It's a shame that the work ethic has evolved to having to bribe someone
to get the service you are already paying for...


It's stupid to assume that you are "already paying" for
something just because you hand over a paltry amount of
bucks to somebody who may have had little to do with the
goods/services you are receiving. Can we ditch the Wal-Mart
mentality?


Or that the human heart has hardened to the point where an annual token
of appreciation
cannot be considered anything other than a bribe, as well as
unneccessary, because, after all, the service was "paid for".


It's not hard-hearted, it's just plain cheap & dumb.
Some people can live in Podunk all their lives and still
have some realization that the rest of the world is
different. Other people go out into the world for decades
and never realize that it's different from the Podunk they
came from... or if they do, they spend a lot of time
bemoaning the fact and fighting it.

In the U.S. it used to be considered degrading to beg for
money, or to accept money for what was expected of you (like
helping a lady fix a flat tire).

OTOH there have been many countries & cultures where
'baksheesh' was the norm. I'm more comfortable with the
former ideals & standards, and would suggest that it leads
to a more productive overall socio-economic system. But I
wouldn't argue the point strenuously, nor get huffy about
paying baksheesh in a place where it is the standard.



JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
Sometimes, the creativity of a tip becomes the reward in itself. Where I get
my car worked on, there are 3 guys. None of them eat donuts, or even the
best cheese danish in town, so that's out of the question. Two of them don't
drink, and I'm not so sure alcohol's a good gift anyway because you never
know, ya know? The guy who works on my car once spotted a hairline crack in
my brake rotor, which had just been installed by the Ford dealer, so as far
as I'm concerned, he may have saved my life. I tried to hand him some cash.
He said "I make plenty of money here, but I appreciate the gesture". So, I
sent him flowers, which he still laughs about five years later. I guess the
value of that gesture was that it DEFINITELY broke up his routine. :-)


heh heh
sending a mechanic flowers... now that was cool... what
did the card say?

Regards
Doug King