Let me ask you this.Has the concept of adding a little extra onto the bill for services well done, let’s call them tips or gratuities, gone too far?I ask because while down in Australia last week I noticed no one gives tips. Now, the argument will be that this is because the minimum wage is $16 per hour down there and that serving personnel earn enough via the traditional route.Tips in Bermuda come for good service and because we, the consumer, know that their take home wages are under $10 per hour ... hence the little extra kick back.I do not have an issue paying for sincerely performed and or good service.But what type of a shock was it to see a bill at a restaurant in Australia where no gratuities were added and no tips were expected for good service? A pleasant one and one that should be here too. This idea that we HAVE to add 17 percent gratuities onto bills for service which is rarely any good in BDA, is absurd.Is that fair?No.Is it acceptable?Begrudgingly.Is it the right thing to do ... absolutely not.Everyone deserves to earn money and the better you are at something, the more likely you are to get the bigger dollars. Serving in restaurants, driving a cab, carrying bags to hotel rooms — man, these are jobs that require some skill and a quality of service. It should be incumbent upon the consumer to see how much, if any, added cash is justified for those services.I’m not advocating we don’t tip.I’m arguing strenuously to abolish the 17 percent tips that are automatically added on by the business without us having a say or decision.They don’t do it in Australia and they shouldn’t in Bermuda. After all both nations play cricket, both are in the Commonwealth and both have restaurants, bellman and cab drivers.One should follow the other’s lead.You decide which one here.I know that last week I took my family — wife and three children out for dinner in Australia. The meal was great. It was Thai and we ate till we could not eat any more.The whole thing came to $72 for the five of us. Yes, read that again — just $72 for five and that included drinks too!No tips were added on to the bill and no one at the restaurant expected any either.Because the food was scrumptious and the service was good, combined with the fact we have been indoctrinated by the Bda habit of tipping, we did leave $10 extra.But imagine that here.Imagine firstly, trying to feed a family of five in Bermuda. How much would that cost at a restaurant? Even take away at Sung Sing or some place similar would be closer to $120.But in BDA, apart from the high cost of dining out, to sit down at a restaurant, eat, then get whacked with a 17 percent surcharge as well, it’s criminal.I say let’s start right now standing up to this potentially illegal surcharge and collectively saying no to it.With the cost of living and prices for food in particular being so high in Bda, this is just another way to hurt the local, milk the expat and drive away tourism.But, think on this rock dwellers. If we make a public stand to outlaw the automatically added 17 percent gratuity — it will make headlines abroad and people will notice.And they will come.Simple things, when carried out correctly and which are aimed at the consumer for his/her benefit, normally do not go unnoticed.Tourism needs a prod.If we start our own ‘Occupy Restaurants’ and refuse to pay the 17 percent we will generate publicity beyond these shores.And it will be good publicity.And it will resonate.Mark my words. Cop the tip, and let’s do it together.