Good Tipping?

[sMartins]

“Capitalism has survived communism. Now, it eats away at itself.”
― Charles Bukowski

Intolerable nonsense: communism has never existed anywhere except theories, but this theory did not cease to exist :\
"Mankind has survived fire-breathing dragons. Now, it eats away at itself" (C) %\

That sentence is not saying that communism ideas or theories have ever been applied to reality ... it's just saying that there were two strong conflicting powers and the capitalism won, and now we have just a single thought ... that also from its essence would be very hard to stop, and will grow by itself ... I add, since the fall of the Berlin wall this process is very clear to us, like it's happening with the globalization ( of the market of course, not of the rights .. cause we export democracy, true? )
Bukowski was a "weird" writer, but for sure a clever man, too.

[2d0x]

...That sentence is not saying that communism ideas or theories have ever been applied to reality ...

In this sentence it is said that something that never existed has lost! It is simply impossible to interpret otherwise.

...and the capitalism won...

O_o Capitalism has won what has never happened? And where exactly won? In North Korea? In the book of Marx? On a napkin in a restaurant? Date and place of victory, please!

... export democracy, true?

Any democracy leads to the dictatorship of scum. (C) Alfred Nobel
Ideas are sometimes exported, but more often they are deported. (C) Arthur Nikolsky

[sMartins]

"Marxism" never existed, but unfortunately communism existed.
Even the democracy never existed following that reasoning. And it's true, but it's not what that sentence was meaning ... i don't know how to help you to understand, you need to look at the picture first, and try to understand that, then you can focus on details.

[2d0x]

...but unfortunately communism existed...

Really? Name the place %)

... you need to look at the picture first, and try to understand that, then you can focus on details.

I recommend to learn about communism a little more than nothing at all ;\

[Trappin]

The notion that there are no traditions in the US is ridiculous trollbait - or EU centric chauvinism. I'll cite one tradition I'd rather not observe inflicted upon Americans due to European hubris, arrogance and intransigence. Armistice Day. Better known now as Memorial Day. My family fought in both European world wars. So, thanks for nothing. Oh, and I just named a tradition denied Americans - by some Euro on the internet looking to score points against America and Americans. Gods, it's so tedious to refute the same crap over and over and over again.

Same applies to the word games regarding Marxism and Capitalism. Tedious and dull. If you live in the West or Russia our lives are governed variously by degrees of laissez faire economics.

EU parliamentism, American republicanism or in the case of Russia, a sovereign democracy.

[sMartins]

I'm sorry if you think I have been rude talking about American tradition, it was not my intention .... and like I said I'm not even sure, it was only a speculation.
I was just saying that we Europeans have a lot of cultural tradition from the past, instead you Americans are a more recent country, so you have created new cultural tradition recently .... like the thing of tipping that Europe doesn't share with America. This what i was meaning. I have not any specific idea about tipping, if good or bad, cause like I said we don't have it here ... i was just stating that's a cultural thing, like many others.

About the other thing, it's true that economy rules us all, but that's now ... it was not like that in the past.

[Trappin]

Okay, SMartins, fair enough. I'll tone down my rhetoric.

Tipping service employees is pretty much expected here. Doormen and concierge , porters, cabbies et all. Our system differs from yours. It's not inferior to the EU model..

A longtime friend works at an upscale hotel in San Francisco.He belongs to a union for hotel workers. He has a very good retirement and health care package. His hourly wage paid by the hotel is somewhat low - but that hourly wage is determined by union negotiators and hotel owners. The rest of his income comes from tips generated via business and tourist hotel guests. My friend makes big money in tips. He works his ass off for the tips..

more later on this...
This is the part some people here are misunderstanding.. The service industry culture. Yeah, aultural element, not tradition. My friend is the head doorman, he gets a cut of the tip money from his network of people, and pushes some of that tip money out to others in his service culture. They all depend on one another to be honest, or marginally honest about tips recieved and distributtion. It's nothing to do with greedy slavedriver bosses or Marxism or Capitalism.

People working at a greasy spoon diner earn minimum wage for a reason. No one is getting rich. The owner of the diners is more likely not getting rich. Restaurants are highly risky business ventures in the US. Most fail in the first year. When a restaurant fails, the staff lose their jobs, and the owner is left owing money to food suppliers, restaurant equipment companies, bookkeepers and chapter 13 lawyers.

Nothing is as simple as it seems. Most restaurateurs do it because they love the food business, some get rich, but more get poor.