Hot Waitress Economic Index

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.