Quoted from SunKing:

This is the most asinine thing I've read in a while. Immigrants are pouring across the southern borders at rates never seen before. Small southern towns are being overwhelmed. Texas sends a few bus loads to New York and DC, and they try to call in the National Guard - when that's but a tiny fraction of what Texas and the other southern states are seeing.
Please, tell me how the US has closed off immigration.

Quoted from DiabloRush:

It's a nice place to be to have retirement near. I'm loving this whole thread. Yeah, I'm one of the older ones here. Been at my job 40 years. I have a very (VERY) unique skill set. I had planned on retirement in 2019, but my employer has been begging me to stay on. I could easily retire at anytime. At this point, I'm losing a bit of money working (compared to retiring). That alone is a bit of a problem. We penalize workers (via mandatory SS taxes, and taxing the SS taxes - that's just nuts). None-the-less, as long as my job is fun and my employer is bending over backwards to keep me happy, I'm good.
I've worked with younger employees, students, and others for most of my career. Part of my job is teaching younger folks, including formal classes at various Universities around the country. Things HAVE changed in the last 6-8 years. It's obvious to me. Young folks have a very different skill set and ethic. Some of this is good; most of it is bad. I can't say I blame them. Though they may not know how to articulate it, they're screwed. Honestly, the US is screwed. The accumulated debt, the aging of the population, and unsustainable government benefits (mainly, Medicare and SS) will result in an inevitable crash. I know what that crash looks like, and it isn't pretty.
The short version is this: we've backed ourselves into an unsustainable fiscal position. We'll never pay off our $30T debt. Include unfunded liabilities, and it's closer to $75T. There's 3 ways to address this: raise taxes, lower benefits, or devalue the currency. The first 2 of these cannot be done in sufficient volume to address the problem. Consider taxing. The default position of the majority in the US is: tax the rich. Go ahead. Do it. Take it ALL. Every last cent of those in the upper 10%. You've addressed maybe 1/4 of the problem. It's not politics. It's something far harsher. It's called "math". How about cutting benefits? Will never happen. Once the majority figures out a way to vote itself the proceeds of the nations' treasury, they'll never turn back. Already, 70% of all government expenditures are for "entitltements" that happen automatically by law. Those will never go away. Thus, the only way our crisis resolves is via the the 3rd option: devaluation of the currency.
In English, this means printing money to pay off debts and fund benefits. This isn't new. It's been done throughout history, with predictable results. The US will eventually come to a point with hyperinflation, unpayable interest rates, and a dramatically lower standard of living. It will arrive suddenly. The first clue will be an inability to sell government bonds to anyone but the Federal Reserve Bank (the entity that controls the printing of money). We're very nearly there. I forget the actual figure, but something like 75% of government bond issues were bought by the Fed during COVID. Would you loan money to the US government? At 3%? When inflation is 3 times that figure? I sure wouldn't. Compounding this problem will be loss of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency. This is more complex, but its already underway.
The underlying reasons for this unsustainable position are many. At their core is the imbalance in the US between worker productivity overall and our expectations for our standard of living. In sum, we don't produce enough stuff ourselves to maintain our standard of living. We've been living off debt and the willingness of other countries to supply us goods and services at rates we ourselves are unwilling to work for. This is also unsustainable. You see it all over this thread, itself. Many here want to be independent of the need for work. Once enough people feel that way, there's not enough folks working to provide for all those that don't. Pretty simple, actually.
I've known this was inevitable for decades. It's one reason I never had kids. I can't imagine having children now, and knowing what's coming. I'm just old enough to live off the last of the inertia in the system, built upon generations of hard-working folks whose gifts we're now squandering.
Such a shame. My last bit of comment is to those younger generations: God bless you! You've voted in a regime and government that spends your entire inheritance and them some, lavishing this largesse on today's older generations. And, I'm pretty sure you've done this without even being aware of the results for you to come! You're easily the most magnaminous generation in American history. In a few decades, you'll be cursing us older folks. For now, you're too clueless to see what's coming. Thank you!

Quoted from Daditude:

I worked as a server for many years. It is like many other jobs in that the cream rises to the top. Not all servers are created equal. The standard remains 10% tipping for to-go's and 20% for table service.
Most people don't realize that FAR more goes into getting carry-outs ready than what you would think. There is much more timing coordination with the kitchen, timing of processing payments, double/triple-checking the items, packaging, and adding extras (napkins, plastic ware, sauces, etc.) It may not be brain surgery, but doing it 100% perfect when you have 50 orders is damn near impossible for anyone. They definitely deserve that 10%
As far as table service...if you are tipping less than 15%, you should really make sure the 'bad service' was truly the servers fault (which it usually isn't). Long wait times to be sat have nothing to do with the server. Long food times are almost always the kitchen. Mistakes on orders happen...but unless the server expo's the food, plates the food, and delivers the food (which is EXTREMELY unlikely), then that is also not the servers fault.
On the other hand...If the server is outright rude, intentionally ignores me (specifically when I catch their attention and they still don't come over in a timely fashion), or if they bring me the wrong thing twice...those are directly attributed to poor service.
I usually tip 15% for sub-par service, 20-30% for good service, and up to 100% for great service...unless it's the waffle house, where a whole meal costs 7 bucks...so I leave them more than 100%