If you recall (you don’t because even I couldn’t remember if I wrote about this), I wrote about tipping last fall. To save you the trouble of rereading a post you don’t remember, I’m sick of tipping. The vibe I got from your comments is that you’re sick of tipping too.

That post mostly focused on jobs and environments where tipping is not only encouraged, but expected. Good examples taken from the post were bartenders and servers. But I got an email from a reader the other day that wanted me to talk about a different kind of tipping, in situations where it may be encouraged or may not be. Either way, the tipping is probably not expected from the majority of consumers using the service. Some examples include your cable guy, the coffee shop tip jar, and even my own blog. I hide behind the phrasing of “donation” but let’s not kid ourselves, this ain’t no non-profit  update this page.

What I’m talking about here is tipping people that are already paid the wage they are supposed to receive or tipping for a “free service”. My blog is probably a good example. You don’t pay to read this blog. Why don’t I charge you? Well I’d love to, but my content isn’t good enough so even if I charged a penny a post I’d lose half my readership overnight. If I charged a dollar per, I’d even lose my own mother. So I give it away for free and ask for tips. I don’t expect you to tip me because even I don’t tip me, nor would I tip you. In this case I don’t charge you or expect tips because this isn’t about money. I do it for myself; it improves my educational level and communication skills. The same goes for people that design and give away software. They do it for fun, for the challenge, and to benefit other people. Yes it’s narcissistic, but we all are in some way.

So what do we do about tipping in these instances? Is there a free rider problem? Will not enough people tip so that these “free” services go away? It could happen, and probably does sometimes. But as long as we have narcissists that can’t fulfill themselves on salary alone, you’ll have something for free.

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  By The Weakonomist 		The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics. Also keep in mind that nothing I say can be construed as financial advice.

categories: business, personal