Sad but true; yet another group of young idealists had to learn the cruel lesson of socialism the hard way ~ Grand Rapids’ worker-run, no-tipping restaurant closes. MLive reported on the demise of “Bartertown Diner” last month ~

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The end has come for a popular Grand Rapids restaurant known as much for its creative vegan dishes as its progressive business model.

Ryan Cappelletti opened the vegan restaurant in 2013 – with a rather unconventional business plan ~

Bartertown was a collective, which meant there were no bosses, according to Cappelletti. The inspiration for the worker-owned restaurant was based on his 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.”

 
Naturally, all employees were expected to join the union, Industrial Workers of the World, and…

In keeping with the worker empowerment theme, (Cappelletti) commissioned a mural depicting Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong and other provocative leaders tackling restaurant duties.

 
Young, optimistic and unfortunately woefully miseducated. Apparently no one ever taught Ryan and his comrades about America’s earliest adventure with collectivism, and why human nature always dooms such attempts to failure. The Pilgrims could have explained ~

Many of our modern politicians who seem so enamored of communal living and “shared responsibility” could take a lesson from the Pilgrims, though it’s unlikely they will. They’re blinded by their Marxist ideology.
 
The Pilgrim communal experiment began in 1622 or so and involved approximately two dozen families. The system prohibited private property and everyone shared equally no matter how hard they worked. As a result, they nearly starved to death. The lazy took what they wanted and the productive became disheartened. Very soon, even the productive citizens weren’t producing food.

Source: Government is not God

When there’s no benefit to hard work, why work hard? Governor William Bradford described what happened when reality hit the Pilgrims ~

“The failure of the experiment of communal service, which was tried for several years, and by good and honest men proves the emptiness of the theory of Plato and other ancients, applauded by some of later times, — that the taking away of private property, and the possession of it in community, by a commonwealth, would make a state happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God.”

 
Bartertown figured they knew better, but alas it wasn’t to be ~

The living wage, no-tipping model required the restaurant to do a high level of sales to sustain the higher operational costs, (Cappelletti) added.
 
While the restaurant’s menu garnered a loyal following and hefty praise, there were complaints about 40-minute waits for sandwiches and limited hours of operation.

Well, call me cruel, but any business that idolizes Che Guevara (and Chairman Mao) deserves to fail.
 
 
 
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Related:

The Reason This Marxist Restaurant Closed Is HILARIOUS ~

One Reddit user summed up: “They were too concerned with the whole … ‘social justice’ angle, and seemed to not care if they had a viable product. You cant make payroll and your bills with Facebook and Tumblr ‘likes.’ Now the staff is unemployed. That’s the real shame!”

Socialism: The World’s Greatest Generator of Poverty ~ Share this link with your favorite millennial