…on Facebook, about tipping and social justice, prompted by this Zadie Smith essay.

I’m not going to complain about Britain’s “lack of a service culture”—it’s one of the things I cherish about the place. I don’t think any nation should elevate service to the status of culture. At best, it’s a practicality, to be enacted politely and decently by both parties, but no one should be asked to pretend that the intimate satisfaction of her existence is servicing you, the “guest,” with a shrimp sandwich wrapped in plastic. If the choice is between the antic all-singing, all-dancing employees in New York’s Astor Place Pret-A-Manger and the stony-faced contempt of just about everybody behind a food counter in London (including all the Prets), I wholeheartedly opt for the latter. We are subject to enough delusions in this life without adding to them the belief that the girl with the name tag is secretly in love with us.

Zadie Smith is certainly welcome to feel however she wants, but as a general proposition, this is absurd. When I pointed that out to my Facebook friend who posted the essay, noting that it seemed to reflect a particularly fatalistic, classist and British view of the world, a Londoner lit into me, accusing me of anti-Brit classism. (The argument is a little tortured, but whatever.)

This has now devolved into a discussion of which universities promote greater social diversity and economic advancement, English or U.S. ones, and particularly Cambridge versus Harvard. (Hint: I’m on the American side.)

Take a look at the essay, it’s interesting.