To surcharges with love

A French restaurant in LA called Republique has been getting a lot of attention for the 3 percent health care surcharge it’s been adding to each check to buy its employees new Obamacare policies.

In San Francisco, restaurants have been imposing a health care surcharge for years, although it has nothing to do with Obamacare, so no one paid attention.

I am trying to get outraged about this, because outrage is why people turn on the radio.

But the fact is surcharges are everywhere. Electric bills, cell phone bills, and my God – the airlines. They do still include the wings, but that’s about it. For a while they even had a fuel surcharge. Remember that? I guess they figured no one would dare raise a ruckus about having fuel in the plane. I know I never did.

As for the health care surcharge, I appreciate knowing that the employees handling my food have health care because, being that I’m at their mercy, I want them to be healthy, happy, and to like me.

And to be completely fair, if restaurants are now going to break out the costs of health care, let’s break out the cost of the actual raw ingredients, the wholesale cost of the liquor – and let’s not pick on restaurants. When we buy a ticket to a sports event, show us the per-ticket taxpayer subsidy for building the enormous new stadium.

When we buy an appliance, or a smart phone, or a car, show us a list of the manufacturer’s highest and lowest paid employees right there on the receipt. Then we can turn every transaction into a political exercise.

At least it’s more interesting than those boring nutritional labels.