Trickle Down: "My Heart is Filled with Water"

[paft.livejournal.com]

From CNN, 1/8/12
:
A few miles north of the Georgia Avenue Food Cooperative, Andono's husband, Alan, 47, serves steaks to some of the targets of the Occupy movement: the 1% of Americans who have enjoyed nearly 60% of all gains in income over the last three decades.

Alan Bryant mans the grill at Ruth's Chris Steak House, where a well-marbled cowboy ribeye fetches $44 and a fully loaded 1-pound potato goes for $7….

Alan Bryant is aware of the Occupy protests. He doesn't participate. To be frank, he doesn't have time. Nor does he quite know how to feel about it all.

‘If the rich or the middle class don't spend the money (at the restaurant), that would put me very much in danger.’

He says he makes $11 an hour as a line cook. At that rate, it would take four hours of work to afford one of the cowboy ribeyes he cooks…

It's a tough pill to swallow when a steak gets returned after a single bite. He watches as waiters or waitresses toss the meat into the trash…

"Right now," he says, "my heart is filled with water.”

This is what “trickle down” means. It doesn’t mean, “you’ll have a comfortable life if you work hard for the 1%.”

No, it means, maybe – just maybe – you won’t actually end up homeless.

Maybe you’ll be able to scrounge meals from the local food co-op.

Maybe you’ll be able to afford to take half the medication the doctor says you need.

And maybe the consequences of this won’t actually be fatal or permanently disabling.

This is the reality of many of the jobs provided by the “job creators.”

These jobs don’t provide even a comfortable, if frugal living. They certainly don’t offer security. A man who fears losing his job because unemployment would put him “very much in danger,” is not secure.

He’s a man living day to day with a knife at his throat.

Comments

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

This is what happens when the law of contagion is made the basis of economics, which are grounded not in magic and similar humbuggery but in science.

[kayjayuu.livejournal.com]

A fool and his money are soon parted. A $7 baked potato is ridiculous.

But a $7 baked potato pays more than half the cook's hourly wage, plus overhead, so I suppose it's a better business model than owning a McDonald's.

How much should a cook's position pay, is the question.

[paft.livejournal.com]

Enough to provide adequate shelter, food, and medical care for the hard working cook and his familly.

In other words, more than the man is making now.

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

'If the rich or the middle class don't spend the money (at the restaurant), that would put me very much in danger.’

If the Middle class no longer exists, you'll go under anyway mate.

Just saying.

[squidb0i.livejournal.com]

+1

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

"There are no classes in America. We are a country that don't allow for titles."

[notmrgarrison.livejournal.com]

What about all those restaurant workers "working for" the 99 percent?
And did the article bother to mention how much the waiters get in tips? I've known college students who made ridiculous amounts waitressing at expensive restaurants.

[paft.livejournal.com]

nmg: What about all those restaurant workers "working for" the 99 percent?

The piece I'm referring to is about one of them.

nmg: And did the article bother to mention how much the waiters get in tips?

No. The person it focusses on is not a waiter. He's a cook. And the bigger question is not how much those waiters get in tips, but whether those tips make up for any shortfalls in benefits and salary.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

I find it hard to believe that the grill man at a Ruth's Chris makes $11/ hour. That is a starting wage for a fairly unskilled cook in my market.

[paft.livejournal.com]

So who do you think is lying here? CNN or the cook?

[merig00.livejournal.com]

Based on salary.com that's a median salary for a "cook" in GA.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

You ever work a grill in a big city.

[merig00.livejournal.com]

Different markets :) http://www.livingwage.geog.psu.edu/places/1312104000

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

And, fwiw, the 1% do not eat at Ruth's Chris.

[merig00.livejournal.com]

Yeah I was expecting to see at least Capital Grille or something...

[paft.livejournal.com]

They don't sell $44 steaks?

[merig00.livejournal.com]

So your issue is that this man prepares $44 steaks but gets paid $11/hour or that he is getting paid $11/hour for his work period?

[paft.livejournal.com]

My issue is that he's not being paid a living wage.

His job grilling $44 steaks simply illustrates the fallacy of the "job creators" myth.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

Cooking a $44 steak is at least a semi-skilled job (I would argue it's a skilled job, I can't imagine anyone getting on the grill at a steak restaurant here without having finished their apprenticeship). If skilled labour is not paying enough to provide for a family then something is broken in the system. People want to let the market work it out, but the problem is that if you do that after a while people decide the market sucks and they work it out with fire.

[yahvah.livejournal.com]

I think I could agree with you on Reaganomics. We could just work to eliminate a really large portion of the income tax then we'd have torrential downpour economics.

[paft.livejournal.com]

Most people are not driven into poverty by the income tax.

[omnot.livejournal.com]

Australia does the "living wage" thing. Hrm... The $AU and the $US are near parity. Cost of living varies -- I think accommodation is relatively expensive here, and food prices are higher, too. Unemployment is around four percent.

http://www.payscale.com/research/AU/Job=Cook,_Restaurant/Hourly_Rate

That site shows hourly pay of between AU$13.82 and AU$21.51.

We don't customarily tip because the wait staff are also paid a living wage.

I wonder... abandon tipping in favour of mandating that all the restaurant staff get a living wage and... what? Food is a little more expensive, but that is offset at least a little by customers not having to tip. And any shortfall would be paid for by the customers living in an economy where people have actual disposable income, so buy more stuff, so provide more jobs, so ... oh wait. I am describing "trickle up" economics, now, aren't I?

[malakh-abaddon.livejournal.com]

I like this idea.... A living wage... You do realize that most of the Americans here will tar and feather you for suggesting such a thing. God forbid profit is down, but people have more money to spend.

got something on this.

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

Hmm...interesting discussion. I understand you feel sorry for this guy because he is not getting more pay. Would you feel as sorry if he made, say, $14 an hour? $16? Where is your personal comfort zone. If you were the boss, how much should that man make an hour?

I own a restaurant and a convention venue for events. We have a staff of about 30 people but our payroll is only about $35k a month. There are only 4 people who are on salary as managers. The rest of the staff is hourly, and (except for security) WELL under the $11 an hour for bar staff, backs, coat check,attendant, cashier, parking and cleaning attendant.

Bartenders are taking their fair share home too, and they tip out the backs. We make sure when possible everyone makes at least $10 an hour, sometimes double on big nights.

Sometimes not. Sometimes it is a slow night and you get to go home early.

Working here is a primary job for most of them, which scares the piss out of me. For too many its their only job now. Most get about 7-8 hours a night 3-4 nights a week, and some get tips and tip share bonus's.

Jobs like the line cook, and my kitchen and other staff; these are meant to be extra jobs; augmentation to existing income sources.

They were never meant to be someone's "career". The pay IS going to be relatively lousy for a line cook, if that is all he does for a living.

Right now, businesses my size are the net catching those falling through from the high rise culls, or from someone with a stupid drug conviction that makes it kind of tough to get a 'real' job.

Every person who works here is grateful for what we can pay them. And we do what we can, but we are not the size business that can pay comfortable, stand-alone wages for our staff.

We all do what we can. But the enormous personal responsibility of making sure 30 humans get a paycheck they can depend on is one that few people step up for. I could not imagine the responsibility for 3000.

Yeah, it is more desirable to get a check, than write it.

Ask the line cook.

Oh, I've eaten at that Ruth's Chris' near Centennial Olympic Park. Pretentious as fuck.

[paft.livejournal.com]

My “comfort zone” would be a living wage, that is, a wage that would enable a fulltime worker to pay for basic necessities for himself and his family like food, clothing, shelter, medical care.

How much that would be would depend on what area he was living and working.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

I wonder why the US has the highest poverty, crime and incarceration rates in the developed world. I'm sure none of these things are related...

[kardashev.livejournal.com]

I can cook a better steak than this guy can all by myself. Fuck him and the steakhouse he works for. They can both burn in Hell.

[paft.livejournal.com]

k: I can cook a better steak than this guy can all by myself.

And you know this because...?

K:. Fuck him and the steakhouse he works for. They can both burn in Hell.

Why the hatred?