Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Famous Cheapskates



Why's Tiger A Lousy Tipper? Billionarie Golfer Never Gives Extra

The old "I never carry money" excuse is lame.

From Celebrity Bad Tippers ... you'll also find:

- Sean Penn
- Gwenyth Paltrow
- Paul McCartney
- Bernard Madoff (Ponzi scheme swindler)
- Jerry Yang (YAHOO CEO)
- Michael Stipe (REM frontman)
- David Lee Roth (ex-Van Halen front man)

Why don't more of these obviously rich people tip more generously? Because the only wealth they want to see redistributed is your wealth, not theirs.

18 comments:

Ananda girl said...

I like to tip according to service, so it annoyed me when they insisted that tips become a common kitty pot... the rude waitress that ignores me gets an equal amount to the one busting her buns to do a good job? That is so wrong! I think it's law here where we live, so that the government gets a cut from the tip jar too. I still tip, but it bugs me.

Jan said...

Interesting list. Some people do feel all righteous advocating programs for the rest of us to support.

Brooke said...

I worked as a a waitress for a few months out of high school. The well dressed business types were ALWAYS the cheapest, often giving a quarter or two for a table of ten, because they figured it came out to the few bucks it would have been if it were just one or two of them, I imagine.

I would NEVER waitress again unless I absolutely had to!

What a horrendous job.

And Cube: You are dead on.

DaBlade said...

You are right yet again cube! If I had change for a nickle, I'd tip ya! ;)

Papa Frank said...

These people really do believe that they are above the rest of us. It's the same reason that Obama can't find a lefty to appoint who has actually paid their taxes. Rules are for the unwashed masses and not the self declared princes of the people.

Chuck said...

Don't know about all of them but there are a lot of libs on that list

WomanHonorThyself said...

what hypocrites!..pffttt

Anonymous said...

And yet I wonder how much they give per year to charities like PeTa, Greenpeace, or Earth First?

Seems animals and trees are more important than people.

grrr.

Anyhoo. We had to valet park our dirty minivan last weekend. It was fun to give the guy a nice tip. I imagine he wasn't expecting much for a bunch of rowdies like us. ;-)

Caz said...

Tipping is not such a vexed issue in Australia, mostly because people here are paid a living wage for whatever "services rendered" they're employed to carry out.

Here, it's really up to the individual whether they tip or not, and mostly it would be confined to restaurants and taxi services. Even then there is absolutely no obligation to tip.

I've always found the expectation of a gratuity in the US very peculiar and unfair. It means a person's income is arbitrary, not based on skill, work done or hours of work. Plus it places a strange burden on the customer, who is obliged to provide income to someone, not via their custom, but directly and literally paying them! Isn't that the employer's role?!

If a person is already being paid to do a job, that in itself is the moral contract, why do they additionally require "incentive" to perform the job to an expected level?

But, tipping is a huge thing in the US, and all of the most stingy uber-rich tippers are American, so they know their own culture extremely well, no excuses, very poor form.

Ananda girl said...

Just got back from eating out and on my bill, they actually gave me three options of tips to leave. None of those options was "no tip"... 10%, 15% or 20% and they even put down what that worked out to in case we couldn't do the math. What a weird world where those who have refuse and those who are just living are given understood expectations.

dmarks said...

Caz: Any wage can be a "living wage", depending on lifestyle choices.

Caz said...

Dmarks - a living wage must be viewed in context. A living wage in Zimbabwe is a rather different beast to a living wage in France, the US or Australia.

dmarks said...

Caz: The amount of wage that a person could live on varies wildly even within one town, due to varying lifestyle situations.

cube said...

Ananda girl: I totally agree with you about the communal tipping. I don't like feeling like I MUST tip when it hasn't been earned. One more area where meritocracy has fallen by the wayside.

Jan: The very same people who pontificate that we should cut back on our carbon footprints, yet they own multiple homes to which they travel in private jets.

Brooke: I'm not surprised. I've never depended on tips, but I have been a cashier and that was bad enough. I hope the economy doesn't tank to the point that we may have to revisit the past.

cube said...

DaBlade: lol.

Papa Frank: I'm always reminded of Leona Helmsley when I hear that kind of talk, but truth is, she wasn't far off the mark when she said it.

Chuck: Yeah, lots of rich liberals.

Woman: I know. I often wonder what it is that makes them such hypocrites, but I can't find just one root cause.

Pinky: I remember reading about Al Gore's charitable donations one year while in office as VP and it turned out to be something like $350. This is off the top of my head, but I remember it being a
a shockingly low amount, way lower than a peon like me donates!

cube said...

Caz: Tipping originated as a gratutity paid to a worker who went out of their way to perform a service. The better the service, the higher the tip. So it behooved a worker to provide the best service.

Nowadays, it has devolved into everyone having their hand out for extra merely for doing their job and not necessarily all that well.

That doesn't excuse these cheap celebrities who never carry money.
There are times when a tip is merited.

dmarks: I agree that "a living wage" is a very relative term.

Anonymous said...

Far easier to spend other people's money eh.

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