22 Years Later, Waiters Still Work for $2.13 a Hour

Posted on April 26, 2013 by The Old Wolf

A recent article at Bloomberg highlighted a situation that has long irked me. And I’m part of the problem, and I’m groping for answers.

One thing about the Bloomberg article that I’d change is “waitresses” -> “servers.” Obviously the problem is industry-wide, and not limited to those who are y-chromosome-challenged. But whatever. That’s a subject for a different essay.

I’ve written about tipping before. For reasons outlined there, it’s not optional. If you eat out, be prepared to tip, and tip well. The people who bring you your food depend on it, as do numerous others in the restaurant who don’t get tipped directly.

So here’s what I struggle with. While states can set their own minimum wage numbers, New Mexico and 12 other states use the federal level, which hasn’t been raised in 22 years. And even states that have raised the minimum for tipped employees tend to err on the side of parsimony. That means “being cheap.” I happen to think that paying a server $2.13 an hour (I only made less than this back in the 60’s and 70’s, when the minimum wage in Utah was $1.65) is an abomination and an affront to ethical business.

See, tips were never designed to be part of a server’s base wage… it’s just that employers saw a gold mine and took advantage of it. Restaurant owners justify their actions by saying that servers are making at least minimum wage with tips included and often more, and while this can happen, it’s the exception rather than the rule. Raising the base minimum would “also spur firings and reduced hours as thin-margin businesses grapple with higher costs, say some restaurant owners and economists.” And therein lies the rub.

According to the Houston Chronicle, in an article dealing with operating margins in the restaurant industry:

“Recent times have proven very difficult for the full-service restaurant industry. According to the NRA [National Restaurant Association, not the gun lobby], in 2010 the casual restaurants had an average operating margin of 3.0 percent with respect to gross sales. More formal $15 to $25 restaurants had an average operating margin of 3.5 percent. Fine dining establishments, costing $25 or more, had the worst margins of all, at 1.8 percent on average. Many such restaurants earned a loss, rather than a profit. Overall sales for the full-service restaurant industry came to $184 billion, a nominal increase over 2009.”

These razor-thin margins are built on the base + tip model, and if restaurant owners are required to quadruple their waitstaff’s wages and still keep the same pricing structure, the business goes under – which means loss of jobs for people and loss of tax revenues for localities, neither of which is a good thing. There’s no way to balance the equation without changing some variables, and the only one I can see that can change is price.

As Americans, we have developed a sense of entitlement regarding cheap eats, either in restaurants (supported on the backs of the servers), or in the grocery store (supported on the backs of low-paid migrant workers.) Raising prices for dining and groceries to give a fair living to the people who provide them would be the right thing to do… but would go over like a lead balloon with much of the public and would be a logistical nightmare – push over that domino and the whole house of cards would come tumbling dow, to mix metaphors.

You can see why I’m conflicted. I like eating out. Boycotting restaurants to make owners pay a living wage is the worst kind of self-spiting solution, because it would simply force many eateries out of business. The problem is multifaceted, and there are better minds than mine working on addressing it. One of them is Gina L. Darnell, a former server who authors Wiser Waitress. Here’s her wish list. It’s not too much to ask.

In the meantime, all I can do is try to make a dining experience as pleasant for my server as they are trying to make it for me… and leave a decent tip.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Any dog can love

Posted on April 20, 2013 by The Old Wolf

Certain breeds of dog get a bad rap, especially in the media. If ever there’s an incident where dogs frighten, hurt or kill a person, you can be sure it will be reported with much more terror and alarm if the dog happened to be a Doberman, a Rottweiler, a German Shepherd, or a Pit Bull.

Humanity has been living with dogs for a long, long time, and it would be well for us to remember that although domesticated, they are the descendants of grey wolves.

There came a time when dogs realized there was value in a partnership with those hairless apes.

Cartoon by Nick Kim

People who have had any relationship with dogs at all know that these creatures are some of the most loving, brave, and faithful souls that have ever been sent to earth.

Most recently, therapy dogs brought comfort to those affected by the Boston Marathon tragedy.

—————-

Quality

If you can start the day without caffeine,
If you can get going without pep pills,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,
If you can overlook it when something goes wrong through no fault of yours and those you love take it out on you,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
If you can ignore a friend’s limited education and never correct him,
If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,
If you can face the world without lies and deceit,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without liquor,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
If you can say honestly that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against creed, color, religion or politics…

Then my friends, you are almost as good as your dog.

—————–

Here’s a lovely story that gets forwarded around a lot. It’s a glurge, and I still like it.

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years.

He wondered where the road was leading them. After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, a tall arch that glowed broke in the sunlight. When he was standing before it, he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother of pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold.

He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side. When he was close enough, he called out, “Excuse me, where are we?” “This is Heaven, sir,” the man answered. “Wow! Would you happen to have some water?” the man asked. Of course, sir. Come right in, and I’ll have some ice water brought right up.” The man gestured, and the gate began to open. “Can my friend,” gesturing toward his dog, “come in, too?” the traveler asked. “I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t accept pets.” The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.

After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road, which led through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book. “Excuse me!” he called to the reader. “Do you have any water?” “Yeah, sure, there’s a pump over there.” The man pointed to a place that couldn’t be seen from outside the gate. “Come on in.” “How about my friend here?” the traveler gestured to the dog. “There should be a bowl by the pump.” They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it. The traveler filled the bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.

When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree waiting for them. “What do you call this place?” the traveler asked. “This is Heaven,” was the answer. “Well, that’s confusing,” the traveler said……”The man down the road said that was Heaven, too?” “Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That’s Hell.” “Doesn’t it make you mad for them to use your name like that?” “No. I can see how you might think so, but we’re just happy that they screen out the folks who’ll leave their best friends behind.”

—————–

A recent news article at the BBC describes a dog who kept a young girl alive in freezing temperatures.

And of course, there are the stories of Hachikō…

Red Dog…

The red dog monument

Koko (go ndéanai Día trocaire air)^[1], the kelpie who starred in the iconic movie,

and Greyfriar’s Bobby.

Albumen print (ca. 1865), thought to be of Bobby (from Wikimedia Commons)

Although Bobby’s story has been challenged by numerous authorities, there is no end of documented tails [sic] (see Hachikō above) of dogs who have demonstrated extraordinary love and faithfulness.

I’ve known many dogs, but none as faithful or loving as Céilidh. She was the very best… we covered thousands of miles together on our walks.

For what it’s worth, there are cultures in the world that consider dogs unclean. I can only pity them… they are missing out on one of the greatest sources of love and friendship that the Earth has to offer.

All of this having been said, there is no breed of dog that has ever exhibited a tendency for more aggressiveness than another. The breeds I mentioned above have gotten an especially bad rap because many people train these dogs to be aggressive for use in security, police work, or the heinous activity of dogfighting. Because they are animals, they will respond exactly as they are trained – consciously or unconsciously – to do.

A famous poem by By Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D. has a lot to say about dogs as well as children:

Children Learn What They Live

If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.
If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.
If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.
If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.
If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.
If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.
If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.
If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.
If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.
If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.
If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.

Dogs are even more intuitive and less reasoned than children. Mark Twain once famously said,

“If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.”

Any dog that is raised with love will give love, devotion, protection, and service in return. Any dog that is beaten, abused, starved, chained, made afraid, or tortured is a candidate for aggressive behavior – I don’t care if it’s a Pit Bull or a Yorkshire Terrier… dogs have no sense of their own size, as anyone with a chihuahua can attest to.

Pit bulls tend to get the worst rap of all, and it’s entirely undeserved.

This poster by the National Canine Research Council (full-size PDF file here) outlines a number of fears about Pit Bulls, with the documented facts about the breed. The same things, however, could be said about any breed of dog that is looked up on by the public (again, largely thanks to the media and the entertainment industry) as being dangerous.

To end this essay on a lighter note, I share a story that I first heard in Irish. The translation below is mine.^[2]

——————

Ti-Boy and the Dogs

Like his father, Ti Charlie, and his uncle, Ti Antoine, Ti-Boy LeBlanc was a big strapping fellow, and never was there a more terrible bully in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, than his dog. The other night, Ti-Boy was drinking beer and eating boiled crawfish with a couple of his buddies in a bar on route 20. In comes a stranger, and after a few words with the bartender, up comes he to Ti-Boy.

Stranger: Is that your big dog out there?
Ti-Boy: Yeah, he’s mine.
Stranger: Well, my dog just killed your dog.
Ti-Boy: Your dog killed my dog? Incroyable! What kind of dog do you have, anyway?
Stranger: A Chihuahua.
Ti-Boy: A Chihuahua?!? You’re putting me on! There’s no chance in Hell that a little bitty dog like that could do any damage to a dog that’s as big as a horse!
Stranger: I’m telling you he killed it.
Ti-Boy: How?!
Stranger: The little creature got stuck in its throat…

The Old Wolf has spoken.

[1] Irish = “May God have mercy upon him,” said when mentioning someone deceased.

[2] The original story:

Ti Boy agus na Madraí

Dála a athar, Ti Charlie, agus a uncail, Ti Antoine, fear mór scafánta ba ea Ti Boy LeBlanc. Bhí maistín mór millteach aige an madra ba mhó i bParóiste Terrebonne, Louisiana. Tráthnóna amháin bhí Ti Boy ag ól beorach agus ag ithe boiled crawfish lena chuid cairde i dteach tábhairne ar Route 20. Tháinig strainséir isteach. Tar éis cúpla focal leis an mbartender, chuaigh an fear seo go dtí Ti Boy.

Strainséir: An leatsa an mada mór amuigh ansin?
Ti Boy: Sea. Is liomsa é.
Strainséir: Bhuel, tá mo mhadasa théis do mhadasa a mharú.
Ti Boy: Mharaigh do mhadasa mo mhadasa? Incroyable! Cén sórt mada tá agat, anyway?
Strainséir: Chihuahua.
Ti Boy: Chihuahua!?! Tá tú ag tarraingt asam! Dheamhan seans ag mada beag bídeach mar sin aon damáiste a dhéanamh do mhada atá chomh mór le bromach!
Strainséir: Tá mé á rá leat gur mharaigh sé é.
Ti Boy: Cén chaoi?!
Strainséir: Chuaigh an créatúirín i bhfostú ina scornach…

(Originally found at http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~bj333/HomePage.home.html – link now 404)

Seriously, WordPress – Some weird stuff is going on.

Posted on April 19, 2013 by The Old Wolf

Edit: an employee of WordPress responded to my inquiry about this phenomenon, and I have added her comments at the end of this article.

I mentioned in a previous post that a botnet of over 90,000 computers is mounting an attack on WordPress servers, attempting to crack machines with the userid “admin” and weak passwords. I also mentioned that I’ve noticed a disproportionate number of follows recently. I decided to document the activity, which can be seen in the chart below.

(Click for a larger version)

You can see that in the last month, I’ve attracted 156 followers, with several now showing up every day. That’s roughly as many as during the previous 11 months.

While I’d love to think that my blog is ferociously interesting, examining the data shows unequivocally that the vast majority of these accounts are effectively spam – commercial accounts attempting to boost their own ratings.

Example:

User “mariva55” at http://dinheirograna.wordpress.com/, a Brazilian site with 5 entries – all created on 19 April, the same day it “followed” my blog – is a shill site for comoganharXXreais.com.br (link obfuscated). This website is listed on Joe Wein’s spam domain base blacklist, and is a get-rich-quick internet marketing scheme.

While I have a few legitimate followers from the last month, based on some comments that have shown up in various entries, the vast majority of these are similar to the example above; some of the accounts were created today and have already been deleted. I mean, why else would “Guitarmonk – First Formal Chain of Guitar schools in Delhi” be interested in my blog?

Can anybody shed any light on what’s happening, and why I’m being flooded with these “unsolicited commercial followers?”

The Old Wolf is annoyed.

From a WordPress customer service agent:

Thanks for the feedback. This recent influx of spam followers is a known issue, and I believe our team at WordPress.com is looking into ways to squash the problem. Some of this increase could be due to changes in the Reader, such as the new “You May Like” feature that you’ll see on the right hand side when you’re logged in to your account and searching for/reading new blogs.

If you have a public blog, you can’t block someone from following you; however, you can adjust settings to decrease the amount of spam comments:

http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/discussion-settings/

Also, just FYI, there’s a “Report content” tool accessible from your admin bar at the top — hover over the blog name near the top left, and you’ll see a link to report content that is spam. While it’s not quite the tool to deal with the issue you specified, I just wanted to point it out in the meantime. You can also just use this form, too:

http://en.wordpress.com/report-spam/

I am grateful that someone took the time and trouble to respond to my inquiry. Hopefully as time goes on, this problem may be mitigated somewhat.

There are more of us than there are of them.

Posted on April 15, 2013 by The Old Wolf

With regards to the horrific tragedy in Boston today, Patton Oswalt said:

Boston. Fucking horrible.

I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, “Well, I’ve had it with humanity.”

But I was wrong. I don’t know what’s going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem. One human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths.

But here’s what I DO know. If it’s one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. (Thanks FAKE Gallery founder and owner Paul Kozlowski for pointing this out to me). This is a giant planet and we’re lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they’re pointed towards darkness.

But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We’d have eaten ourselves alive long ago.

So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, “The good outnumber you, and we always will.”

My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families and loved ones. So many lives will never be the same as the result of senseless madness; thank you, Mr. Oswalt, for uplifting and affirming words in this moment of terrible sadness.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

This is not a world that works for everyone.

Posted on April 4, 2013 by The Old Wolf

According to an article by by David Cay Johnston posted at Taxanalysts.com, the average adjusted gross income for 90% of American wage earners grew only $59.00 from 1966 to 2011, while the top 1% of the top 1% saw income growth equaling $18.4 million dollars. Put that in a graph, and it looks like this:

Screw whole bunches of that.

From the article:

“In 2011 entry into the top 10 percent, where all the gains took place, required an adjusted gross income of at least $110,651. The top 1 percent started at $366,623.

The top 1 percent enjoyed 81 percent of all the increased income since 2009. Just over half of the gains went to the top one-tenth of 1 percent, and 39 percent of the gains went to the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent.

Ponder that last fact for a moment — the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent, those making at least $7.97 million in 2011, enjoyed 39 percent of all the income gains in America. In a nation of 158.4 million households, just 15,837 of them received 39 cents out of every dollar of increased income.

That extreme concentration, however, is far from the most jaw-dropping figure that can be distilled from the new Saez-Piketty analysis. That requires a long-term comparison of those at or near the top with the bottom 90 percent.

In 2011 the average AGI of the vast majority fell to $30,437 per taxpayer, its lowest level since 1966 when measured in 2011 dollars. The vast majority averaged a mere $59 more in 2011 than in 1966. For the top 10 percent, by the same measures, average income rose by $116,071 to $254,864, an increase of 84 percent over 1966.

Plot those numbers on a chart, with one inch for $59, and the top 10 percent’s line would extend more than 163 feet.

Now compare the vast majority’s $59 with the top 1 percent, and that line extends for 884 feet. The top 1 percent of the top 1 percent, whose 2011 average income of $23.7 million was $18.4 million more per taxpayer than in 1966, would require a line nearly five miles long.”

These numbers show without equivocation that the rich truly are getting richer at mind-boggling speed, while the rest of us are getting poorer by the year. It almost makes me want to support forced redistribution of wealth, but even these disgusting statistics can’t quite get me there. But somehow the playing field needs to be leveled, because inequalities of this nature in the land of the free and the home of the brave will not long endure without some sort of massive social upheaval down the road.

I’m not an economist, so I don’t have the answers. I can only hope that there are people out there who still believe in a world that works for everyone, with no one left out, and who have the skills and insight to make a difference. For all of us.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Conspiracy Theory Poll

Posted on April 3, 2013 by The Old Wolf

Interesting data here.

Conspiracy Theory Poll Results

(Reblogged from Public Policy Polling)

On our national poll this week we took the opportunity to poll 20 widespread and/or infamous conspiracy theories. Many of these theories are well known to the public, others perhaps to just the darker corners of the internet. Here’s what we found:

– 37% of voters believe global warming is a hoax, 51% do not. Republicans say global warming is a hoax by a 58-25 margin, Democrats disagree 11-77, and Independents are more split at 41-51. 61% of Romney voters believe global warming is a hoax

– 6% of voters believe Osama bin Laden is still alive

– 21% of voters say a UFO crashed in Roswell, NM in 1947 and the US government covered it up. More Romney voters (27%) than Obama voters (16%) believe in a UFO coverup

– 28% of voters believe secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an authoritarian world government, or New World Order. A plurality of Romney voters (38%) believe in the New World Order compared to 35% who don’t

– 28% of voters believe Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks. 36% of Romney voters believe Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11, 41% do not

– 20% of voters believe there is a link between childhood vaccines and autism, 51% do not

– 7% of voters think the moon landing was faked

– 13% of voters think Barack Obama is the anti-Christ, including 22% of Romney voters

– Voters are split 44%-45% on whether Bush intentionally misled about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. 72% of Democrats think Bush lied about WMDs, Independents agree 48-45, just 13% of Republicans think so

– 29% of voters believe aliens exist

– 14% of voters say the CIA was instrumental in creating the crack cocaine epidemic in America’s inner cities in the 1980’s

– 9% of voters think the government adds fluoride to our water supply for sinister reasons (not just dental health)

– 4% of voters say they believe “lizard people” control our societies by gaining political power

– 51% of voters say a larger conspiracy was at work in the JFK assassination, just 25% say Oswald acted alone

– 14% of voters believe in Bigfoot

– 15% of voters say the government or the media adds mind-controlling technology to TV broadcast signals (the so-called Tinfoil Hat crowd)

– 5% believe exhaust seen in the sky behind airplanes is actually chemicals sprayed by the government for sinister reasons (also called chemtrails)

– 15% of voters think the medical industry and the pharmaceutical industry “invent” new diseases to make money

– Just 5% of voters believe that Paul McCartney actually died in 1966

– 11% of voters believe the US government allowed 9/11 to happen, 78% do not agree

Full results here

In my experience, once a “fact” has taken hold in the public’s mind, either from a Mr. Popiel infomercial, or a Dr. Oz special, or a spam email trumpeting “Seen on Oprah!”, it will essentially live forever.

The Old Wolf has spoken.