Sucking the lifeblood out of restaurants

How many diners would go to a restaurant with the express purpose of putting it out of business? Leave that to the health department's inspector, with her instant-read thermometer, and God help the chef if the surface of that strip steak in the walk-in is even half a degree above 42.

But walk into a joint waving a 50-percent Groupon and you're holding a gun to the owner's head. Worse, make your reservation on Open Table so that the first $10 you spend gets swiped by outsiders, Or try Restaurant.com's coupon that you bought for a tenspot. Just run up a $35 tab, and the store has to give you $25 of that for free.

It's an entitlement society for sure. Entitled by Yelp to spout whatever nonsense, true or not, that makes you sound like a high-life connoisseur.

Here's how crazy things have become: a Living Social "deal" for half off laser eye surgery. Look, if you can't see straight, do you really want some cut-rate quack to aim high-powered electrons at your eyeballs?

Barnaby Dorfman, co-founder with his wife, Sheri Wetherall, of Foodista.com, says the bargain hunters have it backwards. The question to ask, he says, should be, "I want to pay you more. What could you do for me if I paid you more?"