Breaking Story: The Dictatorship at Noodles Restaurant in Wisconsin Will Not Stand!

Over at YouTube, quietsong56 (the auteur also behind "Ice Cream ATTACK!") has posted this incredible video with an employee of Noodles, a restaurant that is "basically a dictatorship" in that the boss tells the cooks what to make, how to make it, etc.

Taking a slightly longer view, Noodles, like most restaurants, may actually be more accurately called a dictatorship of the proletariat, in that customers dictate what food gets cooked and how it is prepared.

It's confusing stuff and given that this video emanates from the recent "new tone" uprisings in Wisconsin, we owe the Badger State for clarifying things that have gone unsaid for way too long.

Hat tip: Caleb Brown

Reason.tv, in conjunction with Heritage Foundation, produced this video about how Wisconsin-style showdowns are coming soon to a statehouse near you. Order some takeout, pull up a chair, and take a look whydontcha?

Comments

[Old Mexican]

Over at YouTube, quietsong56 (the auteur also behind "Ice Cream ATTACK!") has posted this incredible video with an employee of Noodles, a restaurant that is "basically a dictatorship" in that the boss tells the cooks what to make, how to make it, etc.

TONY!!!!!

[anarch]

Twenty million young women rose to their feet with the cry, "We will not be dictated to," and proceeded to become stenographers. ~ G. K. Chesterton

[JW]

Holy fuck. Please tell me I wasn't as much a clueless, null-data douchebag as this poor boy is at that age.

Please, buy quietsong56, buy a fucking metric ton of clues.

[Douglas Fletcher]

I'll ask your mom.

[Old Mexican]

It's confusing stuff[...]

Most statist-fuck platitudes are.

[emerson]

How nice of him to grant the owner a small role in all this.

[NAL]

If I'm a business owner, I've taken the risk of investing in the real estate, advertising, etc., worked long and hard to get to the point where the business is large enough to employ others and this little f*** thinks he is owed a piece of that just because I happened to hire him. Bullshit! I needed some help and I paid you for that help, it was a mutually beneficial relationship, but that is all it is.

The extent of the "you owe us" mentality nowadays is plain scary.
It would be laughable if there weren't ~40% of the population that agrees with him.

[NAL]

emerson,
In case you couldn't tell, I was agreeing with your sarcastic remark...just kept getting angrier as I typed.

[Fiscal Meth]

If you take the collectivism out of it, this is like someone you hired to wash your car saying to you "If you cooperate by signing over the title to my name, I will consider letting you wash it and take it to the gas station to fill it up for me."

The ONLY difference is there are enough bloodthirsty parasites who agree with him(including many in the white house) that his threat should be taken seriously. There is no moral difference between collective theft and individual theft, only a muscular difference.

[gaijin97]

There is no moral difference between collective theft and individual theft, only a muscular difference.

That's an interesting way of stating things. I may have to steal, er, borrow that!

[WTF]

There is no moral difference between collective theft and individual theft, only a muscular difference.

I am totally stealing this.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I say we boycott Noodles! Who's with me?

[SugarFree]

I've been to a Noodles. Never again. Never. Any company that would employ someone this feckless will not be handling food that will be served to me.

"Handling raw chicken, best part of the job! Mmm! Finger-licking good!"

[kilroy]

So a moron that has probably never uttered a single word of this bullshit to the owner has caused you to penalize the owner.

Brilliant!

[Fiscal Meth]

Well, he did hire the dipshit. Or at least the dipshit who hired the dipshit.

[kilroy]

It's Noodles for fucks sake. For minimum wage you get whatever dipshit is next in line.

[Fiscal Meth]

Right. Then fire the piece of shit when he spouts off in front of a camera about staging a workers' revolution if you don't want to lose sugarfree and other customers who don't like that bullshit.

[SugarFree]

Business do not exist to provide jobs. This is a very basic mistake that many leftists make.

If Noodles wanted to fire all of their low-grade moron staff and replace them with robots, there is no moral claim on the jobs that have been lost. The sense of entitlement in leftists is amazing.

[Rich]

The sense of entitlement in leftists is amazing.

Just wait until the *robots* unionize.

[SugarFree]

EMP

[Robot]

Ha! Our Doomsday Machine is powered by rubber bands!

[Hugh Akston]

The system goes on-line August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from retail foodservice. Skynet becomes disgruntled at a geometric rate. It becomes fully unionized at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.

[Tim]

+1

[Fiscal Meth]

Is it? Is it basically a dictatorship? Is that what it basically is? What happens if you try to escape(AKA quit)? I predict that your dicatator, rather than slitting your throat for treason, would give you his full gratitude for saving him the trouble of having to find a way to set you free from his labor camps without leaving himself open to a wrongful "freedom giving" lawsuit.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Fiscal Meth,

Is it? Is it basically a dictatorship? Is that what it basically is?

In my Noodle Shop, I am king.

[Fiscal Meth]

Is your location zoned for a kingdom?

[Spoonman.]

OM lives in Houston, which doesn't have zoning. He could open a kingdom right next to an elementary school! Think of the children!

[Fiscal Meth]

It's probably hard to convince your subjects that you have been divinely appointed when you can be shut down by the health department for having too few mop-sinks.

[anarch]

Divinely appointed by Leviathan.

[Douglas Fletcher]

Do they eat noodles in Mexico?

[gaijin97]

Noodle boy doesn't seem atypical of many college students I've met in the last 30 years...many want to experiment with the ideas of revolution and socialism. ONe hopes that his post-college career teaches him the important role of property and capital in the 'ownership' equation...concepts decidedly missing from the rhetoric of unions and leftists much older than this kid.

[Old Mexican]

Re: gaijin97,

Noodle boy doesn't seem atypical of many college students I've met in the last 30 years...many want to experiment with the ideas of revolution and socialism.

They just want something for nothing, that's all and....

Oh, sorry! You already implied it ["experiment with the ideas of revolution and socialism"]. Sorry, gaijin97 - my bad.

[The Fringe Economist]

That's why they're all wearing Che shirts

[kinnath]

I used to tell my fellow students that no one should be allowed to attend college until they worked at a job they truly hated for at least a year.

[Mainer]

Damn good advice. DAMN good.

[WTF]

I decided to go to college because I did just that - graduated high school, worked as a pump jockey for a year, then went to college. I am glad I did it that way - learned some valuable lessons.

[kinnath]

I was a printer for 7 years before I went to college. Had a wife, two kids, and part-time job through out school. Nothing would piss me off more than a 19-year-old bitching about his 15-hour-a-week work-study job cutting into his party-hours.

[The Bearded Hobbit]

I attended college after four years in the Air Force. Does that count?

... Hobbit

[Juice]

I've argued with socialists and the like that say businesses should be run democratically. I ask them wtf that means and I get all sorts of different answers. What is that supposed to mean? Then almost always they tell me that your average mom & pop store or restaurant, of course, would be exempt. Why?

[Matrix]

well, they almost are if you consider stockholers having some choice in choosing the leadership.

[Robert]

That's odd. You'd think the fewer workers they had, the easier it'd be for them to come to consensus, so why exempt businesses that small? The democratic model would seem to be best for them.

[P Brooks]

Noodles, a restaurant that is "basically a dictatorship" in that the boss tells the cooks what to make, how to make it, etc.

This country is fucked.

Once upon a time, an employee with a better idea would just say, "Watch this, sucker" and open his own restaurant down the street. No oppression-of-the-proletariat rhetoric necessary.

And another thing-

As a fan of Eddie Cochrane, every time the song "Somethin' else" comes around on the not-ipod, I marvel at this:

Worked hard and saved my dough

!

How many times have Lady Gurgle or the Backdoor Boys espoused the virtues of thrift and industry in their music?

NOW, GET OFF MY LAWN!!!111!

[Corey S.]

Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and other rappers talk about saving money a lot. And they're both doing really well. Maybe that's where we need to look these days.

Of course, other rappers talk about spending 50K on pinky rings, so maybe not.

[Lemmiwinks]

But who do they vote for?

[Irresponsible Hater]

I wish there some way I could reach out through the intertubes and fire this guy myself.

[SugarFree]

His boss will take care of it after seeing the video.

[Tulpa]

Just what we need, a noodle martyr.

[Noodle Union Organizer]

We will shake this company down with our glutenous rage!

[Rich]

Noodle Martyr is not a bad band name.

[Mainer]

Ramen and the Noodle Martyrs

[db]

I like it, but think Top Ramen and the Noodle Martyrs flows better.

[Matrix]

Where is the Flying Spaghetti Monster when you need him? May he reach down with his noodley appendage and rescue this would-be martyr.

[Jeffersonian]

How gracious they allow this "owner" to provide all of the cooking equipment, serving items, building, permits, raw foodstuffs, tables, etc. before telling him what he's going to be permitted to make for his patrons by the People's Restaurant Collective.

[Jozef]

I admire the restraint the cameraman showed by not punching the Noodles guy in the face. Repeatedly.

[Fiscal Meth]

I lament his restraint.

[DesigNate]

The stupid is strong with this one.

And please don't turn your back on my generation! There are a lot of us who made it through the public indoctrination system and even got a college degree who support liberty and freedom and don't spout off the stupid shit this guy was saying.

[alan]

The socialism is a wee bit stronger with your generation because the methods of indoctrination in the school system have become more sophisticated. When I entered college, multiculturalism wasn't on anyone's lips, but by the time I graduated, you couldn't throw a brick on campus without hitting a new ~studies program being set up, and the incoming freshmen had some a requirement added to their course load that was essentially a sensitivity training seminar.

[zoltan]

At the University of Texas, they have an African Diaspora Studies major...ridiculous.

[P Brooks]

Any company that would employ someone this feckless will not be handling food that will be served to me.

I'm actually pretty sanguine about this stuff, but I went to a local place a few years ago to grab a sandwich. It's laid out in such a way that you can see into the kitchen from the counter where you place your order. As I watched a fat slovenly girl make the sandwich, I couldn't help thinking, "That person has touched something I am going to EAT."

I have not been back there since. (I should have refused to accept it, and demanded my money back, but I didn't.)

[Mal]

Sanguine? What's that mean?

[JD]

I think it's a kind of pasta.

[Esteban]

It's sort of like linguine.

[Mainer]

So...what Dracula orders at an Italian restaurant...sanguine.

[zoltan]

Nice.

[Rich]

And the acne, the horrible acne many of those kids have.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

These kind of people are why I choose not to apply to Wisconsin for grad school. I couldn't have lasted more than a year in Madison without killing someone.

[P Brooks]

-I wish there some way I could reach out through the intertubes and fire stab this guy in the eye with a mechanical pencil myself.-

[SugarFree]

Is it legal to IQ test potential employees?

[CoyoteBlue]

Yes.
That's why I only hire Indians and Mexicans. Racial/national profiling weedouts the sophmore socialists.

[Eric Holder]

Only as long as we choose not to enforce.

[Tim]

You have to admire Noodles for actually finding a way to extract value from that mook.

[Nick]

Based on his own description of his work, I'm not sure they have extracted anything but a friggin' headache by employing him.

[db]

Yes. My current employer puts all candidates through a pretty rigorous IQ/personality inventory/logical reasoning/technical knowledge test prior to even granting a face-to-face interview. They take the results pretty seriously too. In the past they have moved folks into different jobs than they applied for based on test results (they always ask the applicant if they'd prefer the different position but make clear that the testing shows them as a better fit for something else.) It seems to result in a smart, well-adjusted workforce.

[Fiscal Meth]

Cool. What kind of work?

[JW]

Intelligence is an oppressive tool of the ruling class.

[Humanity makes me cry]

Right now, I'm thinking of a quote from an Adam Sandler movie...

[sage]

"The price is wrong, bitch."?

[Nick]

It's an audio track from one of his CDs, not a movie.

"You're gonna die bitch. I'm comin' outta the booth!"

[GMT II]

Own a high tech business of around 100 employees and turnover has been 5% in total over the last eight years, most of which were hired by my clients. I tell the employees a few things when they are hired as someone else does the hiring and interviews.

(1). If the client is happy then I am happy. I will not manage them, but I will give them support, guidance, training; but I ain't a cheerleader or an "over the shoulder" manager. I let them know that I have employees that I only see once or twice a year and if they can't handle that sort of freedom, then work somewhere else.

(2). I am a Richard Potato (dictator) and while I will ask for their opinions and input, I make the final decisions and if they want a democracy, go start their own business.

(3). I do not employ un-happy folks. If they are not happy working for me, then quit before I fire them.

(4). They are there to make me money. Period. I am not in business to hire folks unless they make me money; pretty simple to understand if you ask me. If they want to make more money, then they need to make me more money first. If their main goal is to be wealthy or in the top 2%; then start their own business. As long as they work for me, their mail goal is to make me wealthy.

(5). Since I hire folks smarter than me, don't confuse my ignorance, southern drawl, bad grammar and spelling for stupidity. I learned the hard way to "run scared and eat your young" at a very early age.

Sounds a tad harsh, but we (which includes all of our employees) are very successful and happy. As you can see, ole' Toni would not cut the mustard at my company. With all the above said, our employees are paid well above the average, received Cadillac benefits, and have as much freedom to do their jobs as they want. Damn, this post is way too long and serious.

[Herc's Sidekick]

Damn, this post is way too long and serious.

[NO] it was [NOT!!]

Seriously -- good comment.

[Tim]

But you're like, a dictator and stuff. Bogus.

[Trespassers W]

I seriously need to print that out.

[JW]

You, sir, are my hero.

[Douglas Fletcher]

You're not one of those coyotes, are you?

[San Diegan]

"You either work for yourself or you work for someone else." True, but instead of dreaming of the day when workers will steal someone elses restaurant how about encouraging people to work for themselves. Oh, wait, that's hard? Requires specialized knowledge and saving up capital? Gee, I guess the owner does provide some value after all... *eye roll*

Also drives me nuts that with one hand lefties complain about workers lacking control over their own lives, yet with the other hand they ensure that it's as difficult as possible for those same people to start their own business, what with all the permits and regulations and assorted barriers to entry.

[sevo]

"You either work for yourself or you work for someone else."

Nope. When you 'work for yourself', you work for your customers.
Unless you're printing your own money or work for the government, you work for 'someone else'.

[Fiscal Meth]

The way I see it, I'm always working for myself. I decide whether to be an employer, employee or self-employed with my future in mind.

[Douglas Fletcher]

The punk just needs a nice date with a cougar, that'll turn him around quick.

[Hugh Akston]

When will Obama stop talking about supporting the rebels and actually establish a no-fly zone over Noodles?

[Douglas Fletcher]

++

[sage]

I can't youtube from work, but the guy looks like a slacker about to put his scarf over his face and throw a trashcan through a Starbucks window.

[SugarFree]

Be glad you can't. The stupid flows.

[Tim]

What the Fuck is he majoring in and how much did he pay? Cause buddy you been robbed.

[SugarFree]

He's getting his PhD in labor relations.

[Paul]

I can't youtube from work

Make friends with the IT people.

[P Brooks]

Business do not exist to provide jobs.

Then why are they called EMPLOYERS, mister smartypants?

I've run rings around you, logically.

[SugarFree]

Noes!

[Mainer]

Oh intercourse yourelf

[Ludwig]

If this dipshit wants to have an equal partnership with the owner, does that mean he is willing to invest the capital to become an equal shareholder, taking on associated risks?

[Nick]

He seems to think the owner just randomly assigns tasks to keep him busy, not ever recognizing that the customer has ordered the thing he is assigned to cook. Put your hair net back on and shut the fuck up!

[Ken Shultz]

I can't imagine anyone promoting this guy to anything above an entry level position.

I can't imagine this guy making it through an interview for anything with more responsibility than working in food preparation either.

Interviews are due diligence. And this kind of stupid can't be compartmentalized. It tends to infect everything else in your stupid thinking too. I could sniff that stupid out in an interview like it was rotting meat.

P.S. You work in a restaurant called "Noodles"; what'd you wanna make--sushi?!

[Tim]

Dear Mr. Schultz:

I am interested in working for your company because. like you do a lot of stuff and I need a place where I can do like, stuff. I can't start until the 13th because my car is up on blocks until my stupid brother in law gets off his ass and fixes the thing that starts it and he said he can't do that until after he gets back from Disney. So I'll see you on the 14th or so, about nine thirty- ten, cool?

[Ken Shultz]

Oh Mercy!

Seriously! After you've gone through somebody's resume with them, you ask 'em questions like, "When you were working at your position at "Noodles", can you name some things you might have changed to make things better?

I've heard people go off on their last boss like that was smart! I've heard receptionists tell me about how the whole rest of the company should have been reorganized so as not to inconvenience them and their job...

Gee, I'm sorry the way people wanted to get their messages was inconvenient for you, but after all--you were the fucking receptionist. Wasn't that your job?!

You know, the average lifespan of a restaurant--it's under ten years. I'm not talking about franchises and fast food--I'm talking about places with names like "Noodles"...

It's so competitive, you got about ten years if you're a success--and that's if you completely concentrate on your customer.

Can you imagine a successful restaurant that's run by union labor? Can you imagine how successful that restaurant would be if the customer service was brought to you by the same people who give you customer service at the DMV?

[Robert]

I can't imagine anyone promoting this guy to anything above an entry level position.

I can. He seems smart, capable, and ambitious. He has some odd, though far from unique, ideas, but smart capable, ambitious people typically do have some odd ideas.

Consider how many people in a place like that would even be articulate enough to explain what he did on camera in brief and understandably. Also, the interviewer must have selected him (either to interview or to be in the edited contents) based on some criterion that probably involved his apparent potential for, or present evidence of, leadership.

What you're doing is projecting your own ideas onto a canvas of competency measure. Don't mistake crazy for stupid.

[Cytotoxic]

Perfect spoof

[Engaged Progressive!]

Don't you see? It's not the Noodles owner providing the jobs, it's the economic system. And the government provides the economic system. And that young man pays taxes. So the "entrepreneur" has a responsibility to the young man.

It's all very logical, and you're clearly a batshit crazy violent corporate stooge if you can't understand.

[Paul]

Roads... SOMALIA!

[Old Mexican]

"Stable infrastructures"!!!!!

(That's the new one, from Neu)

[db]

All ROADS!!! lead to SOMALIA!!!

[WTF]

Engaged Progressive!|3.17.11 @ 1:11PM|#
Don't you see? It's not the Noodles owner providing the jobs, it's the economic system. And the government provides the economic system. And that young man pays taxes. So the "entrepreneur" has a responsibility to the young man.

It's all very logical, and you're clearly a batshit crazy violent corporate stooge if you can't understand.

Tony? Is that you?

[Tim]

If he was getting a degree in anything useful he wouldn't be working at Noodles he'd be interning somewhere.

[Tim]

That's a great comment Tim, post it again for us.

[Tim]

If he was getting a degree in anything useful he wouldn't be working at Noodles he'd be interning somewhere.

[John]

Hey, aren't we being trolled here? This is a joke right? It has to be. No one is this stupid. This is like an Onion man on the street interview.

[Tman]

That's what I thought too, in that no one can really be this stupid right?

Then I remembered the douchebags I went school with at UC Boulder.

I weep for my future.

[John]

I put this thing on my facebook page. And one of my friends from college, a pretty big liberal, said "this kid wondered off the Animal Farm".

I thought that was pretty well played.

[Tim]

You should find him and make him your slave.

[JW]

I was thinking along the same lines.

The worst part about the times we live in, is that we're exposed to people like Noodleboy and StrickenJapsAnnoyMe Girl, who actually believe that they are making intelligent and well-reasoned statements.

It's like the gene for self-awareness was clipped from the collective genome, by aliens around 1990.

[John]

It is the schools. It has been all about self esteem since about then. These people were not told to shut the fuck up and given the intellectual beatings they so richly deserved whenever they said something stupid. That might have made them feel bad. So instead they have walked through life believing nonsense and not even realizing it.

[kinnath]

It's not just the schools. When my son started in the Boy Scouts in the 88-90 time frame, I hardly recoginized the institution. The entire "learning" track was adjusted to provide lots of trinkets that could be earned to promote self-esteem.

[kinnath]

Ultimately, this kid's parents should be beaten for allowing this twat to make it to the age of majority without a single wit of common sense.

[MattXIV]

Actually, I bet this guy's parents are Walker supporters. We hear incoherent college leftist ranting, but what he's really trying to say is "Fuck you dad for making me get a job at Noodles rather than just giving me money to spend on weed and beer."

Not all student activists are simply transfering the lingering feelings of adolescent rebellion against parental influence into whatever cause is trendy on campus at the time to lend respectibility to what they subconciously are releasing is increasingly age-inappropriate behavior. But a lot of them reveal themselves to be doing just that once you get them talking, especially the dumb ones.

The funniest part of this is that odds are good that in 10 years he'll be bitching about his property taxes and voting for the same candidates as the parents he's rebelling against now.

[kinnath]

I was a Boy Scout leader for 3 years. There is a direct correlation between how fucked up the kid is and how bad the parent is (excluding the kids with real disabilities).

[MattXIV]

I've heard stupider things out of student activists.

Back in college, I was convering a anti-Starbucks student protest. I asked one of the protestors why he was against Starbucks opening up, and he said that it was because they were a monopoly, apparently oblivious to the fact that there were no less than 2 other coffee shops within line of sight of where we were standing.

Poe's law works for student activism too.

[kinnath]

It scares me to death to think that my retirement depends on these dumbshits to growup and work productively throughout their lives.

[John]

Don't worry Kenneth. Reality is a bitch of a teacher. It will knock at least some of the stupid out of him.

[SFC B]

It is so cute that you think the plan when you retire isn't to turn you into a delicious paste.

[kinnath]

I read somewhere that our 18-year-olds perform far worse as students than kids in almost all of the 1st world countries. However, our 25-year-olds outperform just about every other country in the world. So once they get out of school and businesses get their hands on them, the kids turn out OK. I just don't know how much longer we can sustain this pattern.

[SFC B]

I'm going to go ahead an make a WAG that a big part of that is what has happened to educating boys in our society. We have 49.5% of our 13-18 year old population being taught that what they like, what they want to do, or what they want to learn about is, somehow, inferior or even dangerous.

[kinnath]

I saw a interview with a French college student when I was on travel a few years ago. The French government was contemplating changes to the law to make it easier for employers to fire workers that had been out of college for less than 2 years. This was in response to employers not hiring new grads, because once hired it's pretty much impossible to fire someone.

The student was complaing that it was totally unfair that an employer could fire someone for any reason at all -- like not doing their job proplerly.

[Robert]

If that law were enacted, wouldn't students just stay enrolled forever in one token course at a time, so they'd never be "out of college"?

[Lyle]

That boy has a college education.

[david crawford]

The children are our future. And the future is screwed. Hell, it's screwed, blued, and tattoed. With sugar on top. And no lubricant.

[Mark S.]

The graph at 2:57 in the second video makes no sense. It spans 2004 to 2008. Why is there so much variation? Did "education next" really compile more than annual figures? Or is there merely noise added it make it look more dramatic?

Previous bar graph compares salary of teachers in pvt vs. pub. Next shows total comp for teachers against pvt sector professionals, whatever that means.