Oh, I think it provides some useful information and perspective, but I certainly don't claim that it tells it all.

For instance, the Cost of Living Index varies from under 85% to over 210% with a max:min ratio of over 2.6. If the federal minimum wage of $7.25 were indexed according, the minimum wage would vary across the country from $5.97/hr to $15.66/hr. So is applying a one-size-fits-all federal minimum the appropriate thing to do? Would it be better or worse if the federal minimum wage was indexed this way? Hard to say. I think of several arguments both for and against.

Another facet that frequently gets debated is whether employers of tipped employees should be required to pay minimum wage. Presently, employers only have to pay $2.13/hr to a tipped employee. But when people want to come to the defense of these poor, exploited tipped employees they almost always overlook two things: First, employers are required to make up any difference between what the employee makes in wages plus tips and the minimum wage, so the tipped employee is guaranteed the minimum wage. Second, most tipped employees don't want to have their employers forced to pay more because it would result is a major loss of income. For example, when I was working as a server at Village Inn back in 1985 the minimum wage was $3.35/hr but for tipped employees it was $2.01. But I was averaging right at $16/hr in tips (after giving 10% to the bussers) -- and the gals that had earned the primo shifts (Sunday mornings) averaged well over twice that. Every restaurant I ever worked in (six, I think) went to great lengths to avoid having anyone work more than 8 hours in one day or 40 hours in one week because they had to pay 150% for hours beyond that. The exception was the tipped employees. They still had to pay 150%, but that only came to $3.02/hr. Consequently, they didn't care how many hours we worked and I routinely worked 60 and 70 hour weeks. If they had been required to pay me the full minimum wage rate, I would have been paid an extra $54 a week. But I made that up in just the first three hours of overtime and the remaining hours typically increased my monthly income by around $2000. The last thing I wanted was for someone to force my employer to stop exploiting me!

It is a very complicated subject that defies any nice, simple, and neat explanation that actually stands up. But we humans have a very hard time thinking in terms of models that aren't fairly nice, simple, and neat. So we pretty much have to keep working with them and just have to always keep in mind that they have major shortcomings and can't be expected to do more then identify potential trends. But we tend to forget that and so base policies too firmly on weak models and often end up with cures that are worse than the disease. But that doesn't mean that we should do nothing.

 

Such a complicated topic. Career economists probably couldn't come up with a solution that's fair for everyone and good for the economy. I'm sure someone will disagree with me, but I don't view economics as a science. In order for something to be a science in my mind, the noted experts in the field should be able to use their knowledge to predict the future with reasonable accuracy and largely agree with each other. Economics seems to be more of a game of semi informed opinions, and even we members of the electronics forum have semi informed opinions so I think that our input is probably almost as valid as real economist's opinions. I lump economics into the same category with meteorology - anyone who has ever staked the fate of an outdoor event on the supreme word of the weather man has probably been let down. But I consider meteorology closer to a science than economics. At least the weather man is usually right, and channel 12 usually agrees with channel 35. These respected economists often make polar opposite predictions.

 

Oh, I think it provides some useful information and perspective, but I certainly don't claim that it tells it all.

Another facet that frequently gets debated is whether employers of tipped employees should be required to pay minimum wage. Presently, employers only have to pay $2.13/hr to a tipped employee. But when people want to come to the defense of these poor, exploited tipped employees they almost always overlook two things: First, employers are required to make up any difference between what the employee makes in wages plus tips and the minimum wage, so the tipped employee is guaranteed the minimum wage. Second, most tipped employees don't want to have their employers forced to pay more because it would result is a major loss of income. For example, when I was working as a server at Village Inn back in 1985 the minimum wage was $3.35/hr but for tipped employees it was $2.01. But I was averaging right at $16/hr in tips (after giving 10% to the bussers) -- and the gals that had earned the primo shifts (Sunday mornings) averaged well over twice that. Every restaurant I ever worked in (six, I think) went to great lengths to avoid having anyone work more than 8 hours in one day or 40 hours in one week because they had to pay 150% for hours beyond that. The exception was the tipped employees. They still had to pay 150%, but that only came to $3.02/hr. Consequently, they didn't care how many hours we worked and I routinely worked 60 and 70 hour weeks. If they had been required to pay me the full minimum wage rate, I would have been paid an extra $54 a week. But I made that up in just the first three hours of overtime and the remaining hours typically increased my monthly income by around $2000. The last thing I wanted was for someone to force my employer to stop exploiting me!

The thing about tips and employers, people cheat, regularly. It is rare indeed for a waitress (let alone a hostess) to get anything close to minimum wage. Not true in all cases, but close enough. I figure a lot of restaurants live very close to the edge all the time.

My niece, one of the several kids I raised, chose that career route. I tried talking her out of it, but what do I know, she does seem enjoy it more than I do my job. Still, it was hard to see her struggling until she got married.

 

Speaking of minimum wage: back when I was in high school (late 60's) nobody paid it anyway. McDonalds got around it with the "trainee" gambit: until somebody had logged a specific number of hours, they could be classified a trainee... who was not required to get min wage, overtime, or benefits. That was the reason for the high turnover: when employees logged up high enough to require min wage, they would just give them the boot and cycle in the next batch.

The other scam used to rip off the food workers was that they were forced to take a "meal break" on premises and they deducted a fixed amount for food which the employee had to spend there at retail prices if they wanted food. They were not required to eat the food, but the deduction was taken whether you ate it or not.

As for what they really made: My buddy was working at farrels (ice cream type restaurant) in 1968 and worked 16 hours a week. I actually saw his weekly paycheck: it was for $16.05 after all deductions. I think the min wage was about $1.65 but he was taking home a buck an hour.

 

The thing about tips and employers, people cheat, regularly. It is rare indeed for a waitress (let alone a hostess) to get anything close to minimum wage. Not true in all cases, but close enough. I figure a lot of restaurants live very close to the edge all the time.

My niece, one of the several kids I raised, chose that career route. I tried talking her out of it, but what do I know, she does seem enjoy it more than I do my job. Still, it was hard to see her struggling until she got married.

If a waitress isn't making well over minimum wage, she definitely needs to find a new line of work. Come on, how much does it take to make $7.25/hr in tips alone? If in an hour you averaged just two tables of four with just a total bill of $10/person and only tipping 10% would get you over that. How many times have you tipped $5 or more just for yourself? Well, combined with the $2.13/hr minimum wage, you all alone have put the person right at the minimum wage for that hour. A waitress working an 8-hour shift only needs to bring in a total of $41 in tips to make minimum wage. A single table of six can easily tip a third to a half of that. Conversely, if you only serve five people an hour that tip only $1 each your right there.

 

The USA is not monolithic, do not judge the entirety by your little piece of the world.

As for finding other work, you are lucky enough and smart enough (which is also luck if you look at it long enough) to be in a profession that is in demand. This is not true for everyone. Nor is their fault.

People survive however they can. Good paying jobs are not that common.

 

Where in the USA is it unreasonable to expect a waitress to be able to average just $2 each off of three tables an hour?

 

Plenty of places, like I said, you are being a bit disingenuous. There are those folks who don't tip, or don't tip well, and then there are restaurants that have busy periods, and are dead the rest of the day. If you are on the wrong shift, forget it.

I am willing to be you tend to hang out at better places, they are probably not the norm. The greasy spoons tend to outnumber the posh places by a wide margin, and are also places where people just getting by tend to eat. The one where eating out is either a requirement or barely affordable.

Again, don't judge the world by your experience, it is bigger than that.

 

And you would be wrong. When I eat at a sit down restaurant it is usually a hole-in-the-wall greasy spoon. Seldom do I eat at any place fancier than Denny's. And, yes, there are folks who don't tip or don't tip well. So what? There are folks that tip a minimum amount, generally $1 or $2, even if all they got was a cup of coffee and others that tip 25% or even more, particularly on smaller tabs. The "expected" tip now is about 20% and, taking the stiffers and the good tippers into account, it usually averages out to about 15%. When I was waiting tables the expected tip was 10% and the usual average was about 8%. And, yes, during times when there is zero traffic you aren't going to make anything in tips. But during times of slow traffic your tip percentage almost always goes up considerably since you can provide truly superior service because you only have one or a few tables occupied at a time. I generally worked the overnight shifts and so had plenty of dead periods, but I often averaged 30% or more in tips during those periods. And don't forget that if the tips don't add up to enough to bring you up to minimum wage, then the employer has to make up the difference.

If the average meal per person is only $10 and only half of your tables tip at all and those that do only tip 10%, then you still only have to average only ten customers an hour (two to four tables) to get to minimum wage. You claim that being able to do this is a rarity. I claim that not being able to this is the rarity.

 

Then we will agree to disagree. You are in a different culture than I.

Several posts have been moderated due to the politics of this discussion. Just a heads up.

 

...
If the average meal per person is only $10 and only half of your tables tip at all and those that do only tip 10%, then you still only have to average only ten customers an hour (two to four tables) to get to minimum wage. ...

Doesn't "the house" take a large percentage of tips? At least half, maybe more.

I wasn't phased by the original mention of $14 an hour it seems reasonable. What did stun me is that someone would actually work for $7.25 an hour! What does $7.25 buy these days anyway? Do they take tax and super from that $7.25?

 

Doesn't "the house" take a large percentage of tips? At least half, maybe more.

No. The places I have seen have it set up that all the servers throw their tip money into a jar and at the end of the shift, it is equally divided between the servers. The house doesn't take a cut. IMHO, it would likely be illegal to force them to kick in tips to pay the house.

 

But during times of slow traffic your tip percentage almost always goes up considerably since you can provide truly superior service because you only have one or a few tables occupied at a time. I generally worked the overnight shifts and so had plenty of dead periods, but I often averaged 30% or more in tips during those periods.

You must have given GREAT service.

I have heard of a few fancy restaurants where tips may get up to 30%, but I have never heard of it at any place I have ever eaten.

 

The only tipping job I ever had was as a mover. Most people don't realize that is a tipping job. I got a tip maybe 1 out of 5 jobs. You go into someone's house, pack all their worthless knick-knacks as if they were priceless fabrege eggs, move their busted furniture out of the house without adding a single scratch or scuff to the house or the furniture, delicately load it all in the truck, packed tight and strapped down so nothing moves around, drive through the night and unload it all in the same careful fashion, and then the customer shakes your hand and says "thanks!" But no tip. Then after you drive off, they call in to the dispatcher making all kinds if fallacious claims about damage to their purported pristine possessions, trying to whittle the cost of the move down to as close to free as they can get. They don't realize or don't care, that that money comes straight out of the pockets of the guys who busted their asses to move the stuff.

 

The only tipping job I ever had was as a mover. Most people don't realize that is a tipping job. I got a tip maybe 1 out of 5 jobs. You go into someone's house, pack all their worthless knick-knacks as if they were priceless fabrege eggs, move their busted furniture out of the house without adding a single scratch or scuff to the house or the furniture, delicately load it all in the truck, packed tight and strapped down so nothing moves around, drive through the night and unload it all in the same careful fashion, and then the customer shakes your hand and says "thanks!" But no tip. Then after you drive off, they call in to the dispatcher making all kinds if fallacious claims about damage to their purported pristine possessions, trying to whittle the cost of the move down to as close to free as they can get. They don't realize or don't care, that that money comes straight out of the pockets of the guys who busted their asses to move the stuff.

As you said:

Most people don't realize that is a tipping job.

I sure didn't.

Theoretically, any job could be a tipping job when somebody performs a service of any kind.

I don't tip the dry cleaner. I don't tip the garbage man. I don't tip the mailman. I don't tip the guy who changes the oil in my wife's car.

The custom of tipping waiters/waitresses has a sound logical basis: you don't want them to spit in your food. And tipping a hairdresser..... well, you don't want your hair butchered.

But the line has to be drawn somewhere.

I had no idea movers were supposed to be tipped. maybe they should wear signs.

 

You must have given GREAT service.

I have heard of a few fancy restaurants where tips may get up to 30%, but I have never heard of it at any place I have ever eaten.

My tips on average were nowhere near to 30% - they averaged out at half that. I had the occasional high percentage tip that was a low dollar amount -- for instance someone getting a $0.50 cup of coffee and occupying a table for a couple of hours while they read the paper or worked on homework and I might get $1 or even $2 off that, the latter being a 400% tip. It might feel warm and fuzzy, but it doesn't do much for your cash flow. At late night I might get a couple that would come in and just get a dessert and leave a 50% or even 100% tip.

But to average anything close to 30% (over a period of an hour or two) it had to be a period when, as I said, I had only a couple tables at a time. I knew servers that treated their customers the same way (i.e., devoted the same amount of attention and service to them) when they had one table as when they had a dozen. They usually saw their tip average go down because people recognize, even subconsiously, when a server is overloaded and when they have a very light load and their service expectations shift somewhat accordingly. So you have to give at least somewhat better service just to get the same tip. But if you've only got one or two tables, then you can afford the time to really pamper them. You get to their table immediately after they are seated and take their drink order. You go get the drinks and deliver them back immediately. You watch them to see when they give an indication that they are ready to order and you immediately go take their order. You double check that their meal was prepared correctly and according to their instructions. You keep an eye out and if they set a plate aside, you come pick it up immediately. You watch their drinks and you fill them up as soon as they fall below half full. All of these things make for an overall experience that is much higher than they expect at a low-end chain restaurant and they respond accordingly. Not all of them and you still get stiffed from time to time, but that's the price of admission.

When I had a dozen tables that had all been seated within a five to ten minute period, there was no way I could maintain even a usual good level of service. Although, again on average, people will cut you some slack when you are obviously busy and -- very important -- obviously hustling you ass off. Some won't. Some figure that they have a right to expect the same quality of service no matter how busy the server is -- and that's not an entierely unreasonable attitude to take. It may be, however, unreasonable to expect that you will actually receive it, so it comes down to whether that person tips based on what they believe they deserve or what they believe is reasonable to expect. Most people will make a subconscious decision that puts them somewhere in between. None-the-less, when I was slammed my tip percentage went in the toilet and my per hour income went down if I really got hammered. When I made my best income per hour was if I was getting tables seated at about five minute intervals. The average number of people per table usually hovered around 3 (a lot of singles and doubles, but enough 4-6 seat tables to bring it up), so around 36 customers per hour. Tables typically stayed for between 30 minutes and 45 minutes, but required little service after about 20 minutes. That meant that I was waiting on about six to eight tables at a time but was able to focus on three or four. Thus I was able to give very solid service to tables during their initial "needy" period. The average bill per person tended to be in the $5 to $7 range and I averaged a bit over a dollar per person in tips when conditions were right. Under those conditions I almost always pocketed between $30 and $40 an hour in tips. But during a typical shift of 10 to 12 hours I might have those conditions for two and, if lucky, three hours of it and sometimes only one.

You might be asking how I can possibly have all these numbers after nearly 30 years. Certainly I am reconstructing things from an increasingly unreliable memory, but I focussed so much attention on it at the time and talked with others about it enough that much of it is pretty well burned into my brain. This was possible because we got a report at the end of each shift that provided an hourly breakdown of our total tables, average customers per table, average bill per table, average stay per table and a few other things such as the percentage breakdown between drink, meal, and dessert bills, that were easy for their POS system to track. We had to report our tips on it and sign it. Most people did only that, but it was a simple matter for me to take envelopes with me so that I had one per hour that I worked and to put all of my tips into that envelope at the end of each hour. When I got the report I would write the data for each hour on the corresponding envelope. Of course, there was not a perfect correspendance between the data breakdown and the money in the envelopes, but that washes out pretty quickly -- or rather, gets lost in the significant natural noise in the system pretty quickly, though I didn't think in those terms back then.

Since I was a numbers geek even way back then, I would go home and crank through the numbers in lots of different ways. Since this was the days of a scientific calculator at best, all the stuff that I would use a spreadsheet for today was all done manually, including charting things; you become pretty intimately familiar with the system model pretty quickly under those conditions.

But I would also look for ways to improve my effectiveness by identifying my average tip rate under different conditions and then specifically trying different things to improve it and achieve a certain target. The one thing that the reports didn't include was any indication of the time between table seatings. So that I had to just estimate qualitatively. But my eventual targets were to achieve an overall tip rate of 15% (I ended up averaging about 16%), broken out as 5% during the crazy-busy, 10% during the erratic-but-not-overloaded times, 15% to 20% in the sweet spot and 25% during the dead times. For the most part I hit these targets (in large part because the targets stopped increasing as I saturated out regarding what I ended up being able to achieve).

Overall I averaged about $16 to $18 in tips per hour, but during the sweet spots I was between $30 and $40 per hour, during the dead times I seldom hit $10/hr despite the high tip percentage, and during the crazy-busy times I was around $15/hr despite working my ass into the ground. On either side of the sweet spot I average about $12/hr -- on the busy side I had more traffic but worse tip percentage and on the slow side I had a better tip percentage but less traffic.

The really good servers who had been there for at least about five years got the choice Sunday shifts in which they only had four tables in their section. Those tables tended to average four people per seating because of the number of families and friends going out to breakfast before or after church. The per-person bill tended a be a bit higher, as well, at about $10/person because people would splurge for a higher-end breakfast or for a dessert when the normally wouldn't. Also, the average dwell time was seldom more than thirty minutes because people tend not to loiter as long in a restaurant that is jammin' busy. So they were operating in their sweet spot for about six hours often pocketing over $50/hr. But, of course, they only got to do that one day a week, so their overall average was lower. But they got a lot of choice shifts and so averaged $30/hr overall.

Even though I had only been waiting tables for less than six months (I started out as a busser), one day in early May '85 I walked in and the manager asked me if I could be available on Sunday mornings starting in July. Unlike the bulk of the shifts during the week, the Sunday morning shifts were a two-way commitment in which you were expected to work every Sunday and you could expect to be scheduled to work every Sunday and in the same section most of the time, too, so that you could really work on optimizing your service. I was flattered and floored, because I had been told that it would be at least two years before I would have any hope of getting the Sunday morning gig and that they really wanted people that were going to be around for the long haul. But they had two Sunday gals (sisters) that were moving and only one long-time person that they really wanted to put on Sundays. They like how well I was doing and the number of regular customers that would specifically ask for my section that that they decided to put me in there even though they knew that I was in school and would be leaving within a year or two at the most. I think the fact that I was going to be a short-timer actually worked to my benefit because it gave them time to really groom one of the others to be ready to move into the Sunday morning crew. I remember that it was early May because just after she told be this, I handed her a copy of my orders calling me involuntarily to active duty with a reporting date of 12 June 85.

 

Doesn't "the house" take a large percentage of tips? At least half, maybe more.

I wasn't phased by the original mention of $14 an hour it seems reasonable. What did stun me is that someone would actually work for $7.25 an hour! What does $7.25 buy these days anyway? Do they take tax and super from that $7.25?

It varies, but the IRS rules only allow an employer to pay the tipped minimum wage if the employee gets to keep ALL of their tips. Or, more accurately, if the employer takes NONE of their tips. In some places everyone puts their tips into a common pool and they are divied up at the end according to some established procedure. But this usually doesn't result in the best service or the best income because people aren't rewarded proportionately for going above and beyone or penalized accordingly for sluffing off.

Also, it is not uncommon for servers to be expected to tip the employees that bus tables. When I was serving at Village Inn, it was customary to give the bussers ~10% of your tips (which you reported on your daily report). If you had more than one busser supporting your section, then it was up to you to decide how you dealt with it. Since the bussers had a big say in which servers they supported, the servers learned to tip the good bussers well. Bussers usually supported two to four servers at one time. In addition, the bussers weren't considered tipped employees so they got the minimum wage. When I was bussing before I started serving I averaged around $7/hr.

Meals are handled a number of different ways. Some places just have you pay for your meals and may give you an employee discount. Village Inn's was a 50% discount when I worked there. Others give you a meal allowance and you can have whatever you want and you just pay for anything over that. Others let you have a free meal outright.

The tips you report to your employer at taxed like any other earned income and the both the payroll and the income taxes come out of the paycheck the employer gives you. As a result, that paycheck is often very miniscule and may even be zero if it doesn't cover all the taxes. If it doesn't, then you are supposed to pay estimated income tax payments quarterly, though few people do. I believe you can also give money to the employer and have them use it to cover your taxes, but I'm not positive about that. Of course, the tax is only withheld on tips that are reported. When I was waiting tables, the IRS assumed that your tip rate was at least 8% and so that was automatically entered onto the daily report. You were supposed to report your actual tips, though. If they were below 8% you could cross it out and put the actual, lower number, but if you did that very often it was inviting an audit and they have specific ways of going after people that underreport tipped income. Most of the people I worked with either just accepted the 8%, hoping the IRS would assume they were actually making less than that but just didn't want to deal with it, or would put something around 10% and vary it a bit up or down each shift. I'm not aware of anyone I worked with ever getting audited.

Because I was still actively trying to get into the Air Force Academy, I was scrupulously accurate in reporting every dime of my income. I still am, for that matter, because even though I never got in, the academy Honor Code is something I've always held near and dear; this was driven home when I taught there because I figured an instructor has no right to hold a cadet to a standard of conduct that they themselves aren't willing to live by. My paychecks were therefore always zero once I became a server. I didn't have to pay estimated taxes, though, because I had another job and I just made sure that enough extra was taken out to cover the shortage. My Village Inn paystubs indicated what the shortfall was so it was pretty easy to make sure that I was in the black with the IRS. The thing that would have made it a pain was that I would have had to file the full-blown 1040 in order to file the form to deal with the uncollected FICA tax on my tips. Fortunately, Village Inn (and it's possible it was required by law, I don't know) applied my paycheck first to my FICA taxes and then to the income tax withholding, so I never had any uncollected payroll taxes and could thus file the 1040-EZ.

 

The only tipping job I ever had was as a mover. Most people don't realize that is a tipping job. I got a tip maybe 1 out of 5 jobs. You go into someone's house, pack all their worthless knick-knacks as if they were priceless fabrege eggs, move their busted furniture out of the house without adding a single scratch or scuff to the house or the furniture, delicately load it all in the truck, packed tight and strapped down so nothing moves around, drive through the night and unload it all in the same careful fashion, and then the customer shakes your hand and says "thanks!" But no tip. Then after you drive off, they call in to the dispatcher making all kinds if fallacious claims about damage to their purported pristine possessions, trying to whittle the cost of the move down to as close to free as they can get. They don't realize or don't care, that that money comes straight out of the pockets of the guys who busted their asses to move the stuff.

I didn't know that for a very long time. But then I've only hired a mover once and that was to move one thing. I don't recall if I tipped them or not, quite frankly. I know there are a bunch of services that you are normally expected to tip for, but I almost never use any of them. When I stay at a hotel I park my own car and carry my own bags to the room. Of course, the only time I stay at a hotel were there is any other choice is when I'm attending a conference and staying at the conference hotel.

When I was in Taiwan for my honeymoon, I was surprised at the difference there. You didn't tip in restaurants in most of the country, but there were other things you did tip for that I would have never expected. So it's all very cultural. Luckily I just let my wife handle all of that stuff.

 

The practice of tipping varies from country to country. Growing up, I recalled that the only person you tipped was the porter at the airport. Hence you learnt to carry our own load to avoid having to tip anyone.

 

No. The places I have seen have it set up that all the servers throw their tip money into a jar and at the end of the shift, it is equally divided between the servers. The house doesn't take a cut. IMHO, it would likely be illegal to force them to kick in tips to pay the house.

In the high end markets, like high-class restaurants in Las Vegas (at least a couple decades ago), the restaurant doesn't hire waiters and hostesses, they lease space to them. So a waitress might pay so many dollars per table-hour to lease tables. The rate varies depending on the day of the week, the time of day, the size of the table, and location of the table within the establishment. With that lease they get the exclusive right to work that table during the time they have it leased for. In some places there was virtually no direct transaction between the customer and the establishment. The customer bought their drinks and food from the waitress and the waitress in turn bought them from the house. At least that's how the bookkeeping was done. The customer paid the waitress, not the house, but often the house processed payments on the waitresses behalf so the customer couldn't tell the difference.

There are lots of businesses that operate on a similar model. For instance, in many hair salons the hairdresser is renting a stall which may or may not come with the usual tools of the trade -- the hairdresser might have to provide them. The business processes the payments which may or may not go partially or completely to the hairdresser. The arrangements vary quite a bit. Some places the rent is low but the company keeps most of the payments. In other cases the rent is high but the company keeps little, if any, of the payments. It's a balance of risk and stability and, in most cases, the bulk of the hairdresser's income end up being tips.

There are also lots of jobs where you are not only paid purely on commission, but where you have to pay for your area or route.

Many, not all, of these are arranged so that it is not an employer-employee relationship but rather a contractor or a leasee arrangement. Now, whether or not these always pass the IRS employee/contractor test is a different matter, but most of the well-established and large-scale ones do (because they paid enough to the lawyers to make sure that it would pass muster).

These all work on the model that says that any activity that allows for top-notch, ambitious, hard-working talent willing to take risks to make a LOT of money if they are given a suitable opportunity and resources also offers a the opportunity for others to make a good amount of money with only a moderate risk by providing those opportunities and resources.