Over at NYMag, Hugo Lindgren theorizes that the worse things get economically, the better looking your server is likely to be:
In flush times, there is a robust market for hotness. Selling everything from condos to premium vodka is enhanced by proximity to pretty young people (of both sexes) who get paid for providing this service. That leaves more-punishing work, like waiting tables, to those with less striking genetic gifts. But not anymore.
Now it seems that hot girls who “once thrived on the generosity of their friends in the scene for hookups—hosting events, marketing brands, modeling—are now hunting for work” and edging the not so hot out of certain jobs, like waiting tables.
The Hot Waitress Economic Index winds up spotlighting what may be another recessionary outgrowth: the Mean Commenter Index, in which smart people spend excess leisure time skewering one another. Opiner Miss America calls this fun wisp of a story (“a good idea, poorly executed: lazy & observational”), Anniehall 27 says “I don’t even care that this article is completely lazy, but it’s actually rude and elitist” and one RWhitney cracks “Kudos… to the budding Truman Capote.” Yeeps. Are these cranky commenters unemployed waitresses… or NYMag interns? Just don’t tell them about our little site.