Princhester
“Here’s another fact: no one here has said anything to the contrary. There are various lines of discussion going on here about tips, but precisely no one is denying it is customary to tip in the US. When people make points about tipping, your reaction is to provide no reasoning but just blindly assert irrelevancies. Like I said, not very convincing.”
**Seriously, all joking aside, you don’t know facetious when you see it, do you? That’s OK. You said I wasn’t providing any facts, and since this isn’t General Questions or Great Debates, and since I’m not trying to convince you of anything, I offered you a fact. I figured you already knew that, but wait…
**
“Before you say “Fact” so boldly, you might like to check who said what. Actually, I claimed nothing of the sort: that was njtt.”
**… here’s my problem. Fair enough, I lumped you both together. Pardon me. Allow me to rephrase that:
Among the several facts sprinkled about my previous posts are included such handy bits of trivia as, "Fact: It has been claimed in this thread that nervousness and anxiety often accompanies the act of tipping, especially figuring out the proper amount to tip. I have helpfully included a convenient, albeit brief, tutorial that illustrates a simple but effective method of determining the computations necessary to leave an appropriate gratuity.
**
“Sorry, I was toying with you when I pretended earlier to accept this explanation as correct. I’ve read post upon post upon explanation upon blog article by Americans which says “you should tip in the US because servers don’t get minimum wage and rely upon your tips to earn their basic living”. You can believe and be motivated as you like, but I doubt your opinion is even that of the majority of your countryfolk, let alone the definitive view.”
**While I’d be mildly interested in examining any cite that supports your views regarding my fellow tipsters, or even a cite that refers to any polls that might identify a definitive view on the subject, I think the heart of the matter is that tipping has become part of an interactive ecology in tipping cultures. The admittedly cheap or greedy restauranteur or bar owner see’s it in his best interest to offer the lowest wage he can. Sometimes, servers make a surprising salary, depending on the location and type of establishment, but I’ll grant that Capitalism operates in this case with the employer desiring to maximize profits and minimize overhead.
The server’s motivation for doing a great job is that, allowing for the occasional stiff (probably a foreign tourist, or grumpy immigrant), most of the time, extra effort is rewarded with extra gratuity. The server in essentially in business with the customer. The guest has grown to expect friendly and attentive service, and it’s in the server’s best interest to provide that, for a small fee that averages 20% if the tab. It’s an elegant solution to the problem of getting good help, because even when a waiter/waitress’s wages are at the top end of the scale, most really talented and experienced servers wouldn’t work for hourly wage alone, and dining/ drinking as a whole would suffer.
This relationship, between miserly employer, industrious server, and generous customer is one of mutual benefit. The boss gets affordable help, the worker makes enough to get by, and the guest enjoys a pleasant dining experience. I believe this interactivity between server and customer, the result being great service, is the motivation that perpetuates the tipping system. It just works well.
Like I said, please show me cites that support this: I doubt your opinion is even that of the majority of your countryfolk, let alone the definitive view.
If you find polls or studies that show a majority of my countryfolk (quaint) do not share my opinion, and facts that support a different definitive view, then you won’t just be making baseless assertions. **
"Firstly, you don’t show any signs at all of understanding the point people have been making regarding other countries. The point isn’t that the US should be like other countries. You’re just blindly asserting irrelevancies again. The point people have been making regarding other countries is that it is incorrect to say that US tipping practices are the only or best solution, because other countries don’t have US style tipping practices and they work just fine. In other words no one is saying the US shouldn’t have its tipping practices, they are saying overseas examples show the US doesn’t have to have its tipping practices. I’m sure you’re smart enough to understand this distinction if you try.
And your whole schtick about immigrants tripping over themselves to get to America so America must be exceptionally great is cute but ignorant. I don’t know if you’ve noticed (I’m guessing not) but pretty much every 1st world country has immigrants, particularly refugees, clamouring to get in. The whole of Western Europe, Canada, Australia. All of them. Get over yourself. And most of those countries don’t have US tipping practices.
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**I’m having some trouble finding where I said: “US tipping practices are the only or best solution”.
I’ll admit tipping is a workable and efficient solution that seems to tend to let hard workers derive immediate benefit from their efforts, and I don’t see the system as broken.
My mother was from France, so I was raised in two cultures. Being a musician, I’ve traveled quite a lot, and when I’ve been in Europe, I have to say, customer service is not one of their strong suites. The statement: “other countries don’t have US style tipping practices and they work just fine,” is an opinion, not a fact. I’ll tell you, they do manage to get the plate of food or the bottle of beer from th**e **kitchen to the table, but on average, the service I’ve become accustomed to here was not readily apparent to me when traveling overseas. There were exceptions, admittedly.
Here’s a cite that addresses your last bit of rudeness.**
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_foreign-born_population_in_2005