Life Choices

So there we were, arguing about tipping. Some of us saying that we always tip a lot because we know that jobs which are mostly tips tend to be difficult, low-paying jobs; and then this one guy who said that it was unfair to expect him to tip well for poor service. 

Hm. Fairness. He went on to say that maybe jobs such as waiting tables were difficult and low-paying, but that people had such jobs because they had made poor life choices, and that it would be unfair to him, again, to expect him to pay to help people because of the choices they had made.

 

It seems really amazing to me that I have to explain this to anyone, but apparently I do: Life isn't fair. It isn't remotely fair. Not everyone has the same sort of things to choose among. For example, one person who's turning 16 in the US might have the choice of a brand-new Tesla or a brand-new BMW as a 16th-birthday present; a second 16-year-old might get a 10-year-old Chevy in poor condition for their birthday and be expected to be grateful for it; and a third one might have the choice of working long hours for tips after school and eventually being able to buy their own car, or walking.

And still other 16-year-olds might be faced with much worse choices still, yes, even in the US. Some never had the chance to take Driver's Ed, never went to school, are living on the streets. 

A couple of years later, one kid might have the choice of going to Harvard, all expenses paid, or Princeton, all expenses paid. Another might have the choice of going to Harvard and going heavily into dept, or going to Indiana State and going into somewhat less debt, or going to Indiana State and taking on no debt, but having to work full-time while studying. Etc. Not everyone has the same choices. It seems incredible to me that I have to explain such things to anyone, but apparently I do. Some people have incredible advantages, but don't appreciate them.

I'll give you an extreme example. This will sound impossible, but it's a true story: about 50 years ago, one guy got $1 million dollars from his father to help him start out in the real estate business. And 50 years later, as a billionaire, he's still complaining about how difficult his life has been, and how he's been treated very unfairly, and how he was forced to start out "with only a small $1 million loan from my father."

And I bet that guy is a lousy tipper. I don't actually know, I just have a feeling.

And let me just add another incredibly obvious thing about choices and tipping, because apparently it's actually not obvious to everyone: a lot of us very rarely have the opportunity to tip someone to begin with, because we can't afford to eat out. The last time I gave a tip, I think, was over a year ago, at a car wash. I tipped big, because I believe in tipping big. But I don't think I've been to car wash, or a restaurant, since then. Not only because of COVID but also because I couldn't have afforded it if there was no pandemic.

And if I start to feel sorry for myself, I need to remind myself that there are many people, all around me in this prosperous city which does an amazing job of looking out for the less fortunate, who don't have a car and can't afford to buy one, not even an old broken down car. I only had part of a driver's ed course back in the 1970's, but some people didn't even have the choice of going to school when they were 16. And a lot of these people who don't have cars are still much better off than others, because they have homes.

A lot of people in this world never live to be 16 years old. And everybody knows everything I've said in this post. None of this is any kind of a secret.

So, Mr goes-to-restauraunts every-day, lousy-tipper complaining-about lousy-service: I don't want to hear about how those waitresses you abuse should've made better choices if they don't appreciate your impolite behavior and small tips. I probably could make this point even more obviously clear if I weren't so angry right now. But I think a lot of the reason you don't understand any of this is because you're really not even listening to me or any of the many other people trying to explain such elementary, obvious things to you, because you're far too busy reading Ayn Rand and feeling sorry for yourself because Democrats are wrecking the stock market.

Information Is More Valuable Than Money

Someone I know just said that information is worth more than money. She got a lot of disagreement for saying so, but of course she's right. For example, the information that money is worth exactly as much as people agree it's worth, no more and no less. On the microeconomic scale, for example, persons A and B may have identical items, but A sells his to a for $75 and, on the same block, 2 houses over, B sells hers to b for $200, if that's what A and a and B and b agree upon. And such price fluctuations are hardly unusual. And information may not be the only factor in the price difference, but it could be a major one. For example, a, B and b were all in possession of the information that items similar to these are selling on eBay for $250 and more, but A didn't know, so a was able to bargain him down to $75.

For another example: b didn't know that a seller with better prices was right down the street.

For another example, all 4 of these people knew how much the item would get on eBay, but a knew that A needed cash right away and was willing to exploit A' situation.

Or, the other way around: A knew that a was in a bind financially but was too proud to take an explicit handout, so he gave a a hidden handout in the form of taking $125 off the price of the item.

But it's not just on the small scale between individuals where money is worth exactly what people agree it's worth: on the largest scale, states can declare that their currency is now worth 1% of what it was worth up until then; or they can issue a new currency and say that every new dollar or pound or peso is worth 10, or 100, or 1,000,000 of the old dollars or pounds or pesos -- they can declare whatever they want. And other states can agree or not, it's up to them. And no matter what the states decide, their individual citizens can agree or not, just as they like. They can prefer to use foreign currency, which is a way of agreeing that the domestic currency is worth less than the state says it's worth. They can start a revolution if they entirely disagree with the state's fiscal policy, and attempt to install a new regime. One state can interfere with another, whether it's meddling with the other state's currency or attempting to overthrow the other state entirely, which is usually done wholly or in large part over considerations of money.

If you know earlier than most people that state I is planning to devalue its currency, or issue new currency, or to interfere with or overthrow state II, you can use this information for your own great financial gain; or you can publicize the information to the benefit of many other people. If many people have certain information it can have a huge effect on the prices of certain commodities and certain currencies. Mis-information often has similar effects.

The examples of information affecting the values of things including money are vast in number. The primary position of information is very simple and plain to see once you grasp it. Apparently, many people don't yet grasp it.

And THAT most certainly has a crucial effect on the value of money, and on people understanding what money is for, and coming to better, more sensible and mutually-beneficial agreements.

I don't know whether this post helped anyone, or if some people already understood everything I said and others still don't understand what I said.

There's another example of information controlling financial things: if an author can quantify and demonstrate information about the effect of his or her writing -- quantities like book sales, blog pageviews, readers' comments, etc -- he or she can use that information to justify an asking price for a publisher to reprint a blog post or take over the publishing rights for a book. And just with A and a and B and b at the beginning of this post, the amount of information the author has about the publisher and vice-versa can greatly affect the amounts of money involved in their interactions.

The possible examples just go on and on. I've given you examples at the microeconimic end, with individuals bargaining over the price of a single object, and at the macroeconomic end, with the fiscal policies of states. In the middle, businessmen are thoroughly familiar with the primary importance of information -- or at least they ought to be. Say that X owns a retail electronics business, and manufacturer Y is offering a shipment of computers to X at a certain price. If X knows that a new manufacturer is about to flood the market with computers priced much lower than Y's, then he or she may be in no hurry to do business with Y. However, if X knows that the new computers are of very low quality and that many retailers are going to buy more of them than they can sell, he or she just may want to get as many of Y's computers as possible.

Of course, if Y knows that X knows all of this, then Y may decide to up the asking price, or may be less inclined to offer X a big discount for quantity.

Information is key, the examples go on and on.