[EuroPython] Language Advice for Speakers?

[Jack diederich]

> When I was in Boston I noticed that the servings in all the restaurants
> seemed to be about 50% too large for me.

That is one of the free market side-effects (If you've read the
pop-economics book "freakanomics" you'll know what I mean).    The
cost of a restaurant meal isn't on your plate; it is in the mortgage
for the building, the paid labor, the labor taxes, the property taxes,
the social security taxes, and the city taxes (I live in Boston and
while the city rate is technically zero they get kickbacks from the
state.  It isn't nicknamed "Taxachussetts" for nothing).  So the
amount of food on your plate has nothing to do with the cost of food.
Instead it is a cultural thing: the amount of food is sized big enough
that no one will complain.  Gluttons will clean the plate and go away
happy, and lean people will smile and put down their fork halfway
through - because restaurants will box up the rest in a to-go bag (and
for free!).

So, long story short, it is a cultural difference enhanced by market economics.

-Jack