Let's say there's a group of 10 of you and your friends. You all decide to go eat. You pick a reasonably priced restaurant and head that way. Once there, everyone decides what to get. Long story short, you receive a bill for the goods and services you consumed.
(On a VERY interesting cultural side-note: In Italy, the check will not be dropped unless you ask for it or unless you're being kicked out. It's considered rude to deliver a check, and receiving the bill before you ask for it means they are either closing, or saying goodbye. Let me say; I like this. Meal sharing is an important part of the culture here. None of that crap that I am guilty of pulling: "Folks, NO rush here! Just going to set this down, whenever you're ready, I'll be your cashier...." Subtitles, get out of my section so I can make more money. The Italians take time and share meals. I like it. Anyway, this is the close of one digression.)
The total of the bill comes to 100 Euros. What happens next is interesting. Everyone pulls out 10 Euros. The bill is covered. The evening goes wherever it goes from there? The bill is divided evenly among the party. Here is sort of where your connective genius may be required...And some forgiveness with my math WILL BE required...
What happens if 7 people at the table got a personal pizza that cost 10 Euros, 2 people got a 5 Euro salad and 1 person got a 20 Euro steak? Well. This is sort of where the plot thickens? Say Captain T-Bone didn't tell anyone what he/she was getting before everyone ordered? Say they don't offer to pay a little extra at the end? (Another digression...This hasn't happened to me yet, but I'm trying to prove a point...) Is it wrong for them to order what they want? Is it wrong for the other people to expect them to pay a little more for what they got?
Wouldn't the whole thing be avoided if everyone ordered whatever they wanted and then paid for their own food? That way, everyone gets what they want. That way, everyone pays for what they got.
Is it nice that everyone chips in and makes it easier for math and all that? Yeah. Is it cool that when you are with friends, and you share, everything works a little more smoothly? Yeah. Is it "fair" that if you know the bill is going to be split up, you may be shy and not really get what you want? Is it "fair" to be considered a jack-ass for not caring, and ordering whatever you want regardless of how it's going to be covered?
Again, when you're with friends and family, these things are a lot easier to figure out. What happens if the restaurant decided that everyone's bills were going to be combined and the cost divided equally? While everyone would pay a little less, how would you feel buying a stranger's 30 Euro meal, when you were polite, and got a 5 Euro salad? The over all cost may only be 12 Euros for everyone in the restaurant, but why are you buying anyone else's meal? Especially a strangers'?
If you knew the bill was going to be paid for by someone else, wouldn't you order the most expensive meal that looked the best? And dessert? And a nice bottle of wine? I would. Would you feel guilty about it? Would I? Is that "fair"? Is that the "greater good"? Everyone chips in, everyone pays something, everyone eats? Why not order whatever you want to eat, and pay for your own meal?
Have any connective synapsis fired yet?
