How to say no to tipping. Or First World Problems.
POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Friday, October 27, 2023 21:53
VIEWED: 1462
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I’m Sorry, But I Can’t Tip the Whole World
Everyone today—from cashiers to robot kiosks—expects a big gratuity for ringing up an order. Olivia Reingold asks: Can you refuse without looking like a jerk?
https://www.thefp.com/p/how-to-say-no-to-tipping-inflation
I'm just laughing while reading this article because not a single one of these things that supposedly happen now are something I've ever once experienced.
A few thoughts...
Quote:
This summer I was at Newark Airport, racing down a moving walkway to grab a bottle of water before takeoff. I snatched a Smartwater, scanned it at a self-checkout, and then gritted my teeth at the price: $8.
What a rip-off, I thought. But I know retailers hold us captive at the airport, so with no other options, I swiped my card.
Suddenly another notification flashed in my face: Would you like to add a tip?
The kiosk listed three amounts: 15%, 18%, 20%.
The chutzpah of this robot. Surely it was infected with a virus to think it could ask me, a human, for a tip at a time when inflation has hit record highs.
If you really felt that you had no other option than to spend $8 on a "smart"water, when the option was to not buy the water, I think you should probably have given that nice robot a 20% tip.
Quote:
This is where we find ourselves in 2023. After enduring three years of rising prices, where the cost of ground coffee, gasoline, and other staples has jumped by 20 percent since 2020, the machines are now asking us for spare change.
But we humans can’t pony up, because we are struggling. At least half of people making over $100,000 are living paycheck to paycheck, according to one study.
If you make over $100k per year and are living paycheck to paycheck, there is not one single scenario in any timeline in the multiverse where you are not 100% responsible for your current financial situation and as pathetic a waste of carbon paypig consumer you are, you deserve no pity from anyone.
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So, in a moment when everyone’s feeling the squeeze, how do you turn down these requests with class?
Stop buying a bunch of shit you don't need all the time.
I have one situation where I'm put in a position to tip somebody in my life and that's when I get a haircut. I also wait to get a haircut when I can get a coupon. That's not for me. That's for the girl cutting my hair. I will spend $20 on a haircut. Now that they cost $17.99, that would only be a $2 tip without a coupon. The coupons are only usually $12.99 too after Bidenflation, but sometimes I get them for $9.99 still. Long gone are the days when I'd get a $5.99 coupon and she'd get a nice $14 tip.
And for fuck's sake... If you're going to be doing things where you need to tip people, tip them with cash so they have the option not to report all of it.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
If you make over $100k per year and are living paycheck to paycheck, there is not one single scenario in any timeline in the multiverse where you are not 100% responsible for your current financial situation and as pathetic a waste of carbon paypig consumer you are, you deserve no pity from anyone.
FINALLY, someone has SAID it!!!
There's a similar attitude in the UK, i.e. someone on six figures can be having a hard time.
Oh, please.
At the moment I'm on four figures because I'm currently out of work. Despite what the Department of Work & Pensions says, I am not fit for work. Hell, I'm barely fit for life! I had a stroke on Thursday 8th May 2022, and I am still recovering. I'm on medication for my high blood pressure (seeing the doctor today to see how I'm doing), and a side-effect is that I'm very unsteady on my feet. But if it's that or have another stroke, which it's unlikely I'll survive if I do...well. I daren't even ride a bike, much though I would prefer to even though I now tire very easily, because it's a) cheaper and b) a fuck sight more reliable than the damn bus - which is why I started riding a bike again in the first place.
So I have zero sympathy for anyone who's 'having a hard time' on six figures, okay? As 6ixStringJack says, their problems are entirely their own.
"I Am What I Am."
- Descartes (or Popeye - sources differ)
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its 'inflation' now its 15–20%, expected. They say noble aristocratics might have brought this gratuity thing from Europe to America, first recorded in 1706
but some Tips can be rude in France where they are already well paid? and especially rude in Japan where it goes against custom and tradition?
https://epicureandculture.com/french-dining-etiquette-eating-out-in-fr
ance/
https://japantruly.com/tipping-in-japan/
but some might welcome Tipping in Spain or Greece or Singapore or Philippines however most locals don't tip and there might be a “No tipping policy” even displayed, in some regions of Italy Venice, Florence and Rome have grown accustomed to foreigners leaving tips, Australia tips are generally not expected but appreciated. In general tipping with cash is best but in some cultures it is considered rude or even frowned upon, some can be surprised/confused if tipped, might return it. The Mandatory tip is almost like a tax, added automatically to the customer's bill, without the customer determining the amount or being asked. Some Chinese do have 'tips' in the westernized regions of Hong Kong and Macau. In Canada they have their own new IRS type Law and gratuities are deemed direct tips plus the employee's responsibility to declare them taxable income when filing for income tax.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/canada-pension-pl
an-cpp-employment-insurance-ei-rulings/cpp-ei-explained/tips-gratuities.html
Dystopia land says
PAY YOUR TAXES ON THOSE TIPS !! and Truckers are racists, sexists says Trudeau!
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Quote:
Originally posted by Anonymouse:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
If you make over $100k per year and are living paycheck to paycheck, there is not one single scenario in any timeline in the multiverse where you are not 100% responsible for your current financial situation and as pathetic a waste of carbon paypig consumer you are, you deserve no pity from anyone.
FINALLY, someone has SAID it!!!
Hey. Yeah. I've said it quite a few times over the last few years whenever I see an article with rich people whining about things. I probably haven't been that rude about it before though. I don't expect you to know that though since I post a lot of inflammatory crap on these boards in current year, and since you rarely ever make an appearance in the RWED cesspool, I don't know how much of any of this you subject yourself to. My advice would be RUN!!!!!
Quote:
There's a similar attitude in the UK, i.e. someone on six figures can be having a hard time.
Oh, please.
Yeah? You've been getting that for a while now too, huh?
I don't even see how it's possible to have financial issues even in 2023 if you're making six figures, but I've only spent $5,000 this year, so what do I know about anything?
Quote:
At the moment I'm on four figures because I'm currently out of work. Despite what the Department of Work & Pensions says, I am not fit for work. Hell, I'm barely fit for life! I had a stroke on Thursday 8th May 2022, and I am still recovering. I'm on medication for my high blood pressure (seeing the doctor today to see how I'm doing), and a side-effect is that I'm very unsteady on my feet. But if it's that or have another stroke, which it's unlikely I'll survive if I do...well. I daren't even ride a bike, much though I would prefer to even though I now tire very easily, because it's a) cheaper and b) a fuck sight more reliable than the damn bus - which is why I started riding a bike again in the first place.
I'm sorry to hear about all of this. I hope the Dr. gives you good news and that at least you're getting the blood pressure at a good level. You can't very well do the physical work you need to do in your situation unless that gets evened out first.
I'm not familiar at all with how the UK does things, but I know here in the US that with great persistence the healthcare system can actually work for those who need it. It took my old man about 3 years to do it, but he finally got my disabled brother on Social Security Disability. He suffered multiple strokes from a blood clot to the brain which resulted in a brain hemorrhage when he was only 6 years old. He made a pretty decent recovery since he was so young at the time, all things considered, but he'll never be right after that. My parents should have done what they needed to do financially for him at that time, but they were too busy in courts over child support and other BS, so by the time he was an adult and failed job after job after job the system didn't want to acknowledge his limitations or pay any disability. It was a ton of work for my Dad to get that taken care of, and after my dad passes on it's going to be my responsibility to make sure he's taken care of since none of my other brothers are going to do it and the Government is going to spend the rest of his life trying to kick him off of the assistance.
Quote:
So I have zero sympathy for anyone who's 'having a hard time' on six figures, okay? As 6ixStringJack says, their problems are entirely their own.
The one thing that I'll give them is that our Education System, at least in America, doesn't teach anything about finances unless you specifically chose to major in Economics in College. 12 full years of Public School designed to put you in the poor house. Hell... College itself is the first step into a life
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Quote:Oh, heavens! I feel for you! Any chance of your health stabilizing some time next year?
Originally posted by Anonymouse:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
If you make over $100k per year and are living paycheck to paycheck, there is not one single scenario in any timeline in the multiverse where you are not 100% responsible for your current financial situation and as pathetic a waste of carbon paypig consumer you are, you deserve no pity from anyone.
FINALLY, someone has SAID it!!!
There's a similar attitude in the UK, i.e. someone on six figures can be having a hard time.
Oh, please.
At the moment I'm on four figures because I'm currently out of work. Despite what the Department of Work & Pensions says, I am not fit for work. Hell, I'm barely fit for life! I had a stroke on Thursday 8th May 2022, and I am still recovering. I'm on medication for my high blood pressure (seeing the doctor today to see how I'm doing), and a side-effect is that I'm very unsteady on my feet. But if it's that or have another stroke, which it's unlikely I'll survive if I do...well. I daren't even ride a bike, much though I would prefer to even though I now tire very easily, because it's a) cheaper and b) a fuck sight more reliable than the damn bus - which is why I started riding a bike again in the first place.
So I have zero sympathy for anyone who's 'having a hard time' on six figures, okay? As 6ixStringJack says, their problems are entirely their own.
"I Am What I Am."
- Descartes (or Popeye - sources differ)
AFA ppl $100K or more living paycheck to paycheck... yep, no sympathy from here either. They probably equate having expen$ive things... McMansion, new fancy vehicle, designer clothes.. as being rich. But what they are in IN DEBT. These ppl...they can't distinguish "wants" from "needs".
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Automatically tacking on Mandatory "Gratuity" after the facts, without informing the customer in advance, is just tacky. And rude.
Recently heard a story of one place where customers walked out without paying, in rejection, and the waitress or manager threatened to shoot them.
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Quote:Butbutbutbut they NEED to spend thousands per month for a, a, a phone.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Oh, heavens! I feel for you! Any chance of your health stabilizing some time next year?
Originally posted by Anonymouse:Quote:FINALLY, someone has SAID it!!!
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
If you make over $100k per year and are living paycheck to paycheck, there is not one single scenario in any timeline in the multiverse where you are not 100% responsible for your current financial situation and as pathetic a waste of carbon paypig consumer you are, you deserve no pity from anyone.
There's a similar attitude in the UK, i.e. someone on six figures can be having a hard time.
Oh, please.
At the moment I'm on four figures because I'm currently out of work. Despite what the Department of Work & Pensions says, I am not fit for work. Hell, I'm barely fit for life! I had a stroke on Thursday 8th May 2022, and I am still recovering. I'm on medication for my high blood pressure (seeing the doctor today to see how I'm doing), and a side-effect is that I'm very unsteady on my feet. But if it's that or have another stroke, which it's unlikely I'll survive if I do...well. I daren't even ride a bike, much though I would prefer to even though I now tire very easily, because it's a) cheaper and b) a fuck sight more reliable than the damn bus - which is why I started riding a bike again in the first place.
So I have zero sympathy for anyone who's 'having a hard time' on six figures, okay? As 6ixStringJack says, their problems are entirely their own.
"I Am What I Am."
- Descartes (or Popeye - sources differ)
AFA ppl $100K or more living paycheck to paycheck... yep, no sympathy from here either. They probably equate having expen$ive things... McMansion, new fancy vehicle, designer clothes.. as being rich. But what they are in IN DEBT. These ppl...they can't distinguish "wants" from "needs".
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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You never read Getting By On $100,000 a Year by Andrew Tobias. That was a preposterously large sum when this collection of magazine pieces appeared in the late Seventies, though even then there were more than a few who failed to see the humor in it. Today, it’s become less and less funny even to the middle class, who may, in a two-income family in a high-cost locale, be bumping up into just such straitened circumstances.
https://andrewtobias.com/getting-by-on-100000-a-year/
https://www.amazon.com/Getting-100-000-Year-Other-ebook/dp/B01MU2EEHG/
GETTING BY ON $100,000 A YEAR
(NO, IT'S NOT EASY—BUT IT CAN BE DONE!)
Things are rough all over. I have this little Filipino girl—Lenisa —through the auspices of the Foster Parents Plan, who, if she really exists (and if she doesn't, someone is making $18 a month writing me little crayon letters in Filipino), sleeps on the floor of a toiletless hut. She thanks God and me in each letter for my generosity, and I thank God I have running water, Charmin, and a king-size bed with Magic Fingers.
Last night I had Stanley over for dinner. Stanley, an investment banker in his early thirties, has his own problems. And, as he is a graduate of a well-known business school and a resident of Manhattan's Upper East Side, you can imagine they are rather more sophisticated than little Lenisa's. If he were to outline them for me once a month, they would come typed on an IBM Correcting Selectric II, "dictated but not read," and signed for him in his absence by his secretary. (Stanley travels a lot.)
Unlike Lenisa—whose letters, as translated, tend to be quite straightforward ("I tell you that I passed the year of studies. I tell you also that during the rainy season part of our house fall down. Greetings and best wishes")—Stanley manages to retain a sense of humor about his problems. He's half serious and half joking when he tells you, which is the first thing he told me, "You know, it's incredible, but you just can't live in this city on a hundred thousand dollars a year." (And here I thought $80,000 or $90,000 was all it would take.)
When I say Stanley was half joking, I don't mean he was kidding, simply that he recognized the absurdity of the situation— that on a six-figure income he could still have money problems. That he had, for example, to park his car down by the docks somewhere to save a measly $80 a month over what it would have cost him to park in his building.
It is an absurd situation that a fair proportion of the world's elite find themselves in, and one, I thought, worth exploring.
"You can't live on a hundred thousand a year?" I asked, pouring Stanley a Scotch. "How many kids have you got?"
"None that I know of," he smiled.
"Wife?"
"No wife."
"Alimony?"
He shook his head.
"Well, then, how can you possibly spend so much?"
The first $40,000 or so, I knew, he would immediately dismiss as the tax collector's share. (Technically, the federal, state, and city income taxes a New Yorker pays on $100,000, assuming a bare minimum of deductions, would be closer to $50,000, but Stanley's deductions are more robust.) The next $12,000 I assumed would be the annual rent on a $l,000-a- month luxury high-rise apartment, of which there are many in New York (one- and two-bedroom, mostly), but no: his rent is a mere $415 a month. He would like to move to a larger apartment, he says (or to buy one—a great tax shelter), but he can't afford to. This one, "rent stabilized" by New York's rent control laws, is too good a deal.
So—$40,000 for taxes, $5,000 for rent (plus another $1,000 for utilities, Christmas tips to the building staff, and home phone)—I was now fairly on tenterhooks to discover where the remaining $54,000 goes.
Ten thousand, he said, goes to the summer rental on Long Island.
"Just ten?" I asked. (Sarcasm is not my middle name, but could be.) "What—no tennis court?"
"No," he
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Thanks for the good wishes, guys. The doctor took a blood sample, and I didn't wuss out this time! One time years ago they had to stop as I got giddy and faint. Not this time, though. :) My BP was a bit high but not too much. I should lose a bit of weight, so I'm going to look into sit-down exercises. We'll see what the blood test says.
Also...I'm getting a bit thoughtful about dating apps. I'm reading a romcom (stop laughing! :) Men like a good laugh and a bit of sexy fun as much as women do!), Divorced (Not Dead), about a 50-year-old woman who decides to try the dating app scene. She finds, as you'd expect, the usual crowd of tossers (catfishing is a new term to me, but I love the way Frankie spots them, strings them along and then says something like 'my email is frankie at - don't want this site to turn it into a real email address or people might try it out, aren't I a thoughtful guy? - fuckoffscammer.com'!).
But she has fun, too. That made me think.
I've always regarded dating apps as being for losers and I have zero presence on social media (except nthellworld.com), but the author sounds experienced. Generally I prefer my own company - I can't imagine being beholden to anyone else's schedule, or theirs to mine - but...
I'm 'only' 57, nearly 58. But I feel as if my 11-plus was only yesterday. Every day I think "What the fuck happened?! Where have the last 46 years gone?!" I don't think I look 57. Sure, I'm mostly bald, but I've been that way since I was 25, so even if I could do anything about it, I'm not inclined to. I write, and my characters - especially one Jennifer Harrison, a 35-year-old single mum who finds herself joining SHADO, is of the 'take me as I am or take a hike' school, even refusing to shave her armpits or conceal her redhead freckles. In many ways, after heartbreak during my teens and early 20s, so am I.
I'm not too old - there's no such bloody thing. People older than I am use these apps. So I might, I just might, start. I can't remember the last time I had a relationship, even a casual FWB thing...a sign that perhaps it's been too long.
I'll finish the book and think about it. It's a brilliant laugh - you have to love a book where the protagonist is sitting in a quilting shop with fellow female enthusiasts and she says "It's more likely that pigs would fly out of my arse than a man come into my shop on his own" - and then a man does just that!
And on reflection...well, people in the 6-figure bracket have to have problems, just different ones from the majority in the 5-or-less bracket. Hmm.
"In any agenda, political or otherwise, there is a cost to be borne. Always ask what it is, and who will be paying. If you don't, then the agenda-makers will pick up the perfume of your silence like swamp panthers on the scent of blood, and the next thing you know, the person expected to bear the cost will be you.
And you may not have what it takes to pay."
- Quellcrist Falconer
Things I Should Have Learnt By Now, Vol. II
Richard Morgan, Broken Angels
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Quote:
Originally posted by Anonymouse:
Thanks for the good wishes, guys. The doctor took a blood sample, and I didn't wuss out this time! One time years ago they had to stop as I got giddy and faint. Not this time, though. :) My BP was a bit high but not too much. I should lose a bit of weight, so I'm going to look into sit-down exercises. We'll see what the blood test says.
Haha... Yeah. I used to be terrified of needles, but I've been poked so many times this year it doesn't phase me anymore. The only time it bothered me was when I had 6 vials drawn at one time. I did feel a little spacey for a while afterward.
My BP was always higher than it should be, but never high enough to get put on meds. That's why I found it funny now that I started working out again and I have to eat right because of my conditions and my BP is awesome they put me on BP meds because of what Diabetes can do to you if you're not on them.
Good luck with the blood test. If it's just your standard test, even if one or a few of the levels are wrong on it, there's usually pretty easy ways to fix those problems unless you get something weird like I got with the glucose level off the charts. Catch the problems early and most of it can be remedied. If you haven't already, you should do the blood test every year. I didn't and that's why I'm where I'm at now. I'm going to be getting them at least every 6 months for the rest of my life now.
Quote:
Also...I'm getting a bit thoughtful about dating apps. I'm reading a romcom (stop laughing! :) Men like a good laugh and a bit of sexy fun as much as women do!), Divorced (Not Dead), about a 50-year-old woman who decides to try the dating app scene. She finds, as you'd expect, the usual crowd of tossers (catfishing is a new term to me, but I love the way Frankie spots them, strings them along and then says something like 'my email is frankie at - don't want this site to turn it into a real email address or people might try it out, aren't I a thoughtful guy? - fuckoffscammer.com'!).
But she has fun, too. That made me think.
I've always regarded dating apps as being for losers and I have zero presence on social media (except nthellworld.com), but the author sounds experienced. Generally I prefer my own company - I can't imagine being beholden to anyone else's schedule, or theirs to mine - but...
Yeah. I'm 44. I think my generation is the last who thought that dating apps were for losers because when we grew up the only equivalent things were the ads in the paper and it was just so sad.
That ain't the case anymore. One of my brothers landed a knockout who's going to make more money than he does once she gets her Doctorate. I've got some friends who got married from people they met on dating apps too.
Good luck to ya, if that's what you want. My "grass is always greener" days are long behind me. I don't reminisce about the good times in the past too long before I remember all the drama and bad times and focus on that and get my mind right. I know I wasn't built for relationships. I'm just lucky I never got into one and had the mistake of having kids and ultimately putting them through what my parents put me and my brothers through.
But don't let me scare you off. Companionship and having somebody who cares about you around is a great thing if you can manage it.
Quote:
I'm 'only' 57, nearly 58. But I feel as if my 11-plus was only yesterday. Every day I think "What the fuck happened?! Where have the last 46 years gone?!" I don't think I look 57. Sure, I'm mostly bald, but I've been that way since I was 25, so even if I could do anything about it, I'm not inclined to. I write, and my characters - especially one Jennifer Harrison, a 35-year-old single mum who finds herself joining SHADO, is of the 'take me as I am or take a hike' school, evNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME