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Why Tipping Should Be Outlawed

esquire.com

1–10 of 24 posts

Re: Why Tipping Should Be Outlawed

#3
I've had many friends over the years who have worked in the service industry, and I spent a few months as a bar-back earning tips as well.

The thing this article doesn't mention is how many servers feel about tips.

When I first started earning tips, I couldn't believe how much money I was making for the amount of work I was doing. I always had cash in my pocket, and lots of it, and I didn't make as much as servers or bartenders.

I left after only a few months, and have fond memories of the job and swimming in cash as a 21 year old.

10 years on, I had a few friends who were still in the service industry, and had moved up to white-table service in very posh restaurants. They all wanted to get out, but had a common complaint. They wouldn't make as much as they did as a server in any other profession that was available to them. The tips became the handcuffs that kept them in a job that was no longer of interest to them.

Since then, the percentage rate of tips has continued to increase, so I imagine this problem is getting worse rather than better.

Re: Why Tipping Should Be Outlawed

#6

As an American who eats out a lot, I have to admit I loved going to Iceland where tipping is not expected whatsoever. Tipping feels like prostitution; when cash is exchanged it's hard to believe you're getting authentic service.

> when cash is exchanged it's hard to believe you're getting authentic service

This doesn't even make sense. Are you a Communist or something?

Re: Why Tipping Should Be Outlawed

#7
I've always thought that tipping was just a way for restaurants to lower both the wages and the advertised price of a meal. I would rather have a service fee, because, when you are not ordering a multi-course meal, I don't know what the servers actually do.

Re: Why Tipping Should Be Outlawed

#8

As an American who eats out a lot, I have to admit I loved going to Iceland where tipping is not expected whatsoever. Tipping feels like prostitution; when cash is exchanged it's hard to believe you're getting authentic service.

Money is being exchanged for service whether its bundled into the price charged for food and drink, tacked on as an explicit service fee, or paid separately as a tip.

If paying for service feels equivalent to prostitution to you, well, if you want to avoid "prostitution", you're going to need to forgo a lot of common economic activity.

Re: Why Tipping Should Be Outlawed

#10

As an American who eats out a lot, I have to admit I loved going to Iceland where tipping is not expected whatsoever. Tipping feels like prostitution; when cash is exchanged it's hard to believe you're getting authentic service.

Wait, what? You mean service from my car mechanic, gardener, pool guy, garbage collector, repairman, contractor, hairdresser, sports trainer, etc. - all "unauthentic" because I pay money for it? Or it is only when serving food that paying for it somehow becomes "unauthentic"? It is extremely weird notion that paying for service is somehow not expected. Why do you think all these people do it - out of deep and passionate love for you?
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