Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Political Restaurants - which to pick?

On Political street there are two large restaurants,s; The Republicano & Demo's.

Demo's:

As we walk in they ask us for our payslips, weird. We get seated and the waiter brings us menus but the prices for the items are not the same?? Each meny has our individual salary printed on top saying that all prices are based upon each patrons salary. I make $120K a year and my friend makes $60K. I order a steak for $50.00 and my friend orders the same steak but his is only $25.00 - what's up with that? All the waiters have union buttons on and 3 of them are on strike. The restaurant is pretty laid back and people are dressed leisurely. After getting the bill we leave a tip each of 20% of the bill and the waiter explains that they all pool their tips and divide it out equally to all the employees, even those that are not working or on strike so everybody is "equal".
The place was full of charm and we spotted quite a number of famous people. The Maitre D was extremely charismatic and well spoken, we really liked the guy. We asked him what would happen if the restaurant had a profit and decided to share this with the employees and he said that they would distribute most of the profit to the ones that were not working and those who slacked off and had a lower pay. We thought this was odd but he explained that the ones that worked really hard already made good money so why should they share any of the profits?

The Republicano:

Funny, but they have the same procedure when it comes to asking for payslips and then giving us customized priced menus. I still don't understand why I should pay more for having gone to college, worked hard and climbed upwards in my company. This restaurant is a little different, easy to tell from the emblem at the door which pictures two guns laying in a cross on top of a Bible. People seem to be a little more conservatively dressed as are the surroundings and many are wearing gun belts, some even have semi-automatics. Just about everybody has a Bible with them. We ask the waiter how the tips work and he says they all keep their individual tips and people who are not working does not get any portion of it. Then we asked what would happen if there was any profit-sharing and the Maitre D, an older gentleman that looked x-Navy, said that they would distribute it evenly amongst all employees based upon their contributions. This meant that whoever had contributed the most would get a higher percentage of the profits. This kinda made sense to us; the more you put in the more you get back.

Conclusion:

None of the Restaurants really appealed to all our desires. My friend liked the concept of getting a larger percentage of the profits even though he had contributed a lot less but I didn't think that was fair. My friend also liked that his food was cheaper than mine even though it was the same food; I sure didn't think that made any sense - next will be that I pay more for everything I buy since I have more money, not very motivational.
I didn't like the guns and bibles - I think that's something that can stay at home and not be flaunted.

I really have no clue which Restaurant to go to next, maybe I should start my own where everybody pays the same for the same goods, where hard work is rewarded, where everyone would be welcome, where talking among different tables are encouraged and where guns and bibles are forbidden? Sure sounds like an uphill battle as I all my attorney friends on the Hill will see this as too simple a concept - what will the poeple that normally handle all the paperwork of the other systems do now?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bravo.

ScLoHo (Scott Howard) said...

Very, very good analogy. Thanks for taking the time to write it in such a way nearly any of my friends and co-workers might understand.

DIGG