fra59e asked:


I don’t mean in the Americanized big hotels and international chain businesses. I mean in the thousands of authentic locally-owned businesses that cater to local people.

I have heard of waitresses in Australia running after departing customers to return to them the money they had left on the table.

In China, the government denounced the practice of tipping.

Since a barber in Australia or New Zealand considers himself your social equal, I hear he may even take offense if you offer him a tip, since tipping implies that a superior is giving it to a social inferior, so you are in effect calling him your servant if you give him a tip. You do not tip professionals such as doctors, airline flight attendants or military officers. You give handouts to homeless people on the street, not to your social equals.

Apparently the societies of the Western and South Pacific are more inclined to equality than America and Europe are. Has anybody had experiences to throw light on this?

Clay