Many people in the restaurant business will tell you the following: some customers are just terrible. Even some dating websites tell you to watch for the way your partner treats service employees. That is, if you want to know their true personality....

I have worked in various types of food service, from fast food to country clubs, and there is always one person that treats every employee worse than dirt. Despite the visibility and the mistreatment of service industry employees to the common public eye, there are still those who feel entitled to treat them as "sub-human."

Food service can kind of be seen as an allegory for American society. There is the general consumer - who has the idea they deserve the service they decide is acceptable. These are the people who call and scream at customer service when their laptop is broken and declare they weren't helped because the customer service employee, "couldn't speak English." Then, they demand every service be given to them as quickly and as cheaply as possible, without realizing this demand decreases the quality of the service they so deeply crave. They want their cake and eat it too on a time schedule that may be nearly impossible to achieve.

These are the people that drive the American economy and create the demand for harsh working environments with low pay. This is because they do not see themselves as a person of service. They are the wealthy and the privileged and they deserve what they want because they are intrinsically better in some way.

Then, there are the managers. The managers are the second form of abuse service industry workers often receive. They succumb to the demands of the consumers with no regard to their workers and rarely will take their side. They require special favors and attention from their employees in order for their employees to be treated fairly. They are in charge and identify with the wealthy consumer more than their employee. They think they work for themselves, but there is always someone complaining Instead of pushing back and taking a stand, they take the abuse they receive from the consumer and dump it on their employees. The managers of American society are the politicians that claim to work for their constituents but take large sums of money from capitalist "consumers" so that those consumers will save money. They will cheapen their product, their integrity, in order to be like those consumers and prove they are not like the employees they rarely defend from the consumer's ravenous appetites.

Finally, there are the service employees. They do most of the leg work at the restaurant and are underpaid to do so. They must be kind in all respects to the consumer, or else they shall be penalized - even if their service was performed. They will receive low tips because those consumers believe themselves to be better than these employees. The managers will do nothing. They bond over the group abuse they receive and talk about their dreams of being treated as a human, or as consumers wish to be treated. Sometimes, they petition their managers for change, but rarely do they listen. The ideas and wants of the consumer are of more concern than the ideas and wants of the employee.

The average American is a service employee: someone with no lobbying power and little chance to make an informed vote without being swayed by the consumer-capitalists. Their managers and politicians do not listen to their demands because there is no profit in it. Sometimes, they attempt to make a change, but compromises are only made when the fate of the capitalist's money may be at stake. They are given just enough to find a false sense of happiness, but not enough to thrive under the state. Those that try to resist are treated as outcasts and told they are lower beings because they are not consumers. Some work hard and become managers or capitalists, but end up in the same mindset of those they once opposed. They are lost to the service employees' causes because they believe they deserve what they have and forget what they come from. The most interesting ones are not those who are lost, but those who become manager or consumer and remain somewhat ethical.

It is my firm belief that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism, but once in a while, there is a consumer that treats people ethically. That is to say, they do not scream at employees for mistakes, demand fast-paced, impossible, services, and actually smile at the service employees. They tip well and remember what it was like to be in the position that the employees are in. They donate to charities and try to educate others so that they can vote in politicians that do what they say, or how to make sure their managers treat them well. They act with humanity and not consumerism.

These customers are the most interesting and most deserving of the services consumers demand. They are the ones who remember to be nice. This way, employees can ignore the divisive, rhetoric of the consumers managers, join together, and revolutionize the way others are treated.

The key to the workers gaining power is through creating allies like these in each other. The only thing stopping us is the belief we are different. We are all peons under the consumer, and they will take as much or as little advantage of us as they can, excusing the levels of advantage by race or sex, unless the oppressed do something to stop them, together.