of our economy, people are working 12- to-15-hour shifts, servers take home $200 to $300 a night in tips, the cooks are making $10 an hour and the owner takes whatever he takes, ” Cappelletti told MLive in 2011. “We’re going to have equal pay and equal say across the board. Everyone working together.”
And of course, they had to burnish their collectivist bona fides – all of them with no exceptions – make sure that ALL of their patrons knew their politics:
Employees would be expected to join the union, Industrial Workers of the World, he said. In keeping with the worker empowerment theme, he commissioned a mural depicting Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong and other provocative leaders tackling restaurant duties.
Yep – inspiration from two guys that killed a LOT of their own countrymen simply because of they disagreed with the country’s new capos. And just those old dead Commies, this restaurant’s economy ended the same way:
In the end, the restaurant failed to achieve the employee business model it envisioned.
As the magnificent British PM Margaret Thatcher said, they ran out of other peoples’ money.
(H/T: Instapundit)
