Rich people find a new reason to stiff servers?
I'm not sure if this alleged "tip" left for a server, somewhere, is a hoax or the real thing, but it has stirred up a lot of controversy on the Web. If this story - most recently posted on the boing boing website - is to be believed, a presumably wealthy patron left, instead of cash, a slip of paper stating: "As a direct result of Proposition 30 and President Obama's insistance that I pay "MY FAIR SHARE IN TAXES," I find that I must cut back on discretionary spending and gratuities. I wish it didn't have to be this way for both of us."
As a young waiter, I was notorious for throwing tip trays - coins and all - back at stingy customers as they were walking out the door of a restaurant. Not a very endearing habit, and I soon came to my senses. There are always going to be customers, rich and poor, who don't like to tip and find many excuses not to do it. That includes my late Uncle Bill, who had lots of money and never, ever left more than a 5 percent tip. Even as a teenager, I would hang back after he paid the tab to add a couple of bucks to the tip tray. Bill's excuse? "I was a child of the Depression. In those days, a waiter was lucky to get a dime." It wasn't worth arguing with him. That Depression story was his mantra every time he opened his fat wallet.
That being said, as a waiter, I did get quite a few embarrassingly pathetic tips from a few of Kansas City's wealthiest citizens. No names mentioned.
I asked waiter and blogger David Hayden (who had his own post on this subject on his Restaurant Laughs Facebook page) yesterday if he believed this story to be true.
"Yes, I think it could be," Hayden says. "I think there's a general feeling from a lot of people in this person's position in regards to the changes in the tax laws. But as long as servers are being paid less than the minimum wage, they are subsidizing the cost of dishes on the menu. If someone wanted to protest costs at a restaurant, they should order less expensive meals rather than take it out on the servers."
Why is it that no one seems to complain about paying a salesperson's commission in retail sales, but the gratuity that a server earns for providing excellent service - which involves salesmanship, a sense of both theater and subtlety, tact, wisdom and grace - is sometimes a bone of contention? If I received that piece of paper instead of my rightful tip, I'd be back throwing tip trays again.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I think that's a word....
If I can't afford a 20% tip, I go to a drive thru or eat at home.
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...from a few of Kansas City's wealthiest citizens."
I can only imagine! 
but here in America, we don't do sane. We're exceptional that way.
You'll love this anecdote. I needed an electrician last week, not for an emergency, but to replace a switch that wasn't working. When I called the company, they told me that most of their electricians were still on vacation (imagine!), but scheduled me for an afternoon visit today.
When the electrician got here, I mentioned that I had heard that he was on vacation last week and asked whether he had enjoyed it. He answered that yes, indeed, he had and added that he had spent one week on the island of Reunion and another in Mauritius.
This is one of the regular blue-collar workers! I think it is wonderful that they have time not only to afford what their family needs but to have leisure to enjoy life and to be able to visit exotic places. Many white-collar workers in the US can't even afford that!
At the same time, today I heard that in the UK the Tory government is cutting the starting pay of the police force - those people who are paid to risk their lives on a daily basis to keep everyone safe. WTF?
I remember when American workers were the envy of the world. Now they are among those to be pitied - at least in industrial nations other than the UK. And at least in the UK, they have national health care.
But yes, we ARE exceptional. 
I am going to make you work for me for free. Because I am ENTITLED to far more than you people. 
as the least resistant. In this case, it's who they see as being as the lowest ranking member of the socio-economic food chain.
Classic "kiss up, kick down" mentality! 
All the cooks I've ever met take great pride in their dishes, and the servers in their hospitality. You can't work long in that business without loving what you are doing. But, just like anywhere else in life, the quality of your service is in direct proportion to how you treat your server. That's just human nature. 
thanks for the giggle.
they will enjoy many a spit cocktail in subsequent visits. You get what you pay for, I guess. 
They think the "lower classes" will come to see that Obama's re-election has hurt them, so they won't be so foolish as to vote for another Democrat.
As usual, they assume the "Underclass" is stupid and easily manipulated, and will blame Obama for the absence of the tip.
I say any rich fuck who leaves a note like that is pushing the rage of the workers just one more little step toward boiling over, the rage will not be directed at the progressives, and the rich fucks won't like the eventual consequences.
but it seems to have come from this KC restaraunt:
The Pitch? Any good? I ALWAYS tip twenty percent down the line regardless of how I perceive the food server's politics to be.
