As IF Times

As we all know by now, the experience of foreign and especially European visitors to America to spectate at the World Cup matches has overwhelmingly been favorable as witnessed by the many numerous testimonials on all social network platforms.  Unusual American customs have been mostly positive for visitors, from serving sizes, to ice in drinks; free refills etc.

The one custom that shocks visitors is that of tipping at restaurants.  As documented in a previous post, the culture of tipping is wildly out of control in the United States.  Tipping has always been a part of American culture and has been consummated by a small gratuity for a small service rendered…mainly out of politeness rather than an obligation.

Suddenly, every person seems to be entitled to or expecting some kind of additional payment for any service rendered.  Doormen, bellhops, bathroom attendants; the kid who cleans your golf clubs,  all perform their jobs with the expectation of a little extra cash for their ‘service’.  These amounts tend to be nominal if annoying and thus far, tip inflation hasn’t been an issue there.  In the case of dancers, well you get what you pay for;  they can’t really be considered tips.

The most contentious area of out of control tipping is in restaurants. Everyone knows that tipping is not in fact discretionary, it is an expected payment after the total restaurant tab.  Recently, I’ve personally noted that the minimum amount offered on the payment machine starts at 20% and goes to 25 and then 30%. The experience of foreign tourists has brought this issue to light once more.  It’s not tip inflation, it’s tip extortion.

Of course, there will be those that protest that workers receive the majority of their pay in tips since their rack wages are very low; some claim as low as $2.50 per hour.  I don’t know in what backwater in the US pays a minimum wage of $2.50 per hour.  If that is truly the case, the restaurant shouldn’t be in business.  If the wages are that low, then presumably a meal would cost less than $5, in which case a higher gratuity may be reasonable.

But in most big cities, wages are substantially higher.  In Chicago and New York city for example, the minimum wage is $17 per hour.  In Los Angeles and Washington DC, over $18 per hour, and similarly in all the big metropolitan areas of the US.  Georgia and Wyoming have the lowest minimum wages at just over 7 dollars an hour.  Predictably, one will find the most expensive dining experiences in the bigger cities where a typical, not lavish meal, will easily run over $100 for two people.  Add a few drinks and the bill will easily be $200. So a mandatory 20% gratuity will add 20 or 40 dollars to a bill…just to have someone bring food to your table.  Which is almost acceptable…almost…if the amount of the tip didn’t depend of the amount of the food.  Dine with a family of four or more and you’ll have to ask for their installment plan.

No one can honestly explain how pouring  a $100 bottle of wine merits more of a tip than a $30 bottle of wine. As noted in a previous post, this makes as much sense as tipping on the value of the car parked by a valet.

Wait staff who work at restaurants charging $100 for a bottle of wine and $50 main dishes are not paying their workers $2.50 an hour.  That urban myth is absurd. Restaurants that cannot factor in appropriate wages for staff have a flawed business model.  To gouge customers based on the value of food served as an expected mandatory gratuity is a scam that needs to end.  If there is to be an extra service charge to dine at a restaurant, then state so clearly or charge a flat fee per head.   Leave the tipping to the discretion of the customer as it should always be.  This is one area where the Europeans have it right.

As most are keenly aware, it’s summertime in the northern hemisphere.  As should be evident, there will always be days of uncomfortably high temperatures in summer as there are stretches of uncomfortably cold and or wet conditions in the winter.  Is this abnormal?  What is abnormal?

The answer is; it depends who you ask. You will find ‘studies’ from all and sundry parties invoking their views on this.  But all that is irrelevant.  The salient thing to know, is that we can moderate our environment to make these weather swings habitable.  It’s called technology.  It’s called human progress.

The advance and harnessing of new technologies and discoveries has made previously hostile environments, habitable.  It has enabled humans to create, to build and to advance their societies. It is what separates the human species from the rest of the animal world who are entirely at the mercy of their environment.  The fact that this self-evident reality is disavowed by so many in our time is emblematic of just how pervasive mental disorders have affected populations.

Of course there are societies which eschew to a large part, the advances of modern technology. The Amish and Mennonites prefer to remain attached to their ways of doing things, preferring to live in the same fashion as their ancestors, ignoring most modern machinery and devices. The Amish take it more seriously as they don’t even use electricity.  These are choices these societies make to live in their way.  The Muslim world have their own, much more oppressive dictates for their people.  As closed societies within a larger free society, they can do as they wish.

In the larger society, people are less likely to be as principled.  They prefer to benefit from the conveniences created by technology in order to live more comfortably…which is the whole point of technological progress.

At the moment, an oppressive heat wave has enveloped much of Europe as temperatures soar to over 110 degrees Fahrenheit for extended periods.  Unlike North America, European cities are not generally equipped with air conditioning, thus, living is not only uncomfortable, it’s dangerous for much of the elderly and the very young.  More than 1300 deaths have been attributable to excess heat in this particular heat wave according to the WHO.

It would make sense that those who purport to value human lives would find some means to stop these preventable tragedies. And you’d be wrong.  Governments there are doing the exact opposite.  In the UK, people are being fined for using their air conditioners.  In France, your neighbors need to agree to allow you to install an air conditioner for your flat.  The social media post above shows the mentality of those who are so bereft of common sense that death is preferable to comfort.

Somehow, the acceptance of self-destructive behavior in the guise of social awareness has officially crossed the line into mental illness.  In any free society, people are allowed to inflict self harm…as supposedly free thinking individuals.  Heck, in Canada, it’s officially supported by the government.

When the urge to impose your views on others or worse to mandate them as government policy, then the society is no longer free.  It has then devolved into a giant HOA with self righteous ninnies making the rules. We all witnessed this on a global scale with the COVID fraud.

The existence of people eager to impose their will on others is not a new phenomenon.   Every society has their own rules of expected conduct and behavior.  Every religion has their codified standards of social interaction.  Every bikers’ club, every bowling league can make up their own rules.

None of this is odd.  What is odd is that in our lifetime, people feel that they have the right to coerce others NOT in their group to abide by rules made up by them.   What’s more odd is that people fall in line. The line graph of ‘tolerance’ for other communities has gone from urging people to wear pride buttons to now requiring them under duress of ostracization.  We’re now at the point of the graph of not letting people get relief from deadly heat because, you know, the planet.  Peak absurdity is that people in a society are encouraged to meekly accept the behavior of aggressive ideologues against their very existence…with the support of governments.  We now even witness white people protesting…against white people!

We now experience alien cultures imposing their views on their host nations going as far as demanding, demanding that host nations bend to their values.  There has been no instance in history of any civilization willingly ceding their sovereignty and culture without a fight, though many European nations now aspire to break that pattern.  Men would defend their societies, to the death if necessary to preserve what they hold dear.  Only male sensibilities will preserve a nation.  In fact, the founding of an entire nation, the most successful one ever, America, was founded on this very principle.  What’s changed in our lifetime is not the emergence of  tyrants of all stripes;  it’s the emergence of the meek and effete in host societies.  It’s the acceptance of surrender to long held values created by people attuned to reality. There has never been a successful society governed by the meek.  Any society unwilling to push back against threats to their very existence is unsustainable.