Fine. But to me, the Denny's workers are the ones who should have been given the gift. The people who came there to eat decided to spend the money as they entered, but the workers must do the work in order to earn a paltry wage. After being told of that their tab had been paid by a benefactor, he good customers at Denny's would have paid his or her bill anyway, stipulating that it all go to the workers.
What I can't stand is the huge disparity between labor wages and retail prices. In today'sNYT we learn that garment workers in Bangladesh earn less than $50 a month. Yes, a month! That's less than the retail price of one garment of many hundreds they make in a month, now being sold at Target and other department stores where you may shop. I detest the exploitation of workers like that. Tell me it's not slavery! If those workers are paid $50 a month then the shirt they made should cost me about 25 cents at Target, still allowing for a generous margin. If it really costs me $50. then why isn't, say 30%, of the retail cost being passed on to the workers who made it? This extreme exploitation of 3rd world workers is the part of capitalism I abhor. Of course I can be a little smug. I've never been in the position where I had to expolit others as part of my job. wc ----- Original Message ---- From: joseph berg <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Fri, August 24, 2012 4:11:47 AM Subject: Re: Is art/aesthetics/this listserv just part of the irrelevant minutiae of life? On Fri, Aug 17, 2012 at 2:50 PM, William Conger <[email protected]>wrote: > > We stopped to eat on the interstate last week The only place was a > Denny's (I'd > never been to one). It was very crowded. We chose to sit at the counter > directly in front of the kitchen serving area. It was mayhem. The > waitresses, > all plenty tough looking country girls (who I imagined had three kids at > mom's > trailer and an absent husband, either run-off or in jail), were running > and > bumping into each other, slopping the food, dropping utensils, and rinsing > containers for quick reuse. The cooks, all scraggy looking, skinny boys, > literally threw the food onto the frying surfaces, scooped the butter or > lard, > and slammed it all onto big plates. The floors were littered, the counter > stools were wobbly. When we had finished our leathery lukewarm grilled > cheese > sandwiches and received the check (rather steep I thought). I cautiously > asked > our waitress how she was paid. She said $4.90 an hour plus tips. I > guessed > that she probably averaged $400 a week take home, if that. Her face was > covered > with sweat. Now that, to me, is exploitation. The girl is working like a > beast, the restaurant is like a farm where animals are fed by the scoop, > and the > prices are actually high for that type of place. Something is very > wrong.The > dignity of hard working underclass people is being abused. They will not > easily > escape their hard-times poverty. And this waitress is probably among the > lucky > few in her societal group. She's likely in deep debt as well. I gave her > five > bucks on a twelve dollar bill. I should've given every girl there $100 and > put > it on my credit card just because I don't like what chain restaurants and > stores > do to (mostly small town) workers. They need unions. > Speaking of Denny's, someone may have recently taken pity on their customers: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/mystery-customer-picks-tab-entire-denny-restaurant-195902637.html
