vincent p. norris wrote:

> >And yet, if you polled waitrons and barkeeps, I'd bet
> >you a pint of BEER (ob. beer) that they would
> >overwhelmingly prefer the current system of
> >sub-minimum wage + percentage-of-tab tips to the
> >only alternative: minimum wage + nominal tips.
>
> Neither The Submarine Captain nor I was presenting that choice.

Then neither you nor Laurent were presenting
realistic choices.

> If we're making up fictitious choices,

Fictitious? What country do you live in?
I know Laurent is in Switzerland, and I
won't condescend to tell the Swiss how to
conduct their business, but I thought
"psu" was in one of the original 13 colonies on
this side of the pond. Until you pull off your
next revolution, the only alternative would be
an unsatisfactory wage and paltry tips.
My (realistic) point is that good waitrons and
bartenders make far more under the current
system than they possibly could under any
(realistic) set-wage system without
(or with drastically lower) tips.

> how about offering the wait
> staff, collectively, 50% of the profits?

If the wait staff, collectively, buys into
ownership of the bar then the wait staff,
collectively, can distribute the profits
however they want. I'm all for it.