The Explosion of The New Gilded Age

http://waiterrant.net/?p=659

November 26th, 2008 by Waiter

It’s a wet and dreary Monday afternoon and I’m driving to the hospital where I work part time. The dark clouds hanging low in the sky have soaked up what’s left of the day’s sunlight, causing the headlights from passing cars to generate diffuse halos in the misting rain. As I drive down the street I spy a Dunkin’ Donuts on my left. I’m working the evening shift and my bloodstream’s crying out for coffee My internist told me to cut back on the stuff after I got diagnosed with gastritis. I pull into the doughnut shop’s parking lot anyway. I have to be awake and alert for several hours. My doctor doesn’t.

<snip>

“Can I ask you about your tip jar?” I ask.

“Sure,” the counter man says. “Hey Amjad,” he says, waving to his coworker. “Come here.”

“What?” the other worker asks.

“This guy’s a writer and he wants to talk about our tip jar.”

Amjad looks me over. “What do you want to know?”

“How much do you make a day from the tip jar?” I ask.

“Rami and I split what’s in the jar,” Amjad says. “We walk out of here with fourteen to fifteen dollars every day.”

“Is that a normal amount?”

“No,” Rami says. “We used to take home twenty dollars a shift.”

“So the tips have gone down?”

“Ever since things got bad,” Amjad says. “People are tipping less.”

“They still buying the same stuff?” I ask. “Coffee? Doughnuts? Sandwiches?”

“People aren’t cutting back on what they buy, mister,” Rami says. “They’re cutting back on what they tip.”

“I don’t want to ask what you make an hour,” I say carefully. “But do you count on what you get from the tip jar? Is it a big source of income?”

“You better believe it mister.” Amjad says. “Rami and I work six days a week. We both used to take home almost five hundred bucks a month from the tip jar.”

“Wow,” I reply. “That’s a lot of money.”

“Since things got bad,” Rami says. “We’re taking home, what Amjad? One-fifty less a month?”

“That’s about right.”

<snip>

I know some people are angry that there are tip jars in places like Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks. But as Amjad and Rami illustrate, they count on that money to help make ends meet. Don’t get angry at them or the tip jars. They’re a symptom, not a problem. Many tipped workers aren’t paid a living wage which causes the American public to basically subsidize the labor costs of both small businesses and multi-billion dollar corporations alike. Annoying isn’t it? Over the four plus years I’ve written this blog tipping is a hot topic. The normal retort I get from the uber red meat capitalist commenters when I discuss this stuff is “You don’t like my tip? You don’t like the money you make? Get another job you bum!”

But now the tables have turned. Many of those “uber capitalists” are now working for (or used to) enfeebled companies that are going hat in hand to the American taxpayer for over a trillion dollars worth of taxpayer (and Chinese) backed bailout funds. Yet again, the American public is subsidizing the foolishness of private and corporate greed. Even as the average American worker suffers, CEO corporate beggars arrogantly fly into Washington on private jets. Food pantries are running out of canned goods, families won’t have a turkey on the table this Thanksgiving, and these morons are still clinging to the trappings of excessive pay and greed. Maybe those bums need to get another job.

..more at link..
(my apologies if I quoted too much, wanted to give a basic understanding of the writing..thanks)

My wife makes tips on her job, and they've fallen to almost nothing since the end of summer.

After 5 years she still only makes 50 cents above minimum wage.

Needless to say, money has gotten tight in our household.

both have worked for tips almost all of our life.
I am a semi-retired exotic dancer; he is a dj in the gentleman's club industry, as well as being a regular 'spinning' dj.
We know all too well what this is all about.
I send you our sympathies and understanding..

I have found myself tipping more of late, and not just because of the holidays.

One day back in 2001 I had only $60 to my name and no income on the horizon. I remember making the most disciplined shopping list ever. I have money now after selling part of a company which I started with 2 people I met shortly after that fateful shopping spree. But I don't feel the way I thought I would with what I have. Funny how looking around and seeing how difficult so many have it can dampen what should feel like a good time in one's life.

The wreckage brought on by the wealthy and greed obsessed will take a generation to undo IF we even can.