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Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

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Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#211

Since when did dealing with people equate to more money? You forget that BOH makes the food. I would very much love a restaurant where I communicate directly to the chefs. Cut out the middlemen. Kind of like how autonomous cars will get rid of drivers.

These restaurants exist, but they're very expensive, as you'd expect for a place that can afford to let the chef chat with guests.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#212
post #190

Lets talk for a moment about this plague on society. This social justice warrior bullshit is getting really old really quick. Human beings are becoming unbelievably weak

How do you mean?

He or she was triggered by the word "privilege".

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#213

Has Waze quit using the childish cartoon stuff by default under Google?

How should I reword this in order not to get downvoted? Is this better?

When I've used Waze in the past, I notice that the default UI features cartoon spermatozoa moving around a road system. Such an aesthetic is going to be off-putting to most serious adults, but it sounds from this article that Waze is playing an important role in some actively developed Google products. I'm curious whether anyone here can shed light on the marketing strategy.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#214

When I was younger and financially unstable, I had a decision to make. Take a crappy restaurant job or live out of my car. I chose to live out of my car. Every time I hear the argument that people in the restaurant industry are getting unfair pay, I ask myself, "I wonder who made that decision to work there in the first place" Stop this bullshit tipping. These people made a choice and then chose to complain about it.…

Your privilege is showing. Not everyone who "chose" the job they have really has a choice. It's just not that simple. BOH employee pay rates are generally not based on the assumption of tips the way they are for FOH employees. And don't forget, BOH employees don't have to deal with the way some people treat service workers.

Yours is showing too, along with an unhealthy dose of smugness. GP literally chose to be homeless instead of licking the boots of the wealthy for table scraps, which is a degree of courage above and beyond what could have been expected of him, but it was still courage. Saying that his ability to do this is privileged, is like claiming a man who saves a baby from a burning house is showing his able privilege: true, technically, but grosly unfair and an underhanded way of attacking him.

Why do you eat at restaurants that don't pay staff enough? If "some people" treat service workers badly, and you know this because you've seen it, why don't you tell "some people" that they're acting like pigs?

After the Spanish civil war was underway, tipping was made illegal within the Republic, and George Orwell reports that one of his first experiences "was receiving a lecture from a hotel manager for trying to tip a lift-boy". They had it absolutely right. A business model where staff get paid whatever their customers feel like moves all the financial risk from the rich business owner to the poor worker, emphasises the class differences between the two, and is generally a practice which anyone left-wing enough to be using the word "privilege" should find abhorrent.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ultimate problem with tipping restaurant service workers is that servers are legally allowed to be paid sub-minimum wage. The restaurant offloads their obligation to pay their employees onto the customer, and if the customer doesn't tip then the server will not be paid anything for the work. Under these conditions, customers have a moral obligation to tip servers, but that doesn't mean the system isn't a mess. Se…

That is not true at all. Read the law. In a situation where a server's tips do not boost their hourly wage to the federal minimum wage, the employer is obligated to compensate them up to that level. So in a situation where, say, a server was never tipped, the employer would have to pay them $7.25 an hour just like any other food service worker who makes minimum wage.

This really only works if people know about it. If they don't, they won't complain when they're making below minimum wage.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#219
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I waited tables a decade ago. If I recall correctly, it was $2.95 + tips and I believe with a 4% tip-out. So your 15% tip became 11% real quick. So I hustled. I'm not saying that we should continue to screw over people who rely on tips as living wage. What I'm saying is that if one wants to have the overwhelmingly warm service Americans expect in restaurants, we need to keep tipping. After all, we've heard anecdotes…

> What I'm saying is that if one wants to have the overwhelmingly warm service Americans expect in restaurants, we need to keep tipping. Except you do not give any argument for why that is the case, but just hand wavingly claim it. Why exactly wouldn't it work if tips were abolished, all the prices on the menu are raised to match the average income from tips, and salaries raised to make up for tips? I don't see why g…

Because customer service is draining. Because even when you get paid $75k, dealing with assholes still sucks.

I'm gonna hand wave some more: most Americans when they think of good service beyond just being quick on delivery. Good service is about having a friendly conversation and building rapport with another person. It's may be weird for those of us with introverted tendencies, but this is Middle America with big smiling teeth.

Now.. by giving me an immediate incentive (tip) to smile through a bad customer's rudeness (or even harassment--please don't ever hit on people paid to serve you, ever), I'll continue to smile and pour on that syrupy niceness even when I just want to tell a person that they're an asshole and never have to deal with them again.

Personally, I have absolute no problem with tipping, or paying higher prices to pay restaurant workers a better wage, but I think people who are pushing no-tip don't understand the complexities in place.

In the restaurant world, at the end of each night, you'd get a huge wad of cash, and you felt you had worked for it (even though it can be argued people tip consistently). So even though the carrot may not be real, it still convinced people to act a certain way.

Now take away that carrot, take away the cash. You just have better paid McDonald's workers.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#220
post #215

Lyft recently shut down their commute share program due to lack of interest... and now Alphabet is restarting it.

Was it a lack of interest or poor economics? My coworker found that he could take a Lyft commute share, which was often empty, get to where he was going and pay much less. So, just like a Lyft on discount.
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