Talk back

Readers respond to Work & Money and Business section coverage

Why do restaurant servers expect higher-percentage tips?

I read your article on waiting and tips in Sunday's N&O ("Lower base pay and smaller tips are giving waitress and waiters the summertime blues," Work&Money). One thing I don't understand is why the percentage rate for tipping is expected to rise. Since a tip is a percentage of the tab, as the tab rises with inflation, the tip automatically rises, even when the percentage rate remains constant. By asking for a higher tip percentage, waiters, in effect, are trying to get an even bigger piece of an increasing pie.

One thing in your article surprised me: that a waiter's legally-required minimum wage actually decreased last month. That is unconscionable.

What should really be done is to pay wait staff a decent wage and eliminate tipping completely. If this is done properly, the final tab for a meal will remain the same.

Bob Mason

Wake Forest

Donating PCs: Who wants them; is gift tax deductible?

I read your article in the N&O ("In donating computer, erase hard drive entirely," Stump the Geeks, Aug. 13) about clearing out the hard drive and reinstalling operating system in computers that you wish to donate.

To whom can you donate these computers? Is such a donation tax deductible? Who would determine the fair market value? Who would provide the necessary documentation for tax purposes? Thank you in advance for providing me any information that you have.

Max Harris

Raleigh

From Stump the Geeks columnist Anne Krishnan: Thanks for your e-mail. I'm sure there are many worthy organizations out there, but one I'm familiar with is the Kramden Institute, which refurbishes home computers for disadvantaged children. The donations are tax deductible, and you can find the answers to your questions on the Durham group's Web site, www.kramden.org.

Keep following Bayer, pesticides, honeybee saga

Good article on honeybees this morning ("Bayer on the defensive in bee deaths," Triangle&Co., Aug. 26). I have several comments:

* That's not a honeybee in the photo at the top right of the front page of the B section. Tell whoever did that that little details matter.

* The Natural Resources Defense Council filed a Freedom of Information Act request for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data months ago.

The EPA missed the deadline to provide data, that's why the NRDC filed a lawsuit Aug. 19. If the EPA and Bayer CropScience are covering up damaging information, they both need to be held responsible.

* I feel that a follow up story is in order. Who sells this product in North Carolina? Who buys it? How much of it is being spread around? Where? How much seed coming into the state is coated with that chemical? Has N.C. State or the N.C. Agriculture Department done any research on toxicity?

This has to be one of the most important stories you cover. This concerns our nationwide food supply, and there aren't too many other issues that hit that level of importance. Please, for the love of God, country and honeybees, stay on top of them.

David Lee

Apex

College degree might not pay off in workplace

The Work&Money story "Where to go for a loan"(Aug. 17), did a wonderful job of pointing out that student loans are getting harder to obtain. There is a disparity between rising inflation (just over 4 percent) and the rising cost of college (just over 7 percent). There must be a point at which parents and students discover that the cost of college to be too high relative to the income produced as a result of that degree. Ten years after graduating from college, a full 80 percent of workers have moved on to an occupation unrelated to their college degrees. The question that has not been answered is where to draw that line and simply enter the work force as an apprentice or as a new business owner.

Justin Lukasavige, LukasCoaching.com

Apex