I too love to cook. For myself in my time. I keep the surplus value I create and enjoy it. In the past when working in a cafe I've not enjoyed being ordered about by people who know I cannot afford to answer back.

Okay, thanks I wasn't sure if it was satire, because some people say an extreme thing to make a point.

Well a lot of that comes from tipping culture and low pay. Like you need to lick my shoe in order to get your $3 tip. It's a power dynamic-- you're reliant on their money, so you're lower than them. And society looks down on restaurant workers in general as lazy people. People's views on restaurant workers needs to change.

I've waitressed before too. I knew people who liked their job most of the time, you get to be around people, you get the satisfaction of someone enjoying a good meal you've made and being happy about it. Some people prefer physical work. I don't think the job itself "has" to be eradicated. But of course no one likes the people treat you like crap or the awful pay.

Yes I wouldn't say every minute of my time in a cafe was bad. I enjoyed producing, adding value etc. The tips didn't really come into it much for me because my base wage was enough. It wasn't going to make or break my week.

The power dynamic comes from creating a system where people are forced to work to meet their largest expense: rent.

That's true of any job though. Why single out restaurants?

I'm all for automating jobs in general, but we're not there yet.

For me I'm thinking of "the service industry", the lower end. Here employees are low-skill, therefore at the mercy of employers who can swap them out for a less testy serf if required.

Those further up the value chain have more of a give-and-take relationship with their employer, the supply/demand curve is more in the favour of the employee. The employee has better savings and is not facing missing next week's rent if they are fired. A very different dynamic.

It is a different dynamic. The minimum wage needs to be up, but I wouldn't go from saying that to "shut down all restaurants".

Not sure about what could be done about supply/demand. They are low skill jobs. Most people could learn to do them pretty quickly. That doesn't mean they don't deserve to be paid properly-- the current economy is creating those jobs, we still need service people. They are working hard. But as far as supply/demand goes, I think there would always be a surplus of people who have the ability to do those jobs.

Well as I stated in the same column where I provide the link, I've not read it, I doubt you have in this time either.

That said, the system creates these imbalances so I would not look to simply treat the symptom.

Progress depends on a deficit of cheap labour to encourage automation. Globalisation has seen companies move manual low-skill jobs to other countries. Meanwhile land prices are up and so are rents. People must take what they can get whilst the usurers run rampant.