Republicans Cut Pay for Servers and Bartenders

[Captain Zissou]

Am I the only one who thinks Faye wouldn't give a hoot about waitresses if her daughter wasn't one?? I understand that it's only temporary while she "works on becoming a lawyer"?  Why was that even worth mentioning, Faye??  Do you think that's not a good profession?  There are millions of waiters and servers all across the country. Is something wrong with them? Why do you feel the need to qualify it by saying it's not an end goal? I'm sorry she's not a mega-mogul, but people have to earn their stripes first.  I have a suspicion that you'd know nothing about that. I'm not trying to call her a huge hypocrite, but I can't help but notice some of the symptoms based on her muckraker-esque posting history.  I preferred when she was feeling sorry for herself for losing to Micah.  Glad Garden Guy found another chance to slam the repubs while not reading any of the actual posts.

The restaurant industry by nature is a difficult one, where passing through costs to the customer is extremely difficult.  Any chance to remove a fixed cost from the equation makes it easier for owners to stay afloat.  Any motivated and capable server should still be able to earn a fine wage despite the reduction in the fixed portion of their income.  A good server doesn't worry about whether or not they'll average minimum wage.  A good server is well beyond $20 an hour.  It's the terrible servers that need to be worried, but if they can't make $5 in tips (which would require adequate service to tables spending a combined total of $25 on food), they have no business serving.  Working on commission is tough, but the american society has made tipping servers all but a requirement anyway.  What other minimum wage employees get extra money for doing their job adequately??  Does the cart pusher at Target get an extra $20 for rounding up the carts? NO.  Does the retail employee get an extra $100 a night for folding the clothes well at 11 pm after the store closes?? NOPE. 

I hate that Faye even tried to sully our forum with this trash.  If a first time reading happens to click on this thread, I doubt they'll be back.  This is just more people complaining that they aren't a millionaire, but they aren't willing to put in any work to do it themselves.   People love to hate on the rich because they write off all the hard work it took to get there as just dumb luck.  While that may factor into it, luck favors the prepared and the courageous. 

[Captain Zissou]

PS- All a server has to do to stay afloat is to do a mediocre job serving Chriswufgator at one of his $200 lunches or $400 dinners.  If I knew his dinner schedule, I may pick up a second job just to catch him once a week.

[mtraininjax]

I hate that Faye even tried to sully our forum with this trash.  If a first time reading happens to click on this thread, I doubt they'll be back.  This is just more people complaining that they aren't a millionaire, but they aren't willing to put in any work to do it themselves.   People love to hate on the rich because they write off all the hard work it took to get there as just dumb luck.  While that may factor into it, luck favors the prepared and the courageous. 

CZ, did you see that disability payments are now running $200 billion a year and growing rapidly. Some 25% of those unemployed since the beginning of this crisis have somehow qualified for disability payments.  Government transfers now account for 22% of household income.

Some great stuff over at american.com on future debt issues, not to mention results of how the President is handling the debt crisis.

[FayeforCure]

people have to earn their stripes first. 

Yup, and it builds character to make it harder and harder to earn your stripes.

Who needs economic security anyway?

Why are Republicans intent on making things harder and harder for the little guy, while going overboard with protecting mega-corporations?

How far must this race to the bottom go?

[mtraininjax]

Why are Republicans intent on making things harder and harder for the little guy, while going overboard with protecting mega-corporations?

Personally, I hope the Democrats will all the elections in November. I know full well that they cannot tax enough to raise enough capital to bail out the social issues or the health care issues we have coming due by 2014, 2015 or 2016. No one in Congress wants to address the debt issue, that is what should be addressed and made the major issue in America, yet no one does anything about it, neither party. So why not let the Dems show us how to do it. They have done such a great job over the last 4 years, why not 4 more?

And the Left wants to solve the problem by raising taxes on "the rich." We are down well over $1 trillion a year in our deficit. Obama's new plan raise taxes a lot and still has $1.3 trillion in deficits, with very rosy assumptions.

"According to the New York Times, the president's plan to abolish the Bush tax cuts for those making more than $250,000 is expected to bring in merely $0.7 trillion over the next decade, or about 0.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product per year [about $60 billion in the coming years, under optimistic projections that assume higher growth and no recessions]. As a comparison, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the deficit over the same period is going to be $13 trillion, more than 6 percent of GDP per year.

"The rich in America obviously have lots of money, but there are simply not enough of them to fund the president´s preferred level of spending." (American.com)

[Captain Zissou]

I know this is a broad over generalization, but in keeping with the spirit of the previous post, here it goes.  Generally, my friends and myself align predominantly with the republican party.  Most of us are nearly in the middle, but fiscally conservative.  We have no great wealth and make modest incomes. Some of us make below the median wage, some slightly above.  One common idea that we share is that we all believe we will some day make it, we just haven't yet.  We agree that there is much work to be done before we will be wealthy, but it is coming if we continue to work.  None of us consider ourselves the 'little guy', just someone who hasn't built up their nest egg yet.  We think the whole 'little guy' mentality is a good way to get crushed by someone with our mindset. I don't think we are alone in our outlook.

Faye's argument presupposes that no republicans ever lacked vast storehouses of wealth.  She also assumes that those who don't already start with wealth will never acquire it.  I pray that she is not representative of the liberal party as a whole, but if so I pity them.  They will never succeed with such a defeatist outlook.

[Captain Zissou]

people have to earn their stripes first. 

Yup, and it builds character to make it harder and harder to earn your stripes.

You really think people can't accomplish anything, don't you? Why don't you start believing in people, rather than shaking your fist at the people that pass you by?

[FayeforCure]

people have to earn their stripes first. 

Yup, and it builds character to make it harder and harder to earn your stripes.

You really think people can't accomplish anything, don't you? Why don't you start believing in people, rather than shaking your fist at the people that pass you by?

I completely believe in extending fair opportunity to people, rather than regressively keep taking away from people's opportunities.

Based on that I do believe that given fair opportunity people can indeed succeed.

[fieldafm]

people have to earn their stripes first. 

Yup, and it builds character to make it harder and harder to earn your stripes.

You really think people can't accomplish anything, don't you? Why don't you start believing in people, rather than shaking your fist at the people that pass you by?

I completely believe in extending fair opportunity to people, rather than regressively keep taking away from people's opportunities.

Based on that I do believe that given fair opportunity people can indeed succeed.

The only people in life that can take away opportunity from you... is yourself.

There's nothing political about that.

[FayeforCure]

people have to earn their stripes first. 

Yup, and it builds character to make it harder and harder to earn your stripes.

You really think people can't accomplish anything, don't you? Why don't you start believing in people, rather than shaking your fist at the people that pass you by?

I completely believe in extending fair opportunity to people, rather than regressively keep taking away from people's opportunities.

Based on that I do believe that given fair opportunity people can indeed succeed.

The only people in life that can take away opportunity from you... is yourself.

There's nothing political about that.

What happened to the American way of leveling the playing ground..........equal opportunity to all, instead of taking away opportunity.

"The only people in life that can take away opportunity from you... is yourself."

Really? How can someone make such a broad statement?

Let me ask you.......If we didn't have a public education system, how would that be in terms of taking away opportunity to American citizens?

Would you still agree with your silly statement?

It's that personal responsibility crap taken to the extreme.

[bill]

The Public school system is part of the problem. That is another one of the programs the Dems tried to "help and make fair". That has worked out well.

[mtraininjax]

What happened to the American way of leveling the playing ground..........equal opportunity to all, instead of taking away opportunity.

Leveling the playing ground? If you consume oxygen, you have just as much opportunity as me to do something great with today.

The public school system was built and designed for factory life. Think about it, a regime of classes on the hour, every day, same classes. Factories have changed, so should the school system. Come to think of it, a lot has changed in our country, so should the way DC operates, but it does not change, Why?

[FayeforCure]

The Public school system is part of the problem. That is another one of the programs the Dems tried to "help and make fair". That has worked out well.

The public school systems in Europe, Japan and China work really well.

You can take any good concept and make it dysfunctional, that doesn't mean the concept is wrong or does no good.

[FayeforCure]

Come to think of it, a lot has changed in our country, so should the way DC operates, but it does not change, Why?

Publicly financed elections and an end to gerry-mandered districts will restore Democracy and ensure we don't have a 95% re-election rate of incumbents..........stifling any effective Democratic process.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

The public school system was built and designed for factory life. Think about it, a regime of classes on the hour, every day, same classes. Factories have changed, so should the school system. Come to think of it, a lot has changed in our country, so should the way DC operates, but it does not change, Why?

Actually, they are moving away from that.  My son is in an 8 course program with certain classes every other day and some classes every day.  The alternating classes are 1:50 with the daily classes being :50.

Ribault Middle - 6th Grade.