Camelbeard

I can totally understand, the American example would be.

As a kid you are told about Santa Clause and his little helper elfs.

Now that you are an adult you have learned that the elves are actually based on slaves and the color of their skin is als based on that (let’s just imagine elves and slaves have the same skin color)

To you it’s just an elf and you never associated them with history or slavery. If fact as a kid you are told they have this color from the chimney.

So in reality both are true, people that grew up with zwarte Piet are not necessarily racist, but the entire tradition is based on historical context and therefore racist.

I’m not from Japan, I’m from Europe. I understand how fucked up the US is for regular hard working people. That is why those people should be paid a living wage, not depend on the kindness of people tipping. This entire system needs to be replaced, and it can start from either the government or people refusing to tip. If people stop tipping wages are going up, or restaurants basically can’t find people willing to do it anymore.

Thank god in the Netherlands we first have to have the zwartepieten discussie.

For anyone out of the loop this is a tradition that is changing but some boomers get really mad about changing it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwarte_Piet

I’m just going to say it, I kind of like her Christmas song, just hearing it once or twice around Christmas is fine (for me).

I don’t listen to radio or watch (cable) TV, so I don’t get bombarded with Christmas songs. It’s like one of those hipster beers with ingredients like strawberry short cake, in small doses it’s fine.

I was pretty close to this option, but in the end we moved to a much nicer house. So now our expenses are a lot more. I don’t regret it, it’s a much better place to raise kids.

I did took a sabbatical for about a year, and will probably do that again in 5 years or so. It doesn’t have to be a binary option, you can do sabbaticals (mini retirements) and still work.

Go to the govt? Really? In Japan there is no tipping culture, in fact a tip is seen as an insult. Do you really think that has anything to do with their government? Well maybe the exception is that the US allows this BS by not having a decent minimum wage for any job.

Second you completely ignore parts of my response, so if you need to tip the full amount, why is is fair to tip lower at a cheaper restaurant? These people work just as hard.

But let’s go even deeper, you say I’m selfish because these people provide a service? So what? My mailman provides a service, the roadworker that fixed the road I use every day provides a service? Why is tipping even a thing? I need to pay extra for someone doing the job they got hired for?

I don’t really follow this reasoning, so a drink cost X but you calculate Y because at other times it costs Y.

So if you go to a cheap restaurant you increase your tip because the restaurant next door has higher prices? The staff in the cheap restaurant works just as hard, maybe harder.

This whole tip thing need to die ASAP. If everybody just stopped tipping staff would get a normal pay or a better paying other job. But if you don’t tip, how do you show appreciation?? Well, do you tip your wife when she does something nice for you?? No, so people can show appreciation without money.

Wait so you get scammed but still give 20% tips? This would be an automatic 0% tip

My goto frozen pizza “hack”, just get the cheapest most basic pizza margherita, skip known brands and go for the housebrand/offbrand.

Buy some quality toppings and add them, like a spicey salami, aged cheese, etc.