It's a curious phenomenon on the Left: a seemingly intractable inability to grasp basic economics, sound business practices, or the fundamental principle of profit. Time and again, progressive idealists attempt to force an outcome by sheer willpower and belief, regardless of how detached from reality their schemes might be.
Enter the Modern Times Café in Minneapolis. After valiantly attempting to defy the laws of commerce, the establishment is now closing its doors. Its owners have, to their apparent dismay, discovered that a business model rooted in a "free and donation-based" payment plan was, quite predictably, unsustainable.
Modern Times Café, a Minneapolis restaurant that attempted to eliminate prices, has announced it will be closing for good by the end of the year.
"For the last six years, I’ve been trying to prove that Modern Times can continue to exist," owner Dylan Alverson wrote on social media Saturday. "I’ve exhausted every option without compromising the core fundamentals that make Modern Times what it is."
He added that he plans to spend the next two months celebrating the 16-year-old business and discussing ways for a business like his to continue.
Perhaps a novel concept for Mr. Alverson: ensure your restaurant's revenues at least cover its expenses, including payroll. And, dare we suggest, perhaps even aim for a profit? This revolutionary idea allows one to continue indulging in luxuries like eating, bathing, and, crucially, paying for electricity and other utilities.
Adding to the café's recipe for disaster was its openly hostile stance towards a significant portion of its potential customer base. Alverson announced on Instagram in January that his business, rebranding as Post Modern Times, would operate as a "free and donation-based restaurant" where everyone would be welcome "except ICE." This was proclaimed as a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, supposedly in response to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
The logical response to those deaths would be "don't try to run over ICE agents," but that’s a conversation for another time.
In a continued display of what can only be described as profound economic naiveté, the owner of Modern Times reportedly expressed a desire to create a "fundraising mechanism that can raise money to provide hospitality," after which "we can take that program and add restaurants to it." This, of course, is merely the textbook definition of throwing good money after bad. And, in a development that surprised precisely no one operating with common sense, the free meals, often involving a two-hour wait, began attracting homeless individuals and drug addicts to the neighborhood. Quelle surprise. One can't help but wonder how long this proposed "fundraising mechanism" would rely on taxpayer dollars.
Let's be unequivocally clear: this entire endeavor was doomed from its inception. No business that provides a good or service can survive on mere wishes, hopes, and unicorn flatulence. Yet, individuals like Dylan Alverson continue to exemplify the classic leftist fuzzy thinking. They simply do not comprehend the profit motive or fundamental economics – a concept even a 10-year-old running a lemonade stand understands. A "free or donation-based" restaurant? Its demise could have been predicted within hours of its grand opening.
Alverson, in a Facebook post, reportedly concluded: "The only way for places like Modern Times to exist in the future is to actively challenge the reasons why it can no longer exist."
The reasons, Mr. Alverson, are numerous and simple, chief among them being "reality." You can challenge reality all you like, but reality invariably wins. There was precious little reality to be found at the Modern Times Café. And somehow, they still expect Americans not to notice. They never learn, do they?
