The case for metering … 🎰

If I had a restaurant it would operate much in this fashion:

• You would pay the clerk upon entry your budgeted food amount, such as $30.
• The menu would list food options by an easy to multiply interval by gram or kilogram. For example, if you wanted Marconi and Cheese, you might see that the cost was $2 per 500 grams including all taxes, fees and tips.
• You could order any amount you wanted (such as 450 grams), and the kitchen would produce a portion based on your request and bill you based on your request (you might get 472 grams due to difficulty of dividing the portion, but you’d pay only $1.80).
• When you made your order, the amount you the total cost of your order would be displayed on a big LED digits over the table.
• If you reached your budget, there would be no more food served.
• If you were below your budget and were you were still hungry, you could always order a side or desert, but your total bill would be prominently displayed on screen until you paid it and left.
• If you were below your budget while leaving the restaurant, the clerk would pay you back any unspent money.

Such radical transparency and flexibility would force consumers to be responsible on what they ordered, and not get a portion bigger then they could eat or had budgeted for. It would make people thoughtful about their meal choices and how much they bought. There would be far less food waste and fewer people leaving the restaurant, upset that they spent more then they planned to spend.

Too much of America exists today on an “All You Can Eat” rule — either you pay a fixed fee before you enter, or they keep a tab running, and only at the end of the night do they tell you what your tab is. This is incredibly wasteful, it causes people to eat and drink to way too much, and not think about the consequences of their consumption both financially and on environment.

I really enjoy watching consumption and meters, and figuring out how much I can spend out of my allotted budget. Much like programming microprocessors, where memory and CPU speed is limited, it forces me to be thoughtful about my consumption. Indeed, that’s one of the really appealing things about eventually owning an off-grid home — watching the battery bank, my energy consumption in propane, wood, and other easily measurable uses.