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Exactly. This is what the rest of the world usually says on the first encounter with "tips culture" in the US. As I see it, cultures are different and one thin

Exactly. This is what the rest of the world usually says on the first encounter with "tips culture" in the US. As I see it, cultures are different and one thing that is considered an absolute taboo in one culture might be customary in another. Tips in the US are customary yet at the same time they are offensive in Japan. Bribes are killing the economy in my country yet it makes economy moving in India. PS: I personally hate corruption more than anything.

kumarvvr 4y ago
First time I am hearing about this. Could you elaborate on the Tips culture in US? Do you have any first hand or second hand experience with it?
- pjc50 4y ago
  US waitstaff aren't covered by minimum wage laws - effectively a very large component of their income is "variable compensation" through tips. This is "expected" to be 10-20%. The culture doesn't quite come out and say "you need to put down 10% more than the number stated on your bill in order for the person serving you to make rent", but if you don't it will be interpreted as an insult.
- inkcapmushroom 4y ago
  For waitstaff at a restaurant, baristas at a coffee shop, bartenders, or people giving personalized service (for example a tattoo artist) it's customary to give a tip of ~20% extra on top of the bill. The expectation is that extra money goes directly to the staff giving you the service, and you are expected to pay it; many of these services jobs are actually legally allowed to pay less than minimum wage with the expectation that the tips will cover the difference. You are allowed to give less if you feel the service wasn't satisfactory, or if it's an especially large bill, but to give no tip at all means you are a terrible person. From my experience most people working these jobs prefer the tips system the way it is because a lot of times it's in cash so they can fudge their tax numbers if they want (might not be true nowadays as less people use cash), and also because often they make more money through tips than minimum wage, and they think if tips were removed the restaurants would only pay them minimum wage.
otikik 4y ago
> Exactly. This is what the rest of the world usually says on the first encounter with "tips culture" in the US. I think my shock was greater when I discovered that lobbying in the US means "literal legal bribery". In a lot of the western world that word it means things "having meetings" and perhaps "organizing PR campaigns". Straight up giving money to politicians is against the law.
- Aunche 4y ago
  >I think my shock was greater when I discovered that lobbying in the US means "literal legal bribery". This is what the internet thinking lobbying means because they just want to be angry at a thing without bothering to learn about it because that would expose their own political apathy. Lobbying in the US means the exact same things that it means in the rest of the world. Companies will donate a few thousand dollars, so that a legislature will hear them out, but the legislature doesn't have to listen to them. There is some sketchy stuff going on with campaign finance for sure, but it's no where near as bad as "legalized bribery."
  - otikik 4y ago
    > a few thousand dollars You might want to revise that assumption.
    - Aunche 4y ago
      You might want to revise your assumptions. These are the top lobbying recipients: https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/top-recipients https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/top-recipients. All things considered it's not a lot of money. The vast majority of lobbying spending goes towards mundane expenses like payroll at lobbying firms. The reason lobbying is so powerful is that regular people don't pay attention to actual legislation, so politicians spend too much of their time campaigning and end up outsourcing the hard work of writing legislation to the lobbyists. Regardless, it's definitely not "literal legalized bribery."
  - otikik 4y ago
    Using your own resource: https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/top-spenders https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/top-spenders I believe that’s at least 4 orders of magnitude higher than “thousands of dollars”. I rest my case

kumarvvr 4y ago

First time I am hearing about this. Could you elaborate on the Tips culture in US? Do you have any first hand or second hand experience with it?

pjc50 4y ago
US waitstaff aren't covered by minimum wage laws - effectively a very large component of their income is "variable compensation" through tips. This is "expected" to be 10-20%. The culture doesn't quite come out and say "you need to put down 10% more than the number stated on your bill in order for the person serving you to make rent", but if you don't it will be interpreted as an insult.
inkcapmushroom 4y ago
For waitstaff at a restaurant, baristas at a coffee shop, bartenders, or people giving personalized service (for example a tattoo artist) it's customary to give a tip of ~20% extra on top of the bill. The expectation is that extra money goes directly to the staff giving you the service, and you are expected to pay it; many of these services jobs are actually legally allowed to pay less than minimum wage with the expectation that the tips will cover the difference. You are allowed to give less if you feel the service wasn't satisfactory, or if it's an especially large bill, but to give no tip at all means you are a terrible person. From my experience most people working these jobs prefer the tips system the way it is because a lot of times it's in cash so they can fudge their tax numbers if they want (might not be true nowadays as less people use cash), and also because often they make more money through tips than minimum wage, and they think if tips were removed the restaurants would only pay them minimum wage.

otikik 4y ago

> Exactly. This is what the rest of the world usually says on the first encounter with "tips culture" in the US. I think my shock was greater when I discovered that lobbying in the US means "literal legal bribery". In a lot of the western world that word it means things "having meetings" and perhaps "organizing PR campaigns". Straight up giving money to politicians is against the law.

Aunche 4y ago
>I think my shock was greater when I discovered that lobbying in the US means "literal legal bribery". This is what the internet thinking lobbying means because they just want to be angry at a thing without bothering to learn about it because that would expose their own political apathy. Lobbying in the US means the exact same things that it means in the rest of the world. Companies will donate a few thousand dollars, so that a legislature will hear them out, but the legislature doesn't have to listen to them. There is some sketchy stuff going on with campaign finance for sure, but it's no where near as bad as "legalized bribery."
- otikik 4y ago
  > a few thousand dollars You might want to revise that assumption.
  - Aunche 4y ago
    You might want to revise your assumptions. These are the top lobbying recipients: https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/top-recipients https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/top-recipients. All things considered it's not a lot of money. The vast majority of lobbying spending goes towards mundane expenses like payroll at lobbying firms. The reason lobbying is so powerful is that regular people don't pay attention to actual legislation, so politicians spend too much of their time campaigning and end up outsourcing the hard work of writing legislation to the lobbyists. Regardless, it's definitely not "literal legalized bribery."
- otikik 4y ago
  Using your own resource: https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/top-spenders https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/top-spenders I believe that’s at least 4 orders of magnitude higher than “thousands of dollars”. I rest my case