Okay, I give in. I fail. I can't help myself. I'll save everyone the trouble: I am a douche who has to make himself known and has to have the last word or I'll die.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cretaceous Bob
How are you not responsible for it? You are funding the system, and refusing to correct it. How do you think the system would solve the problem of assholes like you? The ONLY answer is to raise the prices. So tipping is exactly the same as if the system was fixed, but you don't see fit to do it.
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Okay, that's sound logic. I've already said that I would not patronize any place that paid it's waiters less than minimum wage, but okay, let's go on. Let's pretend I never said that for the sake of argument. Which is what you seem to have done anyway.
I'm still only just as guilty as the waiter is for choosing to operate within the system, and thusly helping it to keep going. I'm as guilty as anyone who wears Nike, knowing that they're being made in Chinese sweat shops. I'm as guilty as everyone who eats meat and poultry, knowing that the squalor and cruelty those animals are subjected to would be considered illegal and morally reprehensible if they were pets. I hope you're not wearing nikes right now you self-righteous hypocrite. Everyone who eats at a restaurant that pays less than minumum wages is helping perpetuate the system, and punishing themselves and everyone else for it.
Except in those other cases, the victims are forced into it by a system or a culture that grants them no other choice. Whereas waiters choose their lot, probably make more than I did when I was working 3 years ago, and yet somehow still deserve tips or you're an asshole.
I think teachers should be paid more too, the system grossly undervalues their service. I'll sign any petition you want, but I'm not going to slip everyone a 50 every time I go to a PTA meeting.
I understand the situation, and I do what I can in all four situations, but I'm not going to be told I have to help someone out, even when I can't personally afford it. I can help someone at my own expense, which is what tipping is, but don't tell me I
have to do it or I'm an asshole. That's not fair. I do try to help waiters, I do try to do what I can to counter the system, but at the same time, I'm not going to deny myself everything I love in life for every cause, every time, and I'm not going to feel like an asshole when I allow myself to drop the ball every now and again.
I'm fine with a raise in prices. The waiter should be getting paid his wage, and tips should be additional. And in a lot of cases that's how it is, and no, I don't know the wages of ever server every where I eat, but that goes both ways.
That last phrase in your last paragraph does not follow, by the way.
Now please, answer these two questions:
Does everyone agree that there's no obligation to tip a waiter that does get paid a proper wage? And if the average of all my tipping and lack thereof evens out to within acceptable amounts, am I still an asshole?