When I came to Montana one of the first
experiences I had was going to Walmart. When were heading back from Walmart we
had to wait around half an hour before the bus would pick us up and drop us off
back home. Not really a long wait, but you’d rather avoid it. In line we
started to a lady we didn’t know, a friend and I had a debate if the word “lollies”
meant candy in America, which it doesn’t. We only spoke for a couple of
seconds, but when we were waiting for the bus she came by and offered to bring
us back to campus. I was shocked, nobody back home would do such a thing.
Before I got to the U.S. I was a waiter, so I’m always interested how much people give in tips. Well, I noticed that the U.S. is tip country. Every place has an opportunity to tip, Walmart, restaurants, gas stations, you name it. If you have to give tips at every place, you’d think that people don’t give much. But you can’t be more wrong! Back home people tip between 5-10%, here they tip at least double that, if not triple! Connecting the number of tips to the experience with the lady I thought by myself, are Americans really that nice, do they just like to give or is there something else?
I looked up a comparison between what a household in the Netherlands spends on charity, and what a household in the U.S. spends. The results were overwhelming, a household in the U.S. spends around $3000, a household in the Netherlands $400. But is this all because Americans are nicer? When I did my research, it showed that donations are tax deductible, so Americans get a lot of the money back in some way, Dutch people don’t. However, this doesn’t explain all the tips and the difference in donations is just too big to attribute to tax deductions. Therefore, we can conclude that the U.S. is not as individualistic as it seems. But if you care so much about others, why not invest in education and a good health system together?
Before I got to the U.S. I was a waiter, so I’m always interested how much people give in tips. Well, I noticed that the U.S. is tip country. Every place has an opportunity to tip, Walmart, restaurants, gas stations, you name it. If you have to give tips at every place, you’d think that people don’t give much. But you can’t be more wrong! Back home people tip between 5-10%, here they tip at least double that, if not triple! Connecting the number of tips to the experience with the lady I thought by myself, are Americans really that nice, do they just like to give or is there something else?
I looked up a comparison between what a household in the Netherlands spends on charity, and what a household in the U.S. spends. The results were overwhelming, a household in the U.S. spends around $3000, a household in the Netherlands $400. But is this all because Americans are nicer? When I did my research, it showed that donations are tax deductible, so Americans get a lot of the money back in some way, Dutch people don’t. However, this doesn’t explain all the tips and the difference in donations is just too big to attribute to tax deductions. Therefore, we can conclude that the U.S. is not as individualistic as it seems. But if you care so much about others, why not invest in education and a good health system together?
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