Is the US a dystopia?

On the one hand, I work next door to a unionized Starbucks and like to tip of only to show some solidarity. On the other hand, I can see companies encouraging the spread of tipping in order to avoid paying a fair wage.

“If only”

I don't mind tipping 20 or 25 or 30 %, because fuck capitalism and yay workers. If I couldn't afford reasnably generous tipping, I suspect I would stay home more and be more choosy about then and where to go out.

But here is my one weird quibble: I wish that suggested tips were calculated on pretax totals rather than post-tax totals. I don't know why this matters to me but at some point I decided that it did.

Fuck capitalism yay feudalism

Surely the question here is what guarantee do you have that tipping a self checkout machine will go to workers? Especially since these machines are there to stop there being workers?

So, what were vails, exactly? They would be paid to servants after visiting someone’s house for a meal or party or whatever event. The servants would line up at the door, and if a person failed to give them their vails, they could be harassed. (One story goes that a person asked their friend why they hadn’t come to any of their meal invitations, to which the friend replied that they couldn’t afford it.) Vails were usually 1 s. or 2 s. per servant, though they could be more, depending on how the giver felt. For many servants, vails made up the bulk of their income, with one footman claiming he could make over £100 a year in vails alone. Another claimed that he made £59 in nine years under one master, and received a further £28 in vails and perquisites.

i welcome more fodder for a good old fashioned tipping debate

The character Mr. Wilcox in Howard's End - played by Anthony Hopkins in a rather dreary movie - says to always tip the carver.

Just the idea that you live a life where you're regularly encountering someone whose entire job is to slice meat for rich people is weird enough.

But it does make me wonder: at present, tipping is seen as an American thing, but surely it must have been enough of a thing in Britain for Forster to notice and make it a point of characterization.

When did tipping decline in the UK, such that it is now seen as an American vulgarism?

in an absolutely classic example of cultural misunderstanding, 'tipping the carver' is ofc a british term for the most extreme and public acts of masturbation

Thanks, dmac. In the US we just call it "waxing the tadpole."

Reminds of a gross tip jar at a coffee place that had a sign that said "It's OK to just put the tip in" or something like that. I tipped, but did not want to.

When did tipping decline in the UK, such that it is now seen as an American vulgarism?

lol I wasn't here for any of the previous tipping epics so sure let's do this

I don't think tipping is viewed as "American" in and of itself - it's the idea of tipping as an obligatory thing that if you don't do it the worker won't make enough to survive that's American. I used to tip a fair bit in London and the only reason I don't as much anymore is almost every restaurant now charges a service charge, which I guess is in effect an obligatory tip. Other services I'd guess tipping has fallen out of fashion as living wages became better established and the old noblesse oblige attitude retreated somewhat. Which means it's probably coming back, considering the UK's current trajectory.

saw a tweet awhile back: "Whenever I see an iPad at the register, I know I'm going to be asked to tip for something I've tipped before"

there's a wine shop by my house like this... you buy a bottle of wine, cork intact, and they ask if you'd like to tip for, idk, the transaction?
No idea if it goes to the cashier, or just pads the bottle sale for the owner

(NEVER tipped before ^^^)

I remember reading an article or seeing some thing on twitter that for a lot of these businesses the tips just go up to corporate and don't go to the workers. Relatedly, a few times I've either seen a sign next to the console or even a message on the tip screen that clearly states that "All tips go to the employees" or something to that effect, which usually make me more likely to throw something on top. On the other hand, there was a lunch spot that was part of a small chain near me where they had a physical cash tip jar next to the console that had a sign saying "Please tip with cash as tips on the iPad don't go to the workers." At another place I go to regularly, the guy at the counter manually forwards past the tip screen on his end when I pay with a card for what I imagine are similar reasons.

it very much depends— two local businesses, family owned and operated, will often get a tip just for selling me beer or a bag of chips and dip or whatever. they also give me significant discounts since i’m a regular customer.

In my experience it's not so much that electronic tips don't go to workers - it's that they get taxed as reported income.

Like lots of folks I don't use cash as much as I used to, but one of the best arguments for having cash is that you can just fuckin' GIVE ot to people. And then boom, suddenly those people have some money. (Not enough, of course, but more than nothing.)

These days I pretty much use cash only for tips, handouts, and (oddly) haircuts.

Those are still reason enough for the cash infrastructure to exist.

Every once in a while I find myself with no cash at all, and that means I can't always help the people I want to help. A couple weeks ago I literally bought a beer for a guy outside 7-11 and just handed it to him.

On the occasions that I encounter cash-centric workers, I find myself making a special trip to an ATM and then a further special trip to go buy a candy bar or something so that I have useful denominations.

Sidenote: Given how cash is really used today (mostly for small transactions), I feel ATMs should be way better about dispensing 5s and 10s instead of only 20s. $20 is usually more than I want to give out to Mr. 7-11 Rando Guy.

If there were an easier way to have a pocket full of 1s and 5s I would totally go for that.

(Insert SNL "change bank" clip here)

Sidenote: Given how cash is really used today (mostly for small transactions), I feel ATMs should be way better about dispensing 5s and 10s instead of only 20s. $20 is usually more than I want to give out to Mr. 7-11 Rando Guy.

I used to live near a Chase lobby with ATMs that allowed me to select what denominations I wanted my withdrawal to consist (albeit none smaller than $5). I wish that would become the standard, hate having to buy some small cheap item just to break a $20.

Also wish more receipts had the tip numbers for 20% etc--I'm horrible even at simple math and always feel slightly embarrassed at having to use a tip calculator app at the counter.

Blatherskite, I also cannot math. I usually just put one finger over the rightmost three digits of the total, then double it. That is usually close to a 20% tip.

So, like, lets say the bill is $30.04. I put my thumb over the 0.04 and see a 3. Twice three is six. Boom. Done.

If I go to a fancy restaurant and the bill is $202.50, I do the same thing. I put my thumb over the the rightmost three digits. Twice twenty is forty. Boom. Done.

Sometimes I round up or ddownbeat that is pretty much my method.

* down but

i had an electrician, local and miraculously available, call around at short notice to do a job for me yesterday.

now, it was at behest of the builder and therefore technically hes gonna have been paid for his hour of whatever

but by not handing him a twenty "for a few pints and thanks" i have breached one of the great moral codes- the workingman should never leave the house without an optional offer of coffee and a mandatory imposition of some hard cash- and there is no doubt that i wont see a plumber, carpenter or any other such useful type of chap for years on the back of it

xp Cash, and you hand them the cash directly if you ever suspect that someone else might help themselves to the worker's tips, or if you suspect that the worker has been trafficked.

You also got to love the big corps that 'would you like to round up your bill for the *Blank*' and then they get to write off your donation as a corporate donation off their taxes.

it turns out that's kind of an urban legend and in most cases they do not get to write off those round-up donations as their own donations for tax benefits. it's mostly a PR move

an actual tax expert like sarahell can probably clarify

although there was a really funny one where Panera was asking you to round up for the "Panera Foundation" or something and it was a screw-up because there was not yet a registered Panera non-profit

I only ever heard about this from one guy tweeting about how he'd contacted their company for information and they quietly changed the wording to not reference a non-existent org

https://www.healthline.com/hlcmsresource/images/diabetesmine/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/strips.jpg

for a little while apparently you could donate your poop for money at some clinics

really said I missed out on that cos it was lucrative

I feel like my gut biome would be pretty rich - I grew up on a far with animals, unpasteurized milk, etc.

If you find the poop-buyers, let me know.. I think my scat would be in high demand

This is hilarious to me pic.twitter.com/jDHci6oj6A

— Ray (@lobotomyze) May 19, 2023

The trifecta - hilarious, bleak and cringe.

.

Okay, comments really bring out the black comedy of the whole thing.

Amazing beginning -- and lots of passages describing a kind of hell -- in the review of this book on Private Equity

https://prospect.org/culture/books/2023-06-02-days-of-plunder-morgenson-rosner-ballou-review/

https://nbc16.com/news/nation-world/arbys-employee-found-dead-inside-freezer-beat-her-hands-bloody-trying-to-escape-houston-texas-lawsuit-regional-manager-collapsed-freezing-restaurants

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5weq6FNKcHI

Jesus christ, one of my biggest nightmares working in places w/ walk-in freezers. how awful

the Plunder review linked above, incredibly depressing, will not read that book

yeah I've been reading that review slowly since yesterday, incredibly grim, I can't imagine reading the books.

I also wasn't aware of Monowitz before reading that, I can't believe (I can def believe it) that's not a more widely known fact.

yah xyzzzz thank you for sharing that, it's horrifying & vital reading

my high school had an active shooting threat earlier. no one got hurt but students did find the shooters ig pic.twitter.com/3EkxBL2pjM

— tony🗣 (@ratatatvandal) June 8, 2023

This is truly depressing— gift read. Federal Policy on Homelessness Becomes New Target of the Right

Senator J.D. Vance, Republican of Ohio, used two recent hearings to argue that Housing First ignores the root causes of homelessness.

What, capitalism?

Joe Lonsdale, the tech mogul behind the Cicero Institute, has called Housing First part of a “Marxist” attempt to blame homelessness on capitalism

Ah, OK then.

The Delaware House will vote today on a bill that would allow hundreds of LLCs to vote in local elections in the small town of Seaford.

In the town of 8,500, hundreds of businesses voting could be the deciding factor in every election.https://t.co/61zVbv0P7B

— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) June 20, 2023

corporations really are people ;_;

an impressive showing for the thread, kudos

no doubt at least five of the justices on the present day SCOTUS would beam and nod approvingly at corporations voting in elections, finding it to be an innovative improvement on US-style democracy

hell the 'corporations are people' bit was green-lit by a SCOTUS much further left than this one.

lovely! plus, it might be possible for five or six billionaires to club together to create thousands of corporations in a swing state, allowing them to cast thousands of votes, while structuring them as tax shelters at the same time. best of all possible worlds!

https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2023/07/26/hisd-to-eliminate-librarians-turn-libraries-into-discipline-centers-at-28-campuses/

Houston Independent School District will be eliminating librarian positions at 28 schools this upcoming year and converting the libraries into ‘Team Centers” where kids with behavioral issues will be sent, the district announced.

This comes as part of the new superintendent Mike Miles reform program, New Education System (NES). Currently, there are a total of 85 schools that have joined Miles’ program, and of those, 28 campuses will lose their librarians. The district said they will have the opportunity to transition to other roles within the district.

The comments have a reference to "feral attention-seekers."

The comments have a reference to "feral attention-seekers."

Huh, I did not realize my children went to school in Houston