The Seattle Times editorial on the possibility of letting some Seattle bars stay open past 2:00 (emphasis mine).
The 2 a.m. closing time, which is the rule across Washington, is fairly common — it is the closing time in Austin, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Diego and San Francisco. Vancouver, B.C., closes bars at 3 a.m. and New York and Chicago close them at 4 a.m.
I don’t know who wrote the editorial, but it got me thinking about Joni Balter’s piece a while ago about how if San Francisco does anything, Seattle shouldn’t. It seems to me that the fact that San Francisco does or doesn’t do a thing can provide guidance (how did it work out there?), but isn’t in itself particularly useful as an argument for or against doing something.
“It seems to me that the fact that San Francisco does or doesn’t do a thing … isn’t in itself particularly useful as an argument for or against doing something.
Of course it’s useful! If I sell a stock, and someone in San Francisco buys it, that’s useful.
Why Taxes Are Useful
While we’re on the subject of the general utility of things, I’d like to point out that the reason a $15 bottle of French brandy costs only $1 more than a $14 bottle of California brandy, even though French brandy costs twice as much to make as California brandy ($2 a bottle vs. $1 a bottle), is that $13 of the price is taxes. Thanks to the taxes, a bottle of French brandy costs only 7% more than a bottle of California brandy. Without the taxes, a bottle of French brandy would cost twice as much as a bottle of California brandy.
It’s coded gay-baiting. It would probably be more apropos if we chose Philadelphia, Mississippi to NOT emulate.
Is it Joni Brodeur or Nicole Balter? I’m still confused.
The whole piece can be rebutted by what my mother taught me around age 6. “If everybody else jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge, would you?”