When I was a child my mother used to sing this ditty to me:
I went down to Mt Sinai Hospital,
to see my old zady* there.
He said I’m glad we got the medicaid,
and I wish we had the medicare.
*zady = grandfather in Yiddish (rhymes with lady)
When I was 15 or 16 my parents gave me a summer job in their shop assembling photoelectric devices. On my first day I was 10 minutes late. My father took me aside and told me whether its family or not, lateness to work is never to be tolerated. As a matter of pride and upholding your contract, verbal or written, with your employer, be on time.
In my first months I was, as all babies, unable to tell thoughts from reality and to define myself as seperate from the rest of the world. Diagnosis: Schizofrenic.
Then, later I was, as all toddlers, unable to imagine that other people had feelings. Diagnosis: psychopath
Then, as many children, I was afraid of the monsters in the dark. Diagnosis: Paranoid.
And, like almost every child, started insisting that everything had to be a certain way and changes in routines worried me. Diagnosis: Neurotic.
Then puberty set in with its emotional rollercoster rides. Diagnosis: Manic depressive.
Now I suppose I should grow up and start being neurotic again like everyone else.
When I was younger my grandfather burned a dollar and then took me out to show me what it could buy. He must have taken me to the right place (perhaps a dollar tree) because there was a lot.
Now I’m super cheap. I don’t believe in tipping because the person is doing their job.
Not neurotic, but it contributed to a fault of mine.
Dude, that IS super cheap. Do you know those people (my mother was one of them) are allowed to be paid less than minimum wage, under the assumption that they will get tips? And furthermore, they are taxed by the federal and state governments based on the assumption that they will receive 15% in tips? So if you aren’t tipping, they are getting tiny wages AND they have to pay tax on the tip they didn’t get!!
You’re right. Everyone knows that I am all for more laws. So I think I will write a bill outlawing stingy people.
Now I will say that there are a lot of jobs that do pay regular wages, that abuse the whole tipping for good service thing. Like the guy who holds the door, the cable guy, post office delivery people, people who make the beds at the hotel, the guys that deliver the pine straw, etc… Now if I ask for extra service, like having the pine straw put in 2-3 locations instead of one, I’ll tip. They went the extra mile for me, so that’s cool. But tipping in the bathroom so someone will turn on the water and hand me a towel. On second thought, I don’t really like touching anything in the bathrooms, so maybe it is worth it.
How about a compromise? Work on getting those laws changed, but in the meantime, start tipping the poor bastards. Otherwise we will all KNOW you’re just faking.
Down in the south, we have grass yards, and the rest is what are referred to as pine isands. So they deliver 100’s of bales of pine straw to your yard and the get spread out for ground cover were your bushes, trees, and flowers are. Some use mulch, some use rock, most use pine straw.
I have someone mowing mine now. But if Kerry gets elected and raises my taxes, I’ll have to fire him and do it myself. That’s about 6 hours a week that will be stolen from my family so I can be sure to pay my taxes.
God damn it! PopeSam, you’re being insufferable! You might as well admit that you wouldn’t give a proper tip no matter WHAT!!
And Borges, you are misrepresenting the issue. Federal law mandates that at the end of the day a person makes minimum wage. But how to do this? Do you think the restaurant down the street will tally the servers’ tips every day, and if they didn’t make enough to bring them to at least minimum wage, they’ll change everyone’s hourly pay? That just doesn’t make sense. Recordkeeping would be impossible. What happens is, the resturant has to calculate what wait staff is expected to make in tips, based on percentage of estimated sales. Then the restaurant only has to suppliment that number with the hourly wage. If a whole lunch crowd of PopeSams come in, that server is not only making squat, they’e LOSING money.
I’m all for withholding tips if your server is an a-hole, or takes forever to bring your drink then spills it on you, but if you’re too cheap to tip someone who is pleasant and breaks their back for you, eat at McDonalds or make your own food.
It’s not common to give tips around here, so I’m not that familiar with how the system really works. I assumed it was up to the employer to prove that their employees made minimum wages. I’m used to writing the tip on the bill, otherwise I can’t keep track of my expenses. I thought they kept track that way.
There must be some way of enforcing the minimum wage law. An employer can’t just claim that the tips make up for more than half your pay, right? That would be one messed up system.
So I think I will write a bill outlawing stingy people.
On second thought, I don’t really like touching anything in the bathrooms, so maybe it is worth it.