On Waitressing | Tom Robbins

"As in most other large cities, there were a fair number of women who had studied art, literature, philosophy, history, ect., only to find that their education and a dollar would buy them a glass of Perrier. True, they hadn't entered their respective fields with the idea of getting rich, but neither had they expected that a summa cum laude would take them about as far from campus as the nearest dry water hole. Unable to support themselves in the work of their choice, they turned to waitressing, for there they could earn the most money for the least investment. If it wasn't possible for them to do something meaningful and fulfilling, at least they could be well compensated for a minimum of moral compromise and even barer minimum of vocational commitment." 

Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume.