THE PEOPLE’S PRESS: Many Ebeneezer Scrooge employers are obsessed with pursuing money. They seek far more than they need to live comfortably. This pursuit goes beyond enjoying life itself.

Compulsively, they trade their quality of life for paper notes and coins.

Ask cash register worshippers what their end goal is, and they scratch their heads. Ask them if their sacrifice of the priceless pleasures of a life of wonder is worth it. Do they also forgo simple pleasures? You receive blank stares. These stares reflect idiocy.

PRAYING AT THE CASH REGISTER

Religious penitents sacrifice their lives and health by making pilgrimages to international shrines of veneration. For millions more, their altar is the restaurant’s cash register.

Like remorseful penitents, their eyes glaze over as they count their shekels. Penny-counting bosses sell their souls. Their addiction to the cash register shrine is an opium that eliminates principles.

PROFITS BEFORE PRINCIPLES

Their obsession with money is an addiction as controlling as that of nicotine, alcohol or hard drugs.

Cash register addicts feed their dependence by underpaying their employees. This is less than €4 an hour for 10-12-hour days and six-day weeks without a statutory break. Chances are, the busker playing music is better paid than your waiter.

Commonplace, many who work in restaurants are unpaid. They work long, hard hours to secure a contract job. This job entitles them to healthcare, residency status, and a pension.

This is not the dignity of work; it is SLAVERY.

High unemployment provides fertile ground for the unscrupulous who exploit the desperate seekers of jobs – any job.

IS YOUR TIP GOING TO THE BOSS’S POCKET

Many diners appreciate the attention given. However, they are unaware that tips offered to servers are routinely taken by the restaurant boss. Such bosses have no scruples. What next: A bed under the counter for a key worker?

A reader writes: “I know of a restaurant owner who has been in business for 45 years. In all that time, he has given the staff tips for just one week. Everything else he has kept for himself. Unsurprisingly, he lives in a fully paid-up £1m home.”

(TIP: Do not tip unless 100% certain it is shared with staff.)

Government-recommended minimum wage and statutory hours are alien to uncaring cash register worshippers. Slaves dependent on contract jobs are loath to complain.

RIGHT: CLICK PIC TO VISIT ONLINE BOOKSTORE:

I have several rich, indeed super-rich friends. Two, or maybe three, told me that they envied my simpler life and pleasures. So, just who is the truly rich man?

QUOTABLE QUOTE: ‘If we don’t guarantee even the most menial of workers a living wage, we are not a free society. We’ve just changed the mechanics of slavery.’ – David Gerrold.

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