Not All Fun and Games...Is it time to take the industry more seriously?

Have you noticed something about the economy lately?  Have you noticed who was getting hit the hardest and why?  Regardless of where you stand politically, it is pretty easy to see that the service industry and more specifically the culinary sectors was one of the hardest hit sectors.  People stopped going out to eat for a while.
For the most part, the restaurant business is very transient.  For a great many, it is a temporary gig that pays the bills, especially when we talk about the service part of it.  Servers come and go and people bartend on the weekends to make ends meet.  Turnover is very high.  The back of the house, is a different story a lot of times.  When we look at how much of a skill and how many years of work goes into cultivating that ability, we see that it is not all fun and games back there and we don't work for tips.
It is one thing for a server to come in on a Friday night and walk with some much needed cash, but for the most part, the line cook is a full timer.  A well managed kitchen calls for the cutting of hours when it is slow yet still making sure that the guest is getting what they pay for.  It is a fine line to walk.  A lot of this plays into morale and mindset of the line worker.   It is a different thing from most industries to walk in to work and wonder if you are going to have to go home early if not enough people come in.  Sure, you know that going in, when you decide to go into the business, but a down economy has a more immediate effect than most businesses and most restaurants have to trim fat in more ways than one.
I have had bad nights on the line and in front of the house.  A twenty top at the door almost made me want to walk out one night but that is a long story.  The bottom line is that it is a tough business and there is a certain dedication that has to come with it but how do you do what you love and still be able to pay the bills?
A lot more businesses are offering a lot more in the way of basic needs and security.  A lot more are investigating and following through with better insurance and more perks.  I once worked for a major hotel chain that offered health insurance, travel benefits, and (my favorite) the ability to transfer from location to location as long as you were an employee in good standing.  Still, a lot of the little guys can only offer a shift meal and a paycheck every other week.
What is possible though?  Is is possible for people to have a 401(K) that follows them from job to job?  Health insurance?  I think so.  It works with other places and other industries, why not with the culinary biz?
People all over the country are taking leaps of faith.  They are banking on their skills and the idea that their buddies aren't kidding when they say that they make the best brownies in the world.  They are investing in cute little boutique cafe's, renting equipment, and scouring sales from their already failed predecessors for plates and forks.  Don't get me started on the number of food trucks out there now and soon to be rolling off the line.  How many other businesses are doing this?
I am not going to say that cooking has FINALLY come into its own. That happened MANY years ago.  Trends come and go and when we look back we are glad that some of them left (I am looking at you fondue!)
I guess what I am saying, is that it is time that we start getting serious about our industry.  I know there are some fantastic chefs out there who work very hard at what they do.  It takes a lot of work to not only make things taste good and look good, but also to not poison people en masse.  Still, there is an image that we are having too much fun for this to be hard work.  But I digress...
So the question is, how do we do what we do, have fun, and make a living?  We work just as hard as your average bank teller and in some cases construction worker, but we have to ask, if it is possible to have a bit more security like they do?