Sometimes it is fun to replace contractions with the words they represent. I hereby revoke hooli's right to call a post 'garbage'.

oh how i long for the days of yore when people understood the difference between 'hacker' and 'cheater'

yo blood

i most certainly do except a full report on my desk by 8am, no expections.

why did you modify that picture instead of posting the original

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12370275/cyzer/paulbrownbloom.png

I didn't forget anything from the beginning. There is nothing pertinent before the line I posted. Your addition tells that a tipped employee has a base salary of at least $2.13 but must make a minimum of $7.25/hr or the employer is responsible for getting the employee to that rate. It goes on to say the average hourly wage was $11.82. Yes, that means many servers are making less than that, but obviously many are making more as well.

...what did I forget? What misinformation did I spread?

Twitlord, I'm sorry you feel like I'm being an asshole. I would argue that the servers committing tax fraud daily and the people suggesting that we should go out of our way to assist said servers are the ones who are assholes. I pay taxes on my gross income. Why should I assist them in dodging that very same tax? Because they don't make a lot of money? What about the dish washer who gets paid an hourly salary of $7.25 but doesn't get tips so he ends up making less money than the server? What about the cashier who's in the same boat as the dish washer?

The average wage for a tipped server in the USA was $11.82/hour as of May, 2012. We've officially gone from, "Tip well because these people have been dealt a bad hand in life and their hourly wages are $3" to "tip well but make sure it's cash because these people have been dealt a bad hand in life and their hourly wages are $3 but handouts aren't enough to get them by so let's all contribute to their constant tax evasion because god knows they shouldn't have to pay income taxes on more than $3/hour when they're most likely making upwards of $12/hour."

Nice.

Paying league fees does not give anyone an incentive to learn and improve and potentially stay more than one season.

It was when I worked in that industry. I would imagine it still is quite common.

No.

MasterKuni - I'm Scrooge because I don't want to personally financially support everyone who's homeless. OK.

mocha - You are probably right in saying many servers are attempting to better themselves. I am not 'shaming and degrading' anyone. I'm sorry if you got the impression that I look down on someone for their job. I don't. I used to do that job, and worse ones.

Reservoir_dog, Khaki - See my first post where I already referenced Reservoir Dogs! :p

AMC - I see your point, and it makes sense. You are effectively paying for the service by tipping. My stance is not that they should be treated with less respect--no server will ever experience me being hostile or treating them poorly even if they make a mistake. My stance is that I should not be expected to pay for their service, which is their job. I'm not paying a butcher to slice meat. I'm not paying a chef to cook the steak. Yet, I am expected to pay the server for bringing it to me and occasionally filling a glass. I will reiterate that despite finding it an annoying expectation, I do, in fact, tip.

I'd be OK with the tipping system if it wasn't abused by the people receiving the tips. If I have a server who provides great service, it does not bother me at all to leave them 15-20%. It really annoys me to have poor service and still be expected to leave 20%, and I generally refuse to do it.

eee - I really am not sure what you're asking me. Clarify?

Perhaps, but I make no assumptions. I was going to address this very thing in my most recent post, but pulled it out to avoid opening the door to politics, governmental control, taxes, and location-dependent laws. Yes, some people are dealt a bad hand or are otherwise unable to contribute to the improvement of their working lives. We have special programs (welfare, disability, WIC, etc) to assist in these types of situations. As part of the workforce, you are contributing to these programs. It is sad to see such a case firsthand, and it'd be great if those cases could be perfectly resolved. Unfortunately, they cannot, and these types of cases account for a very low percentage of people who work as servers, etc.

Once you start trying to make up for everyone's unfortunate life events, you may as well say that we're obligated to give every homeless person a handful of change because they were dealt a bad hand. Yes, it sucks that bad things happen to good people, but, once again, how does it become the responsibility of everyone else to monetarily make up for that, especially when there are countless financial assistance programs that do just that?

:p

I donate both time and money to various charities, I help friends and family when they're in binds, and I generally am a good Samaritan when possible. I want to assume your post is mostly facetious, but I don't really know you, so it's hard to read your intentions from the text. If you are indeed calling me a heartless bastard, then I must ask, why does the concept of me not feeling sorry for a person who has failed to enhance their education/skillset for the betterment of their own livelihood equate to me barely understanding human emotions? Is it terribly wrong of me that I feel each person should help themselves before being helped by others?

Yes, I fully understand (as noted in the previous post) that food costs would be higher. I don't think it would be as huge as you propose because it'd be an industry-wide change and making it affordable for people to eat out is the only way restaurants would stay in business. Other than that, I think you are hitting on the same points as me.

Your mentality is respectable. Part of the reason I do tip is in line with your tip -> service ratio idea. If it's a place I intend to return, I do tip decently even though it pains me to do so. I do not agree with your idea that non-tippers have a lack of foresight or empathy. If you acted on your empathy for everyone in a dead-end job whose wages barely (or don't even) make ends meet, you'd quickly become unable to make ends meet yourself.

I understand that delivery fees don't go to the driver and that the driver is not reimbursed by the employer for burning gas and maintaining his/her own vehicle. Again I ask, why should I be expected to reimburse them for merely performing the job duties for which they were hired? If they choose to take that job, everything becomes their responsibility. Nevertheless, a delivery person has a lot of time to do horrendous things to your food, so I do tip them decently well.

I do understand the benefit of tipping. It allows employers to pay their workers less and in-turn they can charge less for the food. If a restaurant with 10 servers suddenly had to pay those employees $5-8 more per hour, one can assume their menu prices would be jacked up quickly thereafter. I also understand that if each server were paid the same, this would penalize the excellent servers while simultaneously incentivizing the crappy ones to continue being crappy. Hopefully at that point, employers would step in and ditch the crappy ones. On the other hand, having a system of expected/mandatory 15-30% tips encourages the same type of complacency.

It's a catch-22 system that screws over the consumer either way: with higher overall food prices, or by forcing the consumer to pay the majority of the employee's wages.

Honestly though, the Zowie mice are well-known for having inaccurate DPI designations. the 2300 step will really be 2450 on one mouse and 2330 on the next, etc. Each individual mouse is typically very repeatable, so this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I did use the AM as well as the AM-GS, which are both essentially identical. The AM's primary button (the right button, you silly righties!) wore out within 3 months. I then opened the AM-GS and top side button on the right side wore out within 4 months. I had Zowie RMA both mice and sold the replacements when this happened. The FK looks more comfortable, but I'd still be leery of the buttons.

stabby,

I spectate you when I die. Your mouse is the least of your worries, my friend.

:-)