Gluttony Tax

Today, Freakonomics posted about AYCE sushi restaurants charging for uneaten food. It's obviously a new concept to him, but here in Toronto, we've had this concept for at least five years if not longer. It's everywhere in Toronto, and even Waterloo/Kitchener has a AYCE sushi place (that is usually full of students probably originally from Toronto)!

I really wonder whether it's because Toronto (or maybe Vancouver) came up with this idea first and it's slowly spreading elsewhere? Or is it because the author is white and isn't exposed to this sort of thing?

He argues that "this creates an incentive to eat a lot but to order in the right measure." Even though I've never had to resort to it, what he doesn't realize is that it also creates incentive to hide sushi in the teapot ;)