No, the minimum contribution to Kiva is $25. When my tips - which are usually more like a dollar and rarely more than a handful a night - reach $25, I hunt for another Kiva loan.
Australians tend not to tip, and especially when they are travelling on corporate charge cards, as so many of the public servants, political staffers, media people and lobbyists around the capital are.
Oddly enough, it's usually the people on the bottom who tip most. They reach into their own threadbare pockets to pull out ten dollars for a $7.50 fare and say "keep the change, mate!"
If they are too generous, I scale down the amount or refuse it entirely. I'm not in the business of ripping off pensioners who are counting every penny. "I don't need a tip," I'll tell a grandmother hauling her groceries back to a little government cottage. "Just a smile!"
And it's true. I'd rather have the smile than a couple of dollars.
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Date: 2010-08-09 10:23 pm (UTC)No, the minimum contribution to Kiva is $25. When my tips - which are usually more like a dollar and rarely more than a handful a night - reach $25, I hunt for another Kiva loan.
Australians tend not to tip, and especially when they are travelling on corporate charge cards, as so many of the public servants, political staffers, media people and lobbyists around the capital are.
Oddly enough, it's usually the people on the bottom who tip most. They reach into their own threadbare pockets to pull out ten dollars for a $7.50 fare and say "keep the change, mate!"
If they are too generous, I scale down the amount or refuse it entirely. I'm not in the business of ripping off pensioners who are counting every penny. "I don't need a tip," I'll tell a grandmother hauling her groceries back to a little government cottage. "Just a smile!"
And it's true. I'd rather have the smile than a couple of dollars.