[derrekl]

Not going to speak to the article but want to layout that in 1997 when I was a waiter at Chili’s I made $2.50 an hour base wage, but with tips nearly always cleared $24/h. In 1999 I was a waiter for an upscale steakhouse in the city of Chicago and on average made about $40/h. Several of the waiters there were career waiters and had families. Many career waiters worked very hard to get jobs at higher and higher end restaurants and could clear 100K on the year back in 1999.

[isbvhodnvemrwvn]

I used to live in a touristy area and there was a similar phenomenon with waitresses in the city center - the only issue was that after a few years the waitresses were let go because the employers picked prettier ones as a replacement. A colleague of mine from highschool got hit hard by that, as she thought she'll surely not be one of those that get replaced. She had to take her lifestyle a few good notches down with no higher ed and just waiting experience. She would have had no issues with getting a degree, she was smart but naive.

[ipnon]

It seems like "elbow grease"-type middle class jobs are a thing of the past.