[Culturechat] Tipping

[Vance Roy]

This subject surfaces from time to time. I just read an article on 
Fodor's web site that blew me away.

14 BILLION US$ are spent in the USA yearly on tips. That is the budget 
of NASA, and only about half is ever reported as income to the IRS. So 
7 BILLION US$ are being withheld from the tax revenue. Guess who makes 
up the slack?

Is that right? Why not make the restaurant owners pay their service 
personnel a decent wage? OK, so what if that makes them raise already 
high prices? Then, the number of restaurants will go down, the quality 
of service will go up, and the market will take care of the rest. If 
people who eat out four times a week drop that to once, the world won't 
end. They have to eat something, so TV dinner, sales might rise.

A mandatory 20% tip makes my blood boil!

Vance Roy
gigli.saw@dplanet.ch
http://homepage.mac.com/fredch

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving 
safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in 
broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming

  WOW What a Ride!