The iPad is the problem. Do we abolish iPads at checkouts in America?
Summary
The iPad is the enemy. A stranger on the subway zeroes in on what's really driving America's tipping crisis: that ubiquitous tablet at checkout, flipping around to guilt you into 20% on a bag of weed at the dispensary. Kareem and his conversation partner agree tipping is necessary when someone's actually doing labor for you, lifting or delivering something. But the iPad? That's different. It's not some grand conspiracy, just a UX designer who added an option that spiraled into perpetual motion capitalism. The real villain isn't the barista or the system exactly. It's the screen.
Full Transcript
The overall general population of America agrees that they don't want to leave a pity tip. And the problem is the iPad—perpetual motion of modernity and capitalism, right, in the restaurant industry. The people is making minimum wage.
So the tipping, the tipping is absolutely necessary. If someone's delivering something to you, you tip them. Someone's lifting something for you, you tip them.
I think where where you and I are, Robbie, is I don't think it's a grand, you know, puppet master scheme to further keep us down and blah blah blah. I mean, it kind of is. But what it is, is it's some UX designer added an option on an iPad, okay?
And so the iPad is the thing. The iPad's a problem. Dispensary.
And they're asking you to tip for a weed. So so it's like the iPad is the enemy in my opinion. This is the last stop with Kareem Rama.