Tips

Tips: the ultimate way for a server to know about their job performance. It is through tips that many a college student, low income american, and teenage worker have been able to make ends meet.  The question on the table though is whether or not a server should always be tipped.  Naturally, those working as a server or hostess will feel a natural bias to this argument, seeing as how I will be arguing that tips should only be awarded for high quality service.  However, I hope that by the end of this challenge those of you who initially disagree with me will come to see my point of view or at least respect this train of thought.

     Firstly, I would like to invoke Darwin.  in his Book, The Origin of Species, we are informed that only the most adapted and well suited individuals will be able to survive within their given environment.  Inferior species, such as those that lacked adequate mobility, camouflage, or predatory instinct would naturally die off.  The same is true in a naturally competitive workplace.

     Servers that are incapable or unwilling to provide the standard quality of service expected of them should not be tipped.  This negative feedback mechanism of our society provides direct feedback to the server.  This allows the server to know that their performance needs to improve or not.  On the opposite side of the spectrum, patrons that receive exceptional service should be compelled to tip generously so as to use the same mechanism to provide positive feedback. 

    Naturally, the opposition will argue that without tips it is easy for a server to lose money each night. However, this is just the ugly part of natural selection. There will always be "bad" servers. But over time, as more and more inadequate servers are forced to seek new lines of employment, the overall quality of service from a consumer perspective will increase.