Matt Taibbi Points the Way

I love this bit that Matt Taibbi blogged on his site at the Rolling stone:

Courtesy of Dave Jamieson at Huffington Post, here's this amazing story. Turns out Goldman Sachs part-owns a company that's been (apparently illegally) pocketing the 20 percent "service charge" on beers at Yankee stadium – you know, the tips you thought went to the servers. What's next, throwing puppies in jet engines? Installing trip-wires in front of retirement homes?

If you follow the link you find stuff like this by Dave Jamieson:

In the more desirable seats at Yankee Stadium, an already pricey $10.50 draft beer will run you an eye-popping $12.60 thanks to an involuntary 20 percent "service fee" tacked on to the original price. If the sticker shock doesn’t make that brew bitter enough, consider this: Despite what you might expect, that extra $2 and change isn't going to the hustling server who sold it to you, according to a new lawsuit.

Legends Hospitality, the concessionaire co-owned by the New York Yankees, the Dallas Cowboys, and Goldman Sachs, allegedly pockets the 20 percent service fee attached to food and drink in violation of New York law, according to a class-action lawsuit filed against the company by three Yankee Stadium servers this week. If certified as class action, the suit could involve more than a hundred servers and hundreds of thousands of dollars in claims.

...

What's worse, Schaffer alleges, is the fact that the servers aren't allowed to explain to fans how the actual arrangement works. "If my clients are specifically asked, 'Where does this 20 percent go?' they can't tell them the truth. They can only tell the customer, 'Additional gratuity is at your discretion.' They can't say, 'It's not going to me.' They can be fired for saying that."

I love it when corporate greed and corporate lies are exposed. I have nothing against honest business making an honest living, but when the ghouls of Wall Street who sucked up billions in US taxpayer "resuscitation funding" (aka TARP) are out sucking the public's blood to demonstrate that they really are the undead, that they really are vampires, then I get upset.