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Comment by arountheworld | Hacker News Reader

Shouldn't company pay adequately instead of giving out "free" food? This is something I can't understand.

Honestly I imagine that the "free" part is really secondary to actually having a selection of good quality food readily available in the office.

But that removes choice, which diminishes your freedom as a person. I'd rather have a canteen where you can pay for food or go outside and be paid so I can afford that.

How does it remove choice, other than perhaps by discouraging local restaurants from opening too close to the Google campus?

or go outside and be paid so I can afford that.

I can afford it, the problem is that most halfway decent and interesting places are a good 30 minutes walk away. If I want a nice lunch it effectively means taking a 90 minute lunch break. I'd love nothing more than to have good food available in my office building, free vs paid is really a secondary concern.

Right, but you want to impose it on the others. That is pretty selfish. If company paid for food in you salary you could have a choice. You don't want choice? Fine. Just don't force it on others because it works for you.

I'm not sure I get the point you're trying to make. What exactly am I trying to impose on others? And how does having an office canting (either paid or free) limit choice? No one is forcing anyone to eat there. Obviously I would love nothing more than to have an amazing choice of awesome lunches within walking distance of my office, but given that the realities of urban planning and economics preclude that from happening I'd much rather have my company offer decent food in office as opposed to the current situation of no decent food.

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