Hot Waitress Economic Index (HWEI) is an unofficial and controversial economic indicator suggesting that when the economy tanks, suddenly all the servers at restaurants become ridiculously attractive because hot
people who normally work better-paying jobs are forced to wait tables. The hotter your server, the more fucked the economy probably is.
The HWEI is one of the many
weird indicators that
people have used to make sense of the economy. Advertisements by the United States Marine Corps, sales of men's underwear, and even lipstick sales are just a few of them.
You can expect to see tougher marine recruitment ads on TV in a difficult economy because they meet recruitment goals quickly in down economies. They
don't have to worry about scaring
people away. Men's underwear sales will
dip (that pair might last a little longer) and lipstick sales will go up because it's a relatively inexpensive personal luxury.
Kevin: Damn, my waitress last night was
hot, why is she working at The Cheesecake
Factory?? According to the
Hot Waitress Economic Index, we're definitely heading for a recession.