“We” are paying the rich people?
In tax breaks for “job creators” and that sort of thing.
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Even if one removes all tax breaks, income inequality doesn’t arise from that.
The rich aren’t getting rich off tax breaks – they’re just keeping more of their wealth.
Tax breaks worsen the existing discrepancies, but usually in the middle more than at the extremes (as in, the “slightly” rich get disproportionately taxed vs the “very” rich, the “middle” class get taxed disproportionately vs the “upper middle” class, and so on down the income chain).
I tell people I know who probably haven’t paid income tax in years (because pvt equity & hedge fund shields) that they really shouldn’t opine on where tax $$ are going (eg: entitlements) because none of those tax $$ are theirs 
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I’m not talking solely about income inequality. I’m talking about this country still operating under the “trickle down” fallacy, even if we call it other things now. But we are getting too afar afield from the topic at hand.
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Yeah, a tipping thread going off the rails . . . who’d have thunk it?
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Understood. I can’t tell you how many times I have started, edited, and deleted responses.
When you wrote “I’ve been thinking about this”, I thought you were referring to @Madrid 's comment
“I too wonder what “European” culture as a monolithic means. Even “American” culture meaning US as single country varies so much from region to region, and even in my part of Massachusetts, two blocks from Boston, varies so much 10 miles away…”, who was referring to something similar.
I try so hard to resist, but can’t .
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It is a truth universally acknowledged that a thread originally designed to focus narrowly on tipping must quickly veer off into a thicket of other topics.
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That’s bc very few topics exist in a void, unrelated to anything.
I don’t know that we’re that far off – the folks at the receiving end of gratuity culture are usually the ones with the worst marginal rate of benefit from tax structures and the like.
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Yes! Indeed.
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yeah, yeah…
I’m still thinking about hunterwali’s insight that tipping culture is part of our (USA) belief in philanthropy over structured benefits vs. other places structuring service workers’ pay and not relying on tipping for a living wage & benefits.
As the past few years in NYC have brought tip jars in places never before seen, I’ve been known to inquire as to why its now up to me & not the employer to pay those behind the cash register or taking something off a shelf, etc. What kind of society believes that adequate workers pay shouldnt be baked into the cost of business and instead be reliant on a customers benevolence?
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From the article: After the layoffs, customers will need to use third-party delivery apps like DoorDash, GrubHub and UberEats for pizza and food deliveries.
Regardless of the reasons why they say they are laying off these employees, I wonder if at least part of the reason they are doing so is that they know that people have other options to get their pizzas delivered. Why mess with having employees when a third party can do it?
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Good point. There’s a small chain of pub-type restaurants in my area with pretty good food. During Covid, they started offering delivery. They still offer delivery, but the few times I’ve ordered, the confirmation notes it will be delivered via Uber. I’m sure part of that is dining in is much better (they always have a good variety on tap) and so delivery has decreased, so it’s no longer necessary to employ drivers. It’s in PA, so no alcohol is delivered from restaurants and there has certainly been no minimum wage increase in years (decades?).
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Maybe our Puritan origins have something to do with it? Americans average fewer vacation days than almost everywhere else.
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At my first job out of university I had 25 days/yr off. Business days. No limit to sick days, either.
At my last job before moving here, I had 30 or so.
Cannot fathom a week/year, but peeps here seem to live to work 
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I was one of them in reference to a take away Restaurant. And of course stopped using it as soon as you pointed out that it was pejorative.
I had picked it up from British TV/Moives etc…
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It’s hard to tell if the employer is telling the whole story or not. It could be a combination of factors.
As a general rule, if a portion of a company is not profitable; management will phase it out. As Doordash, Grubhub, etc. existed prior to these layoffs, one can surmise that the delivery component was profitable. And now with the $4/hour increase, it no longer is.
Again, this is just speculation on my part, as I’m using the “accountant” part of my brain.
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Thank you for your very thoughtful comment. I agree entirely your insights, especially American perceptions as the default. I would love to continue this really interesting conversation and point out other issues, such as the huge (income, resources, home ownership, education) inequality in the US that has gotten exponentially worse in the last few decades, and especially the lack of robust social welfare in universal, affordable healthcare even with “Obama care” and affordable child care and support for families.
However, I fear the moderators will shut this down.
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Yes, especially local community colleges. But many people can’t afford the tuition at state colleges.
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On Halloween, benefits in the form of candy and treats should be given solely to the wealthiest children in the neighborhood. It will trickle down to the rest of the children over time.
… couldn’t help myself 
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