clipped from: www.smh.com.au   

To tip or not to tip?

If you tip, how much do you tip?

America is the land of bald eagles, apple pie, home foreclosures and tipping.

If a hotel porter picks up your three suitcases from the taxi, walks with you to the hotel check-in, escorts you up to your room, neatly unloads the bags, shows you where the thermostat is, how the TV remote works and where the $US12 ($A18.33) can of Coke is located in the mini-bar, how much do you tip the guy for his 15 minutes of work?

You have dinner at one of New York's finest restaurants, the bill arrives and not only is there a section to tip the waiter, but there is space to tip the maitre de' or captain. How much of your hard earned Aussie dollars (currently sitting around a paltry 65 US cents to $A1.00) do you depart with?

You can toss an Aussie in a pool with great whites, crocodiles, box jellyfish and
they would probably happily swim a couple of laps if it meant they did not have to worry about tipping on their next American vacation