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musette_sf

(10,184 posts)
1. Or he could just tip out in cash
Wed May 3, 2017, 08:36 PM
May 2017

without the hypocritical ideological bullshit. You know, like actual humans do.

Also: I see his note conveniently omits the FACT that he's okay with the server's hourly pay being BELOW minimum wage.



musette_sf

(10,184 posts)
7. As a former server who tips out in cash whenever possible,
Wed May 3, 2017, 11:28 PM
May 2017

because it is the right thing to do, and because it's legal in many states to screw servers over on their wages, I found ZERO "funny" about it.

I also find ZERO funny about so-called "libertarians", and thought it was shitty of this guy to force his bullshit ideology on someone who's just trying to make a living.

Hey, maybe Libertarian DudeBro can save the actual cash and go for this old tactic:

[img][/img]

 

linuxman

(2,337 posts)
8. The person tipped their wait staff
Thu May 4, 2017, 12:35 AM
May 2017

and insinuated how important it was that the server got (all) their money. Had a real Ron Swanson vibe to it.


Yep, nothing funny there at all.

They got tipped, and it was in cash. Not seeing the outrage here. As a former employee of a job where >70% of my earnings were tips, I'd have laughed, pocketed it, and gone about enjoying the rest of my day.

Warren DeMontague

(80,708 posts)
10. Sure, leaving aside the libertarian pretenses of the thing, it's a good tip.
Thu May 4, 2017, 05:26 AM
May 2017

I mean, look-- I make no giant secret, on this board, of my small-l left libertarian sympathies on things like personal freedom, choice, the right of individual consenting adults to make their own personal decisions about their own bodies as far as they're not harming others, etc.

They sort of lose me when they get into economics. Not because I'm incapable of understanding an assertion like "taxation is theft" but because I don't accept the complete decoupling necessary of individual economic activity from that of larger society. For one, economic activity is by definition group activity. One person isn't an economy.

It's a real question, and a good one, I was kind of kicking it around in my head earlier tonight due to this story (I have friends on facebook who have been sharing similar instructions or 'schemes' to designate their tips to waitstaff as 'gifts'.. I will get into more why this is a dumbfuck idea below) ... okay, leaving aside the most obvious objection, namely: The taxes paid on the income go towards things like food safety inspections and regulation, fire departments, etc... all part of the larger ecosystem in which this restaurant and this server function...

but leaving that aside, so we are imagining that our personal economic transactions exist completely free of both government and larger society, they exist in a sort of ideal platonic vacuum or something- right? So why are the econo-libertarians even using money? I mean, how can you be decoupling your value exchange from the big bad government if you're using a piece of paper that only has value because the government says it does?

It's just not well thought through.


Now, maybe someday a perfect libertarian society will be established on an oil platform in the ocean or on Mars (or the Moon, a la Heinlein) but it would seem to me in that situation you would have even more of a collective imperative for the individual to be forced to contribute to the survival, maintenance, upkeep and well being of the larger whole.

Which is what taxation is about, really.

So it's a silly argument. And what makes the whole thing even more silly is, it requires- as a former tipped employee, you know this- the person receiving the tip -sorry, "gift"- to be the one make this argument to the IRS. Which they probably won't bother to do, but as near as I understand it the whole rigamarole for reporting and taxing tips is a mess anyway.

Warren DeMontague

(80,708 posts)
6. It's an attempt to get around taxation of tips as income by calling them a "gift"
Wed May 3, 2017, 09:50 PM
May 2017

The problem is, it forces the server to be the one who has to make this asinine argument to the IRS. Which they probably won't bother to do, so in reality it's just another piece of fisco-libertarian mental masturbation for nothing.

Warren DeMontague

(80,708 posts)
5. He's not being cheap. He just thinks he's being clever.
Wed May 3, 2017, 09:48 PM
May 2017

Fact of the matter is, you can call your tip a "gift" or you can call your tip a "tip" or you can call it Floyd Mayweather, but the fact remains that it is your server who is going to have to deal with the IRS, and the IRS pretty much assumes that restaurant workers are pulling in a certain percentage of money in tips.

So you're gonna make her argue with the IRS "no these were gifts". Great, hope she can afford an accountant and a lawyer.

MountCleaners

(1,148 posts)
11. Libertarians are NOT patriots
Thu May 4, 2017, 06:52 AM
May 2017

They obviously don't want to live in the USA, don't accept the Constitution, and don't want to contribute to the general welfare.

Sick of the right claiming that THEY'RE the "patriots" and those on the left don't care about this country.

Orrex

(63,086 posts)
12. There are only two kinds of Libertarian
Thu May 4, 2017, 07:18 AM
May 2017

1. Straight-up asshole
2. No, I was wrong. There's only one kind.

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