http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freewinds

There are so many jobs in the US that would make me want to kill myself.

This joint expects low-paid workers to beg for tips from customers to subsidise their shitty wages, co-opts and brands basic courtesy into some grotesque ‘greeter’ job description, drapes sandwich boards over the desperate, and basically pisses all over fundamental human decency in the drive to disenfranchise, humiliate, and grind into the dust anyone who’s down on their luck.

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed,
Because I need someone to shit on.

And the utter scumbags who wholeheartedly approve of such a vile state of affairs are hell-bent on exporting this misery to every corner of the globe. That arch-scum Murdoch has just about eliminated the means to have a proper public debate about any of this, while getting most of the idiots on side… meanwhile, right-wing think tanks proliferate and fund lobbyists, undermine respect for science, erode workers’ rights, and all the rest of it…

The US was once a great source of hope, but the rancid black cancer at its heart has long since metastasised, and now the cause of its imminent death riddles the world.

Here’s a scary report from a few years ago by Waronwant.org and Intl Transport Workers’ Federation, called SWEAT SHIPS. This focuses on the kinds of horror stories cruise ship workers have experienced. I imagine it’s worse for some other kinds of workers at sea, where there are no cruisers or tourists to humor.
http://www.waronwant.org/attachments/Sweatships.pdf 

That isn’t a tip in any meaningful sense of the word. That’s just ‘the price,’ which gets distributed as ‘wages.’

On many cruise ships, tips aren’t distributed to each crew member by the passengers themselves. Passengers are asked to pay a suggested amount that will be distributed among all the crew.

I’m guessing the ‘performance targets’ are meant to ensure that someone can’t do a C- job and get the same tip as someone who does an A+ job. But there has to be a better way.

Wait a sec … doesn’t that completely defeat the point of tipping? If I’m getting paid by tips, why do I need ‘performance targets’? If I’m getting tips, how can I not be meeting any rational ‘performance targets’?

I am so glad tipping hasn’t taken hold here (yet?). Just pay people a decent wage, and get on with it. That whole tipping economy seems to set up perverse incentives, for everyone involved, even when the staff do actually /get/ their tips.

I don’t think that’s the case in many countries outside the USA. A fair chunk of income perhaps, the bulk, not likely.

Just maybe not quite as awful when you take room/board into account.

‘Room’ in this case consists of a tiny bunk in a windowless closet that you share with your coworkers.

Again, Carnival may be totally different, I wouldn’t know.

Again, not saying it’s right. Just maybe not quite as awful when you take room/board into account.

The less objective the measurement of the performance of “talent” can be, it seems, the higher it is remunerated.

Again, not saying this is what Carnival does, yada yada.