The Cost of Convenience

Ordering food takes eleven seconds on a phone. Two decades ago the same meal required a walk, a queue and a conversation.

用手机点一份餐需要十一秒。二十年前，同样的一顿饭需要走路、排队和交谈。

Convenience is genuine progress. It returns time and energy to people who need both. But every shortcut carries a cost that appears somewhere else.

便利是实实在在的进步，它把时间和精力还给了需要两者的人。但每一个捷径都会在别处产生代价。

Delivery platforms concentrate power in the hands of a few large companies. Small restaurants lose the direct relationship with the customers they serve.

外卖平台把权力集中在少数大公司手中。小餐馆则失去了与自己服务的顾客之间的直接联系。

None of this means we should reject convenience. It means we should notice who pays for it, and decide consciously whether the trade is worth making.

这一切都不意味着我们应该拒绝便利。它意味着我们应该留意是谁在为此买单，并有意识地判断这笔交换是否值得。

Consumers are not powerless, but individual choices are a weak lever. The visible alternatives — cooking, walking to a shop, paying in cash — are exactly the things convenience was invented to remove.

消费者并非毫无力量，但个人选择是一根很弱的杠杆。那些看得见的替代方案 —— 自己做菜、走到店里、付现金 —— 恰恰就是「便利」被发明出来要消除的东西。

That is why the more honest question is not which side you are on, but what should be regulated and at what level. Riders' working conditions, platform fees and small restaurants' access to customers are all questions that one person's ordering habit cannot answer.

所以更诚实的问题不是「你站哪一边」，而是「什么应当被监管、监管到什么程度」。骑手的工作条件、平台的抽成、小餐馆接触顾客的渠道，这些都不是单个人的点单习惯能够回答的问题。