Actually hate all the comments on that post. I used to bum around cafés all the time years ago and nobody gave a shit. It’s a recent development where they’ll kick you out for not buying anything. Like hey you never actually get busy enough to use all these tables so why do you care?
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Where I live most cafes are small, local places, not some chains. Who’s boots I’m supposedly licking? Cafe owners’ boots? That’s just stupid.
I simply don’t consider private business to be places where I have the right to use for free. That’s what public spaces are. Third places include gyms or theaters. I don’t assume I can hang out there without paying. I wouldn’t go to a restaurant and expect to be seated without ordering anything. When I want to sit in some cafe I at least order a coffee. If I want to hang out I go to a park or a beach.
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I think businesses have obligations to the communities they serve, and one of the traditional obligations of cafes and coffee shops is to provide third spaces for people in that community to rest, drink, and converse.
I honestly never heard of such obligation. Maybe it’s an American idea? Where I live we have communal recreational areas where people can organize picnics, free breaches, a lot of buildings have swimming pools, we have parks, libraries… I never heard that a bar, a business selling drinks and food, has a obligation to provide third space. It’s like saying that a barber or local ISP have to let me hang out at their property because they offer services to community.
And if you’re not a business owner, defending that business’s property and profits over the good of the community sounds very much like licking boot to me.
Of course small business owners should have their property protected. The idea that just because someone makes a living by selling services to people he doesn’t deserve anything and has some debt to said community makes no sense to me. It’s a business. He offers a service and if the service is good community will support it. People don’t have obligation to go there and he doesn’t have obligation to give out anything for free. You’re talking about it like he go to run some public space that the community gave him for free in exchange for providing a service. That’s not how it works. There’s nothing done “over the good of community”. they are renting private property and provides a service from it. If the service is good it’s good for the community that it’s there. If it’s bad it doesn’t really matter. It’s not like he’s stealing public space from community to make money.
The licking boot thing is just stupid. I don’t have kids. If I support public childcare and I licking parents’ boots? I own my apartment. If I support rights of renters and I licking their boots? How that’s different from supporting small business owners? Sounds like some socialist brainrot. “Everyone who owns a business is evil and we have to hate them”.
It sounds like this person was there by themselves, and still not buying anything? Yeah, I can see why the owners would be annoyed.
The american revolution and idea of government was created in third places (like pubs)by our founding fathers
The founding fathers were just the rich land owners and smugglers who got fat off intentionally lax (virtually no) taxation and didn’t want to start paying when the Brits decided America was well enough off to start paying…
They met in bars and taverns, mostly because they owned them.
And they didn’t hang out in the main room talking to anyone, they were planning fucking treason. It was done in cellars often even after hours.
All that being said, I even clicked the reddit link and it seem the person routinely went there without paying. At no point in American history have (especially indoor) places of business been cool with people hanging out and not spending money. The only exception ever has been attractive women in bars whom men will spend money on.
But the main point is:
Our “founding fathers” were cutthroat capitalists willing to send the poors to die so they could avoid taxes. Which should be obvious because only white male landowners could vote, most of them didn’t have to fight.
They drunk like fish though, and probably spent plenty of money in the establishment.
They were all rich though. They bought coffee
Whenever the people are oppressed these places are removed. For the reason that you said in your comment.
If busniesses own the pblublic nothing, the public doesn’t own busniesses anything either
I genuinely don’t know what idea this person is trying to convey.
Replace own with owe.
That kinda makes sense.
