It is with great amusement that I read tales of World Cup visitors recoiling at our country’s burgeoning tyranny of the tip.
The American sheeple, the same folks willing to wear masks, social distance and generally jump up and down on one leg while flapping their arms and clucking like a chicken any time the elites demand it, go along with the grift. They gladly pay some dish dispenser or drink pourer 20 percent on top of the charge just because the employers are too cheap to pay the help.
It is explained that one should expect to pay that 20-percent or so surcharge. I long have argued, just pay the help, raise prices accordingly, and take the mystery out of it.
This tip grab is spiraling out of control, much like socialism and sexually transmitted diseases.
Enough, I say, to tips, socialism and the diseases.
But, let’s concentrate on tipping.
Yesterday, after a day of swimming, picnicking and fishing with the granddaughters and other family at Shawnee, I treated all to ice cream at an outlet along Route 56. Imagine my surprise when the bill for 5 treats, including my SMALL CONE, came to more than $25.
No, we didn’t buy one of the ornamental cows along the roadside. But, we did get added amusement when, while taking pictures of the kids with the cows, a man hopped on a tractor parked nearby and rode off down the road. We thought the tractor had been part of the décor.
But what was part of a the décor, posted prominently in front of the window where one orders and picks up the treats, was the tip jar. I didn’t feed it.
World Cup visitors are similarly disdainful of such and the establishment types are screaming in pain.
It has become common on social media – I know because I have a guy who feeds me such things constantly – for servers to post whiny screeds on not being tipped enough.
It reminds me of tales my wife used to share with me about the entitled waitresses at Eat n Park, where she worked for a few years as a prep cook. If they brought someone a cup of coffee, which back then probably cost under $2, they wanted a $5 tip.
Even if they ignored a customer, botched the order, or otherwise made the dining experience less than stellar, they still thought they deserved their 20 percent of a big order, and 150 percent if they handed out a cup of coffee.
Tips were supposed to be to recognize superior service, but that got lost along the way.
And, as someone recently suggested, again on social media, why should a $500 dining tab for a family require a 20 percent tip – $100? Shouldn’t the percentage decrease as the tab increases?
While we’re on the subject, I wrote stories for newspapers full-time for 35 years and part-time for many more years. I never expected the reader to track me down to give me a tip if they were amused by the story I had produced.
Our mail deliverer, a personable woman, brings me my mail at least five days a week and she doesn’t carry a tip jar. Then again, if the U.S. Postal Service didn’t prohibit tips, she might. But, probably not. Instead, she carries treats to give to dogs she encounters on the route. Our moocher dog has become a frequent customer.
Tips are the quintessential example of a potentially good idea that has gotten out of hand. As we approach July 4, celebrating the decision of this great land to declare its independence from England, let us resolve to free ourselves from the tyranny of the tips.
It is worth noting that the taxes the English imposed on tea and whiskey, among other things, and that were enough to prompt the revolution, were far less than 20 percent.
Sam Ross Jr's site 