Restaurant jobs build the best character. I work in HR and the ones that waited tables or other similar jobs not only take direction very well but take criticism well and work better in teams.

It's a good job when you're young and still in school. Plus you take cash home every night instead of waiting 1-2 weeks for a paycheck.
Especially if you're one of those young kids who still lives at home with their parents not having to pay any bills. $400-$500/week is good money!

It's called a job, something I'm betting the OP has never held.
I spent 12 years in restaurants and looking back, I feel okay about the choices I made. At the very least, I never took a retail job. shudders

Just as I've always assumed (never worked in a restaurant, so I wouldn't know): Working at a pricey steakhouse could be a lucrative endeavor; Red Lobster, not so much.

A friend of mine worked at a very popular restaurant in Miami and would make up to around $700 a night. He lived right on Miami Beach in a one bedroom apartment. The restaurant supported him for years.

Some people really enjoy cooking and baking. I have friends and family who are bakers or cooks/chefs. They have a passion for what they do. As far as working as a waiter in a high end restaurant you can make a nice salary. I had a friend who waited tables in college at a restaurant where the average bill for two people was over $200, 20% of that is $40. You can see how she could make some decent money.

It's good money if you work at a decent place. In my last Job I walked home with around $260 a night in cash. Especially if you work in resort towns you can make bank. People on vacation (if they are not foreign tend to splurge while dining) I didn't work there, but my friend made close to $400 a night (in season) at a place called Sunset Grille that overlooks the Florida keys 7-mile bridge.
It's helping to pay off my student loans, and paid completely for a month in Europe back in August.

Preemptively apologizing for my iPads Autocorrect.

If you want to learn about human nature from its sidelines, go into Psychology. If you want to learn about human nature first-hand, go work in a restaurant.

The restaurant industry is huge, constantly growing with lots of opportunity.
If what I have posted offends you in the slightest, please press Alt+F4.

Some people do it out of necessity. I just ask that you never go to any restaurant. Seems to me that you have a sense of superiority that would make you behave in a similar manner as the lady who got the well-deserved bodily fluids in her food.