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Tips

Not Q tips or Tri Tip or travel kind.

But this whole begging epidemic that has gotten out of hand. That is how I view it. The developed world's way of begging with or without a bowl in some cases.

Have you been to a Starbucks lately. On the off chance that I feel like a masala chai the closest beverage to satiate that thirst is a Starbucks concoction that does hit the spot. As I was ordering this beverage there it was - a conspicuous tumbler beside the cash till with TIPS scrawled on it.

I mean if someone was feeling that generous about their barista or thought they had done what was truly exemplary and above and beyond their green vested job asked of them - please go give them a hug and buy them a drink dude.

But to unabashedly display that at the till and indirectly expect a customer to fork over a surcharge - RIDICULOUS!

So from the most demanding to the most obvious service there is an expectation of tipping - some go as far as doing the math for you based on a undocumented standard that the tip should be 15% of the tab. So if I order an expensive dish at a restuarant vs. a cup of coffee or a grilled cheese that costs 1/10th the value of the high end dish - the dude serving me has to do what exactly? Nothing other than taking the cook's production and walking 29 steps to the table I am sitting at.

If that is true then why is 15% of that $50 steak more tipping than 15% of the $8 grilled cheese? Did this guy during his little walk exert more to haul the cow than the sliced bread? What the heck is going on?

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