Is Tipping A Good Thing? | It’s A Question Of Balance 19 September 2015

Broadcast on 19 September 2015 on KSCO AM 1080, KSCO 104.1 FM, KOMY AM 1340, and KSCO.com Live Stream.

'It's A Question Of Balance' is a two hour show which balances the intellectual with the creative. The show combines a debate topic with an arts interview because discussion and creativity are two of the most vital ways we engage in the world. 

Check out podcasts of the different topics and arts guests at www.itsaquestionofbalance.com

Hour 1: Out And About – Conversations with People on the Street about Questions That Matter: Is Tipping A Good Thing?

This week we consider ‘Is Tipping A Good Thing?’ Jon Mooallem in Wired states ‘Tipping…arrived here from continental hotels and restaurants just before the turn of the century. Gunton’s magazine called it “offensively un-American and positively uneconomic”’. It was felt that tipping undermined the quid pro quo, the capitalist work ethic, and the whole idea of income. Tipping turned wages, which were supposed to be dependable, into something flexible. Tipping was also seen as patronising and demeaning, and still is today in China and Japan. Obviously tipping continued in America, largely as the tippers wouldn’t stop tipping - whether through compassion or bourgeois guilt - and today tipping is accepted, some may even say, expected. Have you ever thought of tipping as being patronising? Or do you always see it as a positive thing? Do you feel comfortable not leaving a tip if the service is bad or do you feel you have to leave something regardless? Should tipping be used to supplement peoples wages? Why do we tip for things like massage when we don't tip doctors or chiropractors or other therapists? Is tipping a good thing?

What do you think? Ruth Copland gets the views of people on the street for our Out and About feature.