Very sensible and enlightening posts here. I like it. By the way, I learned what a carpetbagger is; looked it up.

Interesting insights on the nature of how limousine and taxi businesses operate. That makes me think even more that $20 would be too much.

I totally agree with the Egypt example and would behave alike.

The bazaar example is a good one, too. It shows a mentality where prices are artificially hiked up and haggling is expected. I don't like it, either.

I also totally agree with the wine example and it supports what I said earlier about a tip being not an extra remuneration or part of the salary and not directly related to the final total product price. Somebody who pays an extra $500 just to have a bottle of wine opened must be totally out of their mind.

"yea god forbid you throw a few extra bucks to someone performing a sh*t job. might spoil your day. how about you toss your tightwad beliefs aside and make someones day. too much to ask?"

Yes, asked too much. See reasons above. In addition, we are not talking about charity here. When it comes to charity I am actually quite generous and when it comes to social infrastructure, I would gladly pay more taxes so that everybody can get access to healthcare and education (no more waiting tables while in college, being tired in class). But that's another subject.

Till