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I see. I missed that it includes domestic (even though you highlighted it). Not sure why, but there's my disconnect.

This is interesting. I knew drinking was way down from previous generations, but never considered how it would impact restaurants.

Well, for one thing, a lot of kids are living off of their parents longer. I believe kids today are being/have been conditioned to believe certain things that are not good for them. In this example, a lot of kids see DoorDash as a necessity and not a luxury. They're told they must have a college degree, but it's never specified to them that it should be something that leads to a profitable career. Meanwhile, most are given no financial training in school, which has spawned a whole industry of predatory lending. No generation has ever had "The Joneses" so thrown in their face daily, which inspires spending. Many aren't taught basic skills because mom and dad (or whichever one they live with) is working and they don't have time to spend together, which means many have to pay for things they otherwise could do themselves.



To be fair, housing prices have started to drop.

Make it easier to build shit, then build it.

Agree, but whose fault is it that shit is hard to build?

Is it bad laws/policies? Shortage of materials/labor? Tight profit margins?

Leisher wrote: ↑Sat Sep 27, 2025 7:30 pm Agree, but whose fault is it that shit is hard to build?

Is it bad laws/policies? Shortage of materials/labor? Tight profit margins?

It's #1. #3 is a product of #1. But it's absolutely #1. Reading a good book about it now called Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity. tldr: Everyone's a NIMBY.

Arbitrary Lines seems of a similar vein, but have not read it.

TheCatt wrote: ↑Sat Sep 27, 2025 8:29 pm How the Privileged and the Propertied

Meh. So they build something nice and then other people want to come in a crowd it up? Maybe go build your own shit! We moved to a much more rural area, to get away from the crowds. It's getting crowded. Why do I have to move again? Maybe they should be filling some other empty land somewhere else. So ya. Not in my back yard.

I think there's plenty of room still in cities/suburbs. Maybe they need to rezone some areas, like that commercial zone outside every city that no businesses ever moved into.