Whether it's a company like Red Lobster owner Darden International (DRI) telling customers they don't spend enough, or the National Restaurant Association telling The Daily Beast that customers aren't worth the investment it would take to let them pay their bills faster, restaurant patrons in the U.S. are getting one clear message from eateries lately: The problem is you.
 

Red Medicine, a Beverly Hills Vietnamese restaurant that L.A. Weekly considers “essential,” has no issue voicing that not only to customers, but to everyone who follows those customers on Twitter as well. When would-be patrons started no-showing on their reservations in growing numbers, restaurant owner and operator Noah Ellis just started calling them out on his restaurant's Twitter feed in an attempt to shame them out of doing it again.

For regulars at Lardy McStuffOnTheWalls who may not understand why Red Medicine doesn't just give the table to someone else and move the night along, Ellis gave an explanation via Eater LA: “Either restaurants are forced to overbook and make the guests (that actually showed up) wait, or they do what we do, turn away guests for some prime-time slots because they're booked, and then have empty tables.”

 

Please tell us again how increasing taxes on the wealthy will completely bulldoze the economy and crush conspicuous spending. We couldn't hear you the first time over all the card swiping and receipt printing.

Before the New Year and the fiscal cliff debate, wealthy Americans not named Warren Buffett and their non-wealthy free-market advocates warned that taxing the rich would halt economic recovery and send the well-heeled packing their bags for greener pastures. On Wednesday, however, CNBC uncovered a survey that not only called that argument scatological, but found that taxes haven't affected spending by the majority of wealthy Americans in the slightest.

The Shullman Luxury and Affluence Monthly Pulse found that 55% of people making $500,000 or more said higher taxes have not impacted their spending plans. Lower that income bar to those making $250,000 a year -- the group President Barack Obama initially wanted to raise taxes on before Republican opponents haggled the new individual threshold for income tax hikes up to $400,000 -- and a full 61% said taxes have not dented their spending plans.

 

While the 1978 film "Animal House" made fraternities out to be full of pranks and mischief, the reality can be much more sobering, according to a new report.

Since 2005, 52 student deaths have been linked to fraternities, and five students were paralyzed, reports Bloomberg. But their families are finding that the national organizations often fight paying compensation for those injuries and deaths, the piece says. 

"As soon as there's an incident, national fraternities start distancing themselves,” Lee John Mynhardt, 28, told Bloomberg. He's confined to a wheelchair after breaking his neck at a keg party held by Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity Inc.

It's not as though national fraternities don't have money.

 

Americans can complain about China's wage advantage over the U.S. and its impact on manufacturing growth all they'd like. If American workers and employers pushed for the wage increases sought by Chinese workers, factory pay in the U.S. would be more than $50 an hour.

 

As Bloomberg discovered, pay for workers in China's manufacturing industry has nearly tripled in some cases as its labor pool thins and employees name their price at far-flung facilities. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, average hourly wages for China's manufacturing workers rose from 62 cents an hour in 2003 to $1.36 an hour in 2008.

Even that's a conservative estimate, as a more recent Japanese survey puts average monthly wages between $320 and $350. On the high end, that's roughly $2.20 an hour, or more than triple the average wage in 2003.

 

Who knew that going to the men's room could be so much fun?

When baseball season starts next month, fans of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs will be able to play video games as they pee into a urinal -- no joke. The AAA affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies has dubbed the system "the world's only truly hands-free urinal game controller." It was developed by U.K.-based Captive Media, and the IronPigs are the first team to use it.

The team will have a variety of "X-Stream games" throughout the season at its Coca-Cola Park stadium. One is alpine skiing, in which players try to hit as many cartoon penguins as possible as they speed along the mountain slopes in a snowmobile. That's quite a challenge, given that the games will last about 55 seconds.  

Retailing giant Wal-Mart (WMT) is eyeing the "sharing economy," but that might mean unloading some of its costs onto customers. 

That's because it's considering a plan that would ask in-store customers to deliver packages for online buyers as it seeks to remain competitive with Internet retailer Amazon.com (AMZN), according to a report from Reuters. 

The plan raises questions about Wal-Mart's motives, such as whether the company -- known for its tight controls on spending -- is seeking simply to defray delivery costs by unloading the burden on its customers. 

Wal-Mart said it would offer a discount for in-store customers if they agreed to drop off packages for online buyers while on their way home, according to the report.

 

People don't talk as much on the phone anymore. The average call fell to 1.78 minutes in 2011, down from three minutes in 2006.

That's led to a bit of a crisis at wireless carriers, which once counted on phone calls as a major cash cow. Carriers that used to be downright stingy with their minute allotments are moving toward unlimited calls. The industry knows the big money is in data plans.

Now one wireless company in Europe has decided to offer free voice and text messages and simply charge for data. Telekom Austria's most expensive package will be 59.90 euros, or just under $77, for the fastest speeds and the highest volume, Reuters reports. Users will get unlimited calls, texting and app usage. 

When life gets you down, go shopping. And that's exactly what billionaire Steven Cohen is doing after federal regulators fined his hedge fund $616 million over claims of insider trading.

Cohen hasn't personally been charged with a crime, but the Securities and Exchange Commission is watching his every move. And so he's doing what just about no one else in this situation would do: blowing hundreds of millions of dollars on a massive spending spree.

Cohen, 56, is paying $60 million for an oceanfront mansion on Long Island, The New York Times reports. The 10,000-square-foot property is just down the road from a home he already owns. Cohen is also trying to sell his Manhattan apartment for $115 million.