Reply to Chastised for not tipping on a to go order

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Restaurants are all short staffed, and whatever they can do to keep workers from jumping to other restaurants, they will do.  How many closed during the pandemic? How many are still short staffed?  How many would you like to remain open so that you can get a tablenor take out and don't have to cook on any particular evening?

[b]If a couple of bucks won't make a difference in your life, but will make a big difference in someone else's life, Just.  Do.  It.[/b][/quote]

This is a weird thing I've noticed in the tipping culture in DC that has become particularly prominent since Covid. It's this idea that restaurant workers are all very economically needy and restaurant customers are all very economically advantaged.

It depends. I am NOT rich. At all. I am middle class. I have kids, and I also have additional family who rely on me financially. I do sometimes get take out or go out to restaurants. Some of the people at those restaurants are less well off than I am. Some are more. As a general rule, the people who own those restaurants are all more well off than I am. So I think it's weird when I am asked to give more money to restaurants out of some kind of charitable impulse. Why? I don't owe the restaurant anymore money than I have agreed to pay for whatever I am purchasing. At a restaurant with tipped wages, that includes a 20% tip on service for a sit down meal, assuming the restaurant is not issuing a service charge already.

But the idea that I somehow owe the hostess at a restaurant a few dollars when I pick up my take out is weird to me. Why? No one gives me extra money when I fulfill basic components of my job description, even when they are much, much richer than I am. Why do I owe the hostess money (I don't even have any idea if she is more or less needy than I am) but no one owes me money?

It's just a weird income allocation argument.

Also, some restaurants are terrible businesses and it's for the best that they go out of business. Sorry, I said it. Just because you had a good meal somewhere, or the bartender is cool, or you know the owner a little, does not make a restaurant and inherently deserving business. Bars and restaurants in DC got money and lots of accommodations to get them through Covid, and some still didn't make it. There are a lot of businesses who didn't get that kind of help. Heck, there are a lot of families that didn't. There's not something special about most restaurants. A small minority actually become a valued part of the community; most don't. We don't owe them something extra to help them to stay open.[/quote]

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