Tipping a headache on holiday

As a tourist, I hate the practice of tipping. Have you paid enough? Have you paid too much? Should you tip at all? It seems my hand is always in my pocket and theirs is always outstretched. I’ve had waiters who “work” me for tips and I wish they’d just go away and let me eat. My best experience is Taipei where waiters, hotel staff and even taxi drivers hand back your tip with a smile. Let New Zealand and Australia be like that.

Karen Rennie, Henderson.

Tipping unfair

Paula Bennett states the US has great hospitality due to tips and New Zealand should follow its lead. At least with no tipping, waiting staff can predict their takehome pay. Once we cut their wages to US levels ($2.13/hr), we will see massive poverty lines. My 18-year-old daughter got tipped three times as much as her male counterparts for the same work. The cook, who was ultimately responsible for repeat business and keeping the house full, never got tipped. I think hospitality staff should be able to apply for loans knowing their weekly income.

Randel Case, Bucklands Beach.

Take it further

Paula Bennett’s views on tipping are admirable. We would like this idea introduced to Parliament forthwith. Her salary should be cut in half from now on. When people are happy with her service, they will naturally reimburse her with large tips.

We also think Parliament should move to “bulk funding” as it is another great idea. Every election year the public could vote a percentage increase (or otherwise). Just imagine what great service we will get from politicians, and how it will increase your motivation to make living in New Zealand an excellent experience for all.

Lindsay Curnow, Pt Chevalier.

Debt burden

Using the data for the fiscal status of New Zealand from the Weekend Herald, I discovered the following. During the period of this Government, debt has blown out from $10 billion to $64b, an increase of 640 per cent. In the same nineyear period, gross national product increased by 22 per cent, inflation averaged just below 2 per cent a year and the population grew by 10.2 per cent.

There is not much good news here. Individually, we are slightly worse off today than we were 10 years ago, as these numbers represent a negligible increase in per capita GNP which is offset by population growth and inflation anyway. However, we are massively more in debt. It seems likely that any apparent improvement in the current fiscal position is more than soaked up by debt servicing.

It is well known this Government has screwed down the lid on numerous ministries while giving tax handouts to people who did not need them. Inequality, including the number of homeless and working poor, has mushroomed during its tenure. It is time to stop celebrating a Budget surplus built on a house of cards, and introduce a genuinely progressive tax system. Dr Ian G. McLean, Tauranga.

Building costs

The Herald’s record for investigative journalism is without question the best. Please have your team find out the costs of taking a raw piece of land, turning it into a building section and building a house ready for the occupiers to move in, with all landscaping, fencing and gardens complete.

We have had visitors from Australia over the last few months who cannot get over the huge difference between a far more expensive new house here in Auckland and the same in the Brisbane area. Added to the puzzle is the greater pay packets the tradies receive in Oz.

Jim Radich, Hillsborough.

Damaging churches

I thank you for your description, filling the front page of the Weekend Herald, of a new and objectionable cult emerging from South Korea. An unavoidable side effect of a good article like yours is that the bystander can mistakenly assume any South Korean church in New Zealand to be similarly tainted.

I have a 20-year association with the mainly Korean, Auckland Full Gospel Church in Browns Bay and its offshoot, the JCC in the city. These churches have on occasion been subject to such misjudgment despite a long and honourable Christian history in Auckland, and they are far from alone. They get over it because their teaching and belief tells them how to, but they don’t enjoy it.

However, therein lies a message. These cults in the main usually don’t last long, especially when exposed. They can’t survive sunlight. Therefore a reasonable test anybody can make when approached to join some Bible group they don’t know, is to ask its age and history. If it can’t point to maybe five years in the business, so to speak, then give them a wide berth.

E. Richard Leary, Browns Bay.

Working while under charge

I have read and re-read yesterday’s front page story without finding the slightest reason why it is on the front page or indeed anywhere else in your paper. It appears to concern an unnamed estate agent working for an unnamed real estate firm in an unnamed town who faces some criminal charges which he has disclosed to his employer who in turn referred the situation to their professional disciplinary body. Meantime his innocence must be respected. Michael Dawson, Milford.

Rich culture

Alan Duff has written a brilliantly perceptive article illustrating how little many of us know about China’s cultural beliefs and the significant impact they have politically and personally in the way they shape their lives. Sadly many of us tend to judge untruly the Chinese as the prime culprits for causing Auckland’s madly overpriced property market with little apparent knowledge of what this great country stands for.

Interestingly China’s cultural beliefs created over hundreds of centuries have even withstood Chairman Mao’s slaughter of 70 million of his own people during his long reign of terror, emerging even stronger today. We can all benefit from gleaning a much better awareness of what really drives the Chinese philosophy and mind notwithstanding there will always be those among us who will naturally hold differing cultural beliefs.

Anthony Dalgleish, St Heliers.

Social investment

Jenesa Jeram usually writes clearly but her article on social spending is confused. A brief summary is: government should measure the results of social spending directed at four known risk factors for children, but a third of those high-risk kids will be successful and half the kids who fail will have no or low risk factors. That suggests a return to a generous universal family benefit. A universal child benefit would allow parents to decide how to spend instead of having the Government decide for them.

For some illogical reason Ms Jeram deduces the opposite, with the Government choosing which families it will support. This would lead to crafty families tweaking the system to get the benefits: the mothers would hide their qualifications, kids would be sent out to steal or vandalise and get caught so the family will get more benefits. And it would waste CYF’s very expensive time too.

Can we have an article about social spending written by someone who is less brainy but more in touch.

Bob Atkinson, Birkdale.

Bottom of the cliff

Jenesa Jeram rightly points out the value and pitfalls of using so-called big data to better identify who to target for social services. Better deployment of ambulances at the bottom of the cliff and measuring their rescue statistics will be an improvement but what about investing in building better fences at the top of the cliff? The most obvious fence is fairer wealth distribution to reverse the growing economic inequalities that decades of neoliberal policies have created. Fairer income tax rates for people on lower incomes, asset taxes, and unconditional basic incomes are all fences which need to be seriously investigated because even the sharpest, data-driven ambulances will miss half the children falling off the cliff.

Boyd Swinburn, Westmere.

Australian appeal

I believe Paula Bennett is wrong about tipping. I travel extensively outside New Zealand and Australia. My experience is that tipping becomes an expectation not a reward for good service. Tipping simply transfers the responsibility for paying staff from the employer to the customer.

I have met many Americans and English people who are fed up with tipping and often note it is expected in their countries whether service is good or bad. Not tipping is taken as an offence.

Staff should be appropriately paid for their work without relying on tips. New Zealand and Australia are brilliantly served by proper wages and no requirement to tip unless you want to for exceptional service. Please do not follow Paula Bennett’s advice. Please do not tip.

Ralf Harding, Sydney.

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