Tipping was something that the patricians/bourgie upper class did to help uplift the waiters/service staff in Europe. It caught on in the USA in the late 1800s and fell out of favor from that upper class in Europe by then.
Largely, USA coopted a "noble gesture" from wealthy Europeans and it has persisted ever since for like a century.
I think the parent is referring to this [1] and other articles like it that have surfaced in recent years. I only recently read about it although I can't remember where at the moment. The linked article below is very similar though. It talks about a lot more than tipping in the US having roots tied to slavery but it's mentioned. This is just a snip out of the article, it's a long read but an interesting take on tipping in the US.
That's another wrinkle that many people don’t know about, right? Tipping in the United States actually dates back to slavery.
The origin of tipping is really the feudal system, it’s this idea of noblesse oblige. But when tipping came to the United States, it had a real racial tinge to it, because, originally, the workers who earned tips were almost exclusively black workers—they were newly freed slaves.
There was this massive anti-tipping movement to protest the practice, a resounding populist movement that actually got anti-tipping bills passed in six states across the country, including Washington state and many southern states. What’s interesting is that that movement, the anti-tipping populist one, ending up spreading to Europe and succeeding, because the labor movement picked it up and said ‘we are professionals, and we shouldn’t have to live on tips, because we should be paid by our employers.’ That’s why you see so little tipping in Europe. What we started here spread there and actually killed it at the origin in Europe.
We, on the other hand, went in the opposite direction in the states. The restaurant industry, which was hiring newly freed slaves as tipped workers, really wanted the right to hire these workers but pay them next to nothing. So they put forth this idea that they were valueless and really shouldn’t have to be paid by their employers. They essentially made the argument that newly freed slaves should get a zero dollar wage.
This is a good example. Im in my mid twenties and just discovered yesterday that (at least on Windows 10) that a user and a computer have _entirely_ different permissions.
I always thought it was account based! At least thats what my coworker and IT guy explained it to me as.
Just because the task is basic does not make it uninteresting.
People dismiss so much stuff with "I could have done that...". Well, you didn't, and they did. So there.
(In this case, the task is probably more annoying than you think. There's a lot of little details involved in getting the alignment correct, getting the fonts wrapped, generating the PDF, etc.)
Please do not post snarky dismissals to HN, especially in response to someone's work. Even if you're right, there's nothing wrong with people making interesting things out of the basics, nor with posting their learning projects here. There is, however, something wrong with taking swipes at others.
Edit: since you've repeatedly posted uncivil and unsubstantive comments and ignored multiple requests to stop, I've banned this account. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future.
In my final semester at Uni I applied for jobs, and for half my second semester I worked a flexible 15 to 30 hours a week and still finished with all As.
... what?
Tipping was something that the patricians/bourgie upper class did to help uplift the waiters/service staff in Europe. It caught on in the USA in the late 1800s and fell out of favor from that upper class in Europe by then.
Largely, USA coopted a "noble gesture" from wealthy Europeans and it has persisted ever since for like a century.
Anyways, I hate tipping as well.