I'm also describing how the high (and getting higher) cost of dining in America is partly a function of American expectations. In other countries, dining is much cheaper, but from what I see, there's far less labor involved. Here in Japan, eating out is pretty cheap usually. (It's similar in Europe.) But there's less service: you have to actually yell for a server sometimes, or otherwise get their attention, because they're busy serving other tables or doing other tasks. They don't have time to come check on you, and in fact it would be considered rude if they interrupted your conversation just to ask you how the food tastes, but this is perfectly normal in America.

If American restaurants adopted a different service model and standards, costs would be lower, it's pretty simple. No one really needs servers hovering over them and chit-chatting with them and acting like their best friend.

I don't like to use TSA as an example because it's a government service, which doesn't operate under market pressure the same way as private business. My point is there's a lot of unnecessary labor even in privately-run businesses.