Yet, they shouldn’t raise their menu prices because they should have enough money to cover additional wages? With a 5% profit margin?

I'm not sure where are taking that 5% as it's around 15% in 2023 and double or triple that for franchises.

By your reckoning every restaurant in America should be out of business.

No, but they should re-evaluate their business if they can't afford to pay a fair wage for their employees like every other business on the planet. There are plenty of other sectors that operate on lower margines yet they manage to pair their employees fair wage without subsidizing it with tips.

Yet, you also want our restaurants to follow the European model which serve smaller portions at higher prices.

While it's true that our US portions are typically larger the prices are also a lot higher. The same type of dinner in Europe on average costs around 3 times less while being 30% smaller. So this argument is pure nonsense.

The ills of the US corporations can be laid at the feet of the consumer. CEOs get extremely large salaries and bonuses because they’re the scapegoat.

No I'll lay it where it belongs. At the feet of NRA and their lobbying. Like I mentioned previously, restaurants are the only sector that is exempt from the minimum wage laws. That is insane and it's nice to see it starting to get reversed in multiple states. By the way, the same CEOs privately admit that their profit margins increased in states where minimum wage requirements were introduced...