Declan Murphy <declan_murphy@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<40D99EEE.2050505@hotmail.com>...
> Gerry wrote:
> > In article <2jt47rF15hj8bU1@uni-berlin.de>, Kirin <fake@email.com>
> > wrote:
>  
> >>Many countries in the world are free of this nonsense. Waiters etc
> >>are treated like EMPLOYEES, NOT contractors.
> > 
> > You mean Japan, then?  Where else is tipping generally declined?
> 
> There has traditionally never been any tipping in Australia or Ireland.
> Can't remember being tipped when working shitty student jobs in the UK
> either. I'm sure there is plenty more. I think I understand the
> reasoning behind sepponia's tipping and how bad service in restaurants
> etc could become without it. Even so, it seems a bit strange -
> especially since it is almost entirely restricted to a handful of
> occupations in the service industry. Profit sharing and other
> performance related bonuses should be good enough for motivation - take
> a cafe in a shopping mall - the minimum wage waiter gets a tip, might
> share it with the minimum wage short order cook etc, but how many of the
> janitors cleaning in the middle of the night who may also be on the
> minimum wage will get tips etc? 

This actually happens at many places nowadays.

> In principle a minimum wage should be a
> living wage - if that can't be done without an increase in the
> non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (nairu) then some form
> of negative income taxation system would do the job.
> 
I think tipping is no different than any other incentive-based system,
at least in theory. Unfortunately it gets taken advantage of. Some
people think they have to tip regardless of the service; some waiters
think they have to get a tip regardless of the service. I personally
don't want to wait tables; for one thing my balance sucks and I'd drop
food everywhere and probably never get a tip.

Another good thing about tipping is that it should keep the costs down
in the restaurant because the restaurant doesn't have as much
overhead. Not sure if that's the reality or not.

John W.