I can remember large amounts of poetry, but people's names, faces and the information associated with them are a different matter. For the most part, I successfully conceal my handicap by a policy of never using names if I can help it, but once in a while the tactic fails. I still remember, as perhaps my most embarrassing moment, recommending Larry White's work on free banking to someone who looked vaguely familiar—and turned out to be Larry White.Decades ago, I read Friedman's book, Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life. I thought overall that it was an uninteresting book. But I did grab one insight in the book that I still apply to this day. He wrote that you can always find the bathroom in a restaurant because it will always be located near the kitchen. He argued that the costs of piping made it efficient to use as less pipe as possible from a water source and thus both the kitchen and bathrooms will be near each other at the water source. I can't recall this insight ever failing me.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
David Friedman Remembers
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Yeah, and while we're at it let's keep all the lights and outlets by the electric closet too. Cheaper that way! I think the bathroom is near the kitchen since there is no obstruction to the front windows, but that's just my logic : )
ReplyDeleteLong runs of water pipes are inefficient. And the fewer water pipes you have, the less likely there is to have water damage in the event of a leak. Wiring on the other hand, is a necessity all throughout a building, for obvious reasons. So while bathrooms may be more beneficial near the kitchen for aesthetic reasons, the primary factor in their location probably has more to do with convenience and efficiency.
DeleteThink of it another way. Where are most bathrooms located in homes? Usually, in a two story home, bathrooms tend to be above and below one another. Even in older homes that were not designed with two bathrooms, a new bathroom is usually built above or below the existing bathroom. For precisely the reason that David Friedman noted. It's just more cost effective. In the restaurant scenario, if you didn't put the bathroom next to the kitchen, you would have to run water lines a longer distance. Kitchens demand hot water, why would they waste energy routing that water a longer distance? That would result in the water heater having to work extra in order to meet the demands of people looking to wash their hands. Nobody wants to wash their hands with cold water or wait for hot water.
By putting the kitchen and the bathrooms near one another, you save energy, materials, maintenance and minimize damage in the event of a water leak. You would also save on repairs as well. If it's mostly because of the windows, why aren't most bathrooms in the back of the restaurant further away from the kitchen? Why are they in the back and mostly as close to the kitchen as possible?
No, the cost of plumbing is the real concern. For electrical wire, that can be laid for pennies per foot, and electricity is needed in every room. Including installation, plumbing can run to 2-3 orders of magnitude more per foot than electrical wire, and only a few rooms need it. Thus, it is well worth the effort to arrange the floorplan with the water needs as concentrated as can reasonably be.
DeleteNot to mention that kitchen workers need to use the bathroom too, and you don't want them walking through the restaurant in their aprons. Every food place I ever worked, you could get to the bathroom from the kitchen without going into the dining area.
DeleteI believe that Mises would say that Friedman's restaurant bathroom location analysis adds nothing to economic insight other than being just one more example of human action directed towards minimizing costs and maximizing output. It is a technological, not an economic insight. Freakonomics is another book full of such pseudo-economic observations. Also, I believe the technological insight is flawed. The biggest cost related to bathroom location is not water source, but water drainage - the sewer system. The piping for water supply is relatively cheap and flexible. Tapping into the main sewer line, which must always run down, even across lateral lines, and with the required ventilation pipes that must run straight up through the roof are the biggest challenges. So it is logical that bathrooms would be located as close as possible to kitchens, where feasible, but not because of water source, but because of drainage source.
ReplyDeleteYou need to chill man. This was something I read nearly three decades ago, Friedman could have very well said drainage and not water supply. And, I didn't call it an economic insight, just an insight. Further, Friedman's analysis may not add anything to economic analysis and I don't think he intended it to. Rather, it was just a clever (and useful) method of using the understanding of cost-benefit analysis to find the bathroom in a restaurant.
DeleteYou are correct about Freakoomics, as I have written.
"The piping for water supply is relatively cheap and flexible."
DeleteYou are thinking of just the last decade. For decades prior the water supply pipes were mostly made from copper, but inflexible AND COSTLY.
If you are looking for a restaurant bathroom in say NYC or older established city with older buildings, they will almost be of the copper variety, not the PEX you reference.
>>> I thought overall that it was an uninteresting book.
ReplyDeleteFirst there was Molyneux.. then Kinsella and Tucker... and Friedman's next?! I'm getting the popcorn...
~~YL
What I said was that the men's room and the women's room are adjacent in one of the three dimensions due to economies of scale in plumbing stacks. So if you see where the women's room is you have some information as to where to look for the men's room.
ReplyDeleteYour version makes sense for the same reason, but it isn't what I wrote.You can take credit for that insight yourself.
Yes, I now have a vague memory of your writing that. But I still recall the restaurant reference. I just bought another copy of your book to check it out:)
DeleteI remember the same from Hidden Order and you're right, it's always true. Friedman also stated that the bathroom for one gender would be adjacent to the bathroom for the other gender in one of the three dimensions, but that this rule would not necessarily apply in buildings built on cost-plus contracts for government. In this he has also proven correct.
ReplyDeleteImportant exception: In government buildings the men's and women's rooms are often NOT adjacent, because the buildings were often built under "cost plus" (eg cost plus 10%) contracts.
ReplyDelete