Okay, so credit card companies have always raised their fees on a whim, but this just seems to take the cake. I can understand that the fees need to be raised when someone misses a payment date, and I am well aware that banks make the lion’s share of their money on these fees. What I cannot understand is the audacity of banks to be doing this after accepting millions of dollars in bailout money.

Traditionally, this is one step a business can take that will help to build its capitol, but to continue to do this at this particular stage of the game is unconscionable. The mere definition of that word says it all. According to Encarta it is defined as “shocking and morally unacceptable.” The Oxford English Dictionary describes the expression as “not right or reasonable,” and Webster’s defines the term as “not guided or controlled by conscience: unscrupulous.”

So WHY is it unconscionable? Because these same lending institutions have just begged for and accepted $700 billion in bailout money, and that is billion with a capital B. While we may or may not have had to do it the fact remains that it is a done deal for better or worse, and the American taxpayer is getting the shaft.

WE, you and I, have loaned the banks our hard earned money to straighten out their self created mess through our tax dollars, and now they are asking us to further fit the bill by raising interest rates on the credit cards of people that have always payed their bills on time. Is this not double dipping in its ugliest form?

Let’s name names; Bank of America, American Express, Citigroup, and the list goes on and on and on. When is the assault on the American public going to stop? Come on Washington. You promised us “change”. We cheered for “change”. Now let’s get it done!

I know this will be a very controversial topic, but I just have to do it. We can agree that “tipping” someone prior to service is unethical as it constitutes a bribe, i.e. slipping someone a twenty to get seated in a packed restaurant. But what about tipping AFTER service? This is a common practice here in the U.S., but it is seen as unethical in many other parts of the world.
Shouldn’t the establishment be paying their employees a valid wage rather than relying on the paying customer to tip? Why is tipping prior to service any different than tipping post service? Are we not sending the same message? I know there are many people out there in cyberworld that will argue the point claiming that one tips for “good service rendered,” but that is no longer realistic. When restaurants have policies that automatically tack on a 15 – 20% tip for parties of 5 or more that is NOT tipping for good service rendered. That is an unethical “charge.” We don’t tip our postal carriers for making sure our mail gets to us. We don’t tip our doctors for saving our lives. We certainly don’t tip firemen when they save our homes, and believe me, I live in a fire area and would not mind tipping them at all! We don’t even tip the dry cleaner, the supermarket checkout person, the gas station attendant or the smiling “greeter” at our local superstore. So where did this unethical practice begin, and when will it end?
I am fine with incorporating the cost into the meal, but I don’t think tipping is appropriate. Now don’t get me wrong, I consider myself a good tipper, but I resent it. I resent being made to feel that I have to leave a huge tip. If I don’t I certainly won’t get good service the next time around, and yet I should just because I am a paying customer.
We get our ethics from four places; Authority, Culture, Intuition, and Reason, and over time ethical beliefs evolve. Perhaps we should be evolving with regards to tipping and utilizing reason to determine whether or not this is a practice that should discontinue. It wasn’t that long ago that the practice of “tipping” beforehand was commonplace and acceptable here in the U.S., but we came to the conclusion, through reason, that it is unethical. Shouldn’t the next logical step be to find tipping after service also unethical?