Sorry, whether or not you return your tray or make things neat and leave your tray on the table is really besides the point.

The question should be why our elderly need to be employed to do such menial labour in the first place. Our much vaunted social safety nets obviously aren't working.

Another reason this argument doesn't hold water: many places increasingly higher foreigners instead of local elderly folks to be cleaners.

Oh yes, and by that logic, we should all throw litter anywhere we like. We don't want road sweepers to be out of jobs too.

We never had social and safety nets in the first place. Not from the gahment, who is always willing to push stuff over to the families.

This issue is something that I have a big dilemma about. Ultimately I think it's better for them to be staying in a crap job rather than for them to lose their jobs. I would rather see them scurrying around to clean up after people rather than see them haul cardboard boxes, go around eating other peoples' leftovers, scrounging around for used drink cans. It's still a real job and carries with it the dignity of one.

At the same time we do have to do something about the greedy landlord leeches. The only satisfaction I get from the last week's stock markets is that some of them are bleeding from the ass as we speak.

Returning your tray is all about cleaning up after yourself. Not about someone losing their job.

If this is about a make-work project to keep someone employed, for everyone who returns their tray there will be ten others who won't. So there is no difference.

What if those cleaners are FTs who snatched jobs from our old and needy leh?

this article is abt dirty trays..what has it to do with social nets and FTs?????

in any case, wats wrong with leaving dirty trays? u dont clear your plates when u eat at restaurants.

granted hawker centres are cheaper places, but i seriously dont see any big deal about people clearing up for us. this is part of the deal why I eat out.

And I see no big deal clearing up after ourselves. Doesn't take one much effort to return your used trays etc. You are not asked to wash your own plates when you eat out, but you have to wash your plates when you eat at home. So there's a "deal"

this is part of the deal why I eat out.

Trackback from Vacuum State:

What we need is a going back to building more government hawker centres, where rents are cheap, food prices are low with delicious food cooked by independent local hawkers....

Trackback from Vacuum State:

Food centres should train their cleaners that efficiency and honesty are not enough. Instead, they should be looking out to serve customers...

They keep on increasing food prices and expect customers to help them in cleaning up tables. It will never work in hawker centres. In private canteens, eg like in NUS, the food prices are relatively cheap and the system of returning plates works very well. Everyone does it.

I have stopped patronising foodcourts at Funan and Raffles City which I used to go often. Ridiculous coffee prices. That is how I protest. If you keep going back even though you are short changed, then you have not one to blame but yourself for allowing them to treat you as a fool.

I don't understand. Does it mean we have to patronise the foodcourt just to keep the aunties and uncles employed? And let the unscrupulous businessmen pass the buck to us and get away with it? Even if we go more often, it does not guarantee they can get more pay or keep their jobs. If we really want to help, donate directly to them instead of giving business to robbers.

Now I understand. You are doing a good thing :)

The newspaper bombarded readers days after days of this one-sided view about returning trays = gracious society. There should be two sides to a coin.

My parents were hawkers and I used to serve food to customer (ie, bring the food to the table where the customer is seated, no matter how far he/she is seated) and clean the tables. This is part of the job of being a hawker. Now that my family no longer has to slog ourselves in the hawker centre, we have to clear our own trays after paying money ???

From the roadside stall during kampung days to the early days of hawker centres, the hawkers cook the food, serve the customer and clean the table. Hmm, returning trays is no longer a service but become a responsibility of customers to be gracious, because we have to ape the Americans.

I don't why there is so much emphasis by our govt and press helping the "To Have" such as McDonalds and Kopitiam . They should be helping the 'Have Not' instead. Kopitiam increased their price by at least 50 cent after some lame renovations, and it is my social responsibility to help the owner to be richer ?

If there is a welfare scheme for the old folks and they no longer have to work in order to survive, I will willingly clear the tables.

Returning trays = gracious society? This argument is just as good as the following: Increasing minister's pay is for the good of Singaporeans, Increasing GST is to help the poor. Just take the 147th (?) rantings with a spoonful of salt lah!

I am glad to read that more pple are seeing through this rubbish exercise of asking customers to do the job of kopitiam/foodcourt towkays. The issue is never about helping cleaning aunties. The help-auntie argument is so stupid bcos once kopitiams find it cheaper to employyoung and strong foreign workers to do the cleaning job, the basis of asking pple to clear their own plates would collapse. The stupidity of the argument is also obvious when you consider a family eating zhr char consisiting of a variety of dishes like chilli crab n soup - how to clear the table? Might as well ask them to mop the floor.

In Asia, for the longest time, it has always been a practice for responsible hawkers to serve you food and clear their tables ASAP. Today, responsible hawkers in Asia still continue this practice. Go check out the older hawker centres like those in Aljunied. Serving customers their food in the old hawker centres and clearing tables ASAP is no big deal. The only problem today is that the owners of new kopitiams and foodcentres are maximising their profits by refusing to employ enuff workers to clear tables or to pay workers sufficient wages. If u pay ur workers pittance, obviously they will tend to eat snake and clear tables slowly on purpose. (And what is the ubiquitous "self-service" nonsense imported from fast food restaurants?)

This nonsensical Western practice of queuing up for your food and clearing plates in fast food restaurants clearly has no relevance in Asia society.

The clean-up-after-yourself argument is also nonsensical. You clean up after yourself when u eat at home so that ur mother does not have to do it for u. But when u eat outside and pay for your food, it is legitimate to expect the owners of restuarants, kopitiams, food court to do the cleaning up for you. If hawkers who run individual stalls can clear tables ASAP all this while and even serve food to your table, there is no reason why kopitiams and food courts cant do it. Consumers are being bullied to do the job of the modern day kopitiams and foodcourts and misguided fools are starting national campaigns which say that it is gracious to help kopitiams and foodcourts maximise their profits!!!! LOL

The clean-up-after-yourself argument is also nonsensical. You clean up after yourself when u eat at home so that ur mother does not have to do it for u. But when u eat outside and pay for your food, it is legitimate to expect the owners of restuarants, kopitiams, food court to do the cleaning up for you. If hawkers who run individual stalls can clear tables ASAP all this while and even serve food to your table, there is no reason why kopitiams and food courts cant do it. Consumers are being bullied to do the job of the modern day kopitiams and foodcourts and misguided fools are starting national campaigns which say that it is gracious to help kopitiams and foodcourts maximise their profits!!!! LOL