Raven's first book of poems, Taste: Gastronomic Poems (Blazevox, 2005), and novel, Inverted Curvatures (Spuyten Duyvil, 2005) are available via the publishers. Visit Raven here.

OK, it's not a website, but what's the Internet about? Catching on.

That's what I want this idea to do: catch on.

Here it is: we get our ideas about how generous a person is by how much they tip in a restaurant. A stingy person doesn't tip much while a generous person tips a lot.

This is stupid.

Wait staff in nice restaurants actually do quite well.

I think they actually do better than we, as a culture, would prefer. On the other hand, the salaries of teachers and the budgets of many nonprofits are much lower than we would prefer. How can we change this?

Let me start with a personal question: How much do you tip? If you tip more than 15%, I have a proposal for you: send anything over 15% to your favorite teacher or nonprofit instead. That is, if you regularly tip 20% my proposal would be for you to tip your waiter 15% and send 5% of your bill to your favorite teacher or nonprofit (I would have added nonprofit to the name, but tipanonprofit.com doesn't have quite the same ring.)

Behaviorally, there is a reason for our overtipping. We tip in public. That is, if someone sees me leave a big tip, they believe that I am generous (and maybe I am, but the size of one's tip plays plays too large a role in our reputations), whereas if they see me leave a small tip they view me as stingy. Our reputations depend on the size of our tips.

Thus, I suggest we combat overtipping in such a way as to meet this behavioral challenge. What am I suggesting you do now? Think of a teacher or a nonprofit, put that name on an envelope. Under its name write 'tipateacher.com.' Whenever you go out to dinner pull out this envelope in a showy fashion. Then explain tipateacher.com to your dining companions, explain how you're giving money to well-deserving teachers and nonprofits. Won't your dining companions feel like stingy slobs for not giving more to teachers and nonprofits? You bet they will.

Maybe you are still a little worried about the well-being of wait staff that won't be getting quite as high tips anymore. I've investigated this a bit. Tips have long been factored into state and federal minimum wages. That is, according to an AP article of August 02, 2006, "employers of tipped employees now pay only a portion of the minimum wage starting at $2.13 an hour as long as the employees draw enough tips to make up the rest. A tipped employee is defined as one who regularly receives more than $30 per month in tips." That is, unless you are part of the wait staff in one of seven states (Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington) that require employers to pay tip workers the same minimum wage as other workers. In these seven states, overtipping really is pushing wait staff into another income bracket. If you're not in one of those seven states, however, being on the wait staff of a nice restaurant is still a lucrative position (that is, more lucrative than, I think, society would choose to make it, in relation to other positions such as being a teacher or working for a nonprofit). And this forces me to concede that there is one case where I would never want my ideas to be employed: lower-end, full-service restaurants. Why won't my ideas work there? The overall bills are lower. Thus, tips are lower and I'm also guessing that the tipping rate is also lower on these inexpensive meals (for three reasons: part of their attractiveness is that they are cheap, we often eat them alone, and we don't feel that the waiters have done as much for us as in a "nice" restaurant). So, keep tipping your waitresses at Applebees, Ponderosa, and restaurants in that price range (diners, cheap Thai restaurants, etc.). Only suggesting you employ tipateacher.com strategies in fine dining establishments.

Help me make tipateacher.com a real success. I know you can make it catch on like wildfire. Use your mouths.

Not everyone needs a website, tipateacher.com certainly doesn't.


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