???? A restaurant ON ITS OWN, decided to pay waitstaff more money... thinking that this is against right wing mantra is ridiculously stupid. What any right wing would be firmly against is the GOVERNMENT COMING IN AND DEMANDING THEY PAY wait staff more, and making it illegal to tip for good service! DUH!

But I know first hand about places that pool tips and this is sort of the same thing. The good waiters and waitresses leave those places because they can make more when left to their own skills...or if they stay, they quickly learn to not do more then the worst of them.. why should one talented waitperson get six tables, but get paid the same as another who can only cover two? The socialist in you won't comprehend the problem.

To Liberal left wingers- this is an offense, why should one person make more in tips then another... we should all be paid the same... damn the customers.

My point, that all of you conservatives miss, is that raising the minimum wage or guaranteeing health care is NOT an economic disaster as you always seem to think it is. I could care less about the tipping. I'm not suggesting everyone makes the same, you are twisting my words.

Someone with a high school education should not be making as much as a college graduate with a PhD, unless that high school graduate started his own business or invented something. But that high school graduate, working in a Denny's, or a Wal Mart, should not have to be on food stamps or Medicaid. That was my point, plain and simple.

How have you proven that it is not an economic disaster? Here is something to consider:

There are liberal enclaves in all the big cities of the United States, where there is virtually NO republican opposition in their legislatures. Every one of them could have raised their local or State minimum wage as high as they pleased at any time they wanted to. Yet in reality, not a single one of them has ever raised the minimum wage more than a token amount, in order to keep their base from grumbling too much. This is because even democrat politicians know that it would be a financial disaster. Seattle has taken the boldest step by enacting a raise to $15.00 an hour. But even they are phasing it in incrementally over several years time. Why not do it immediately if it is so good?

Steve, Good theory but wrong. In addition to the cities like NY and Seattle that have raised the minimum wage, the following states raised the minimum wage over the federal number. No, none of them are $15.00 an hour and I don't think anyone expects it be that high. It's a negotiating strategy.

Meanwhile, these states are above the federal standard already.
Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, New York, Vermont, Florida, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Delaware.

So, guess you're wrong.

This country has always been about people working hard. Not everyone has the advantage of privilege, but everyone has the opportunity to do an honest day's work. If someone is willing to work hard, then he or she should not have to live in poverty. Plain and simple. If someone is working at Wal Mart, he or she should not have to apply for food stamps to survive. If someone is a janitor, or a garbage man, or a housekeeper, there should be enough dignity and sufficient pay in that work to ensure that that person can survive on his or her own.

If guaranteeing that everyone has a living wage means I have to pay an extra $1.00 for a Big Mac, or an extra $.50 for a package of socks at Target, or $.75 more for a gallon of milk, then bring it on. Knowing my neighbor can pay his rent and afford school clothes for his kid is all I need to justify the extra cost.

Please don't hand me bullshit about improving his or her own situation. Not everyone can afford a college degree. No one should have to put their family second by having to work 2 or 3 or 4 jobs to survive. That's just another reason why the family structure in this country is going to shit, and why so many children are latch key kids.

As to your second question, the Constitution guarantees everyone "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". The first word there is "life". If you get sick and die, you don't have life. Health is as basic a human right as free speech. We guarantee our citizens the right to carry guns, we should guarantee health care to everyone. Being healthy should not send people into bankruptcy or make them homeless. As human beings we need to take care of each other, and guarantee that everyone has access to quality healthcare.

As a society we decided over a century ago that a basic right for our children is free, public education. We decided that we wanted to pay for that through our taxes. We need to do the same thing with health care for all of us.

I know that bcheary, Racmanaz, Gitzo, Los Angeles Shooter, and all the rest of the crazies will disagree with me and call me a shitty teacher because of my liberal views, like they always do, but this is about basic human needs and I don't give a flying crap what any of them think. So go ahead and attack, I'm used to it.