Hey there, my husband is actually Filipino. You're right about the difference, though. Filipinos do see money as a private matter and having lots of parties and giving lots of random gifts is encouraged. I am not really used to that yet because I never had a huge family before. I think Filipinos are more westernized because of a heavy Spanish/Catholic influence so they are sort of different from the Chinese. My in-laws are sorta more spendy than my parents, too. It's pretty interesting, but we get along pretty well.
In the post she said "This means that young people like me probably cannot count on solely Social Security for our retirement."
Social Security was always meant to be an addition to personal retirement savings or pensions. So many people have come to believe that SS will be there to meet all their needs in retirement, when it just wont cover everything.
So, now with most employers no longer offering pensions, it is vital that we are all investing for our futures in Roth's or traditional accounts.
Another thing to consider with SS is the vast numbers of people needed to keep paying into the system to keep benefits at current levels. When the baby boomers start retiring en masse in the next 7-10 years, there will be a big drain on the entire system. Take away the 48+ million future contributors to SS that have been aborted the last 30 or so years, and you can see one of the factors eroding the entire SS system.
i was a bartender for the whole length of my twenties, i am now 37 and retired. i never, ever, ever, ever bought a woman a drink because of their looks. ever, period. i could never stoop to that banal of a level. it is degrading to me to imagine myself doing that (that would mean the woman wins based on her looks, not skills). i worked in the "a" clubs in my city, i am alright to look at, i know bar patrons. and women who expected a free drink from me never received one. i did, however, give away THOUSANDS of drinks to people, male and female, who were great customers. that was my only qualifier for special service. good looking girls who get freebies are losers...if you accept a freebie because of your appearance, you just given your gender another step in the wrong direction.
Yeah, I personally think private accounts are a good idea because it is like a government mandated savings plan and you have your name on it. Right now I feel like I'm paying for random people who could be irresponsible with money for all I know. The worst part is as commenter #1 says, if I don't pay I could land in jail.
Why do you think they fought Bush so hard over the Private Accounts you could put part of your Social Security in???
My parents both died just before they were able to collect the first dime and made enough that they paid the Maximum into the system all their lives.
I figured out that if even Bushes 2% had been put into a Private account over their lives and into a stock market mutual fund the account would have had over $250,000 in it.
But if you can actually look at an account with your name on it and see it grow over time it suddenly is "Yours" and the government can't allow that...especially because you want to leave it to your heirs..or god forbid the heirs see how much they Would Have gotten.
Every dime my parents paid in was lost even to them because they died before retirement age and the government keeps all the money.
And just wait...as the insolvency deepens they will look to tax any source of revenue they can....and where will the money be then...Why in ROTH IRA's!!!!
Don't ever believe that they will always remain Tax Free!!!!!
This is probably nothing new, but here I go anyways...the worse quirk about the whole system is that the Social Security Trust Fund is held in Treasury Bonds.
This means that whatever money that goes into the Trust Fund (amounts above the current payout) is nothing more that a big fat I.O.U. from Congress. The money doesn't sit there waiting, it gets spent in the current budget.
Once the out-go exceeds the funds going in, Congress will have to start paying benefits out of the Trust Fund, ie. paying back on those Tresaury Bonds, which comes out of currently collected taxes.
The only way that can happen is by either cutting back in other spending (which we know isn't going to happen) or raising tax revenues.
That is the moment that I'm scared of. I know Social Security won't be there for me, and I seriously doubt it will be there for my parents (with its current design).
What's wrong with a DVD for Mother's Day? Maybe that's what she wanted. When Valentine's Day rolls around, I tell my husband all I want is my favorite candy - Reese's peanut butter hearts.
Amen, Healthy Amelia! It drives me nuts when people latch onto some mention of gender, race, whatever, even if there was NO prejudicial content in the comment, and start screaming bloody murder. Don't read things that aren't there and then start blaming the author for it!
I do take exception to Coming Clean's response to Angela, however. She was clearly saying that she unintentionally gets better service due to coincidentally wearing a tight shirt (which, as has been pointed out, is likely due to the difficulty for large-chested ladies of finding well-fitting shirts off the rack--no pun intended). She is not oblivious about it. How could she comment on something she was oblivious to?? Her point was that it's not (always, or for all people) intentional. I do agree with his general point about attractiveness being linked to confidence as much as to actual physical beauty, but his treatment of Angela makes him come off like a complete douche. And THAT is unattractive.
to people who respond this way. I was annoyed at the waiter, and the barstaff, as was clearly indicated in my article.
And the DVD had major significance and is not the norm...my wife will tell you, when it comes to gift-giving I'll take the Pepsi challenge with anyone. Not that I really need to explain that to anyone, but there you go.
I have to come clean too. I wouldn't say I'm a babe, but I'm not plain either. I am, however, disabled, and I do sometimes play on that. I don't think the world/life/people etc owe me anything, but being disabled adds a lot of expenses that able-bodied people don't incur and I have to think smart in order to make ends meet.
I never emphasise or exaggerate my disability but the wheelchair is really obvious and if smiling extra hard, laughing at bad jokes and fluttering my eyelashes gets me favors, discounts or freebies/extras, I'll do it. I get what I want and they get to feel good about themselves.
Well... if this behavior is bothersome, shouldn't you be mad at the people GIVING the attention rather those who get the attention?
I mean... no one forces a group of men to help one little-bitty hot girl with a great rack while ignoring everyone else.
Or maybe (do Circuit City people work on commission?) your DVD (really? for Mother's Day? I'm just saying... ) wasn't flashing enough $$$signs compared to a Blu-Ray.
Yes, attractive women do sometimes get preferential treatment, but from what I've experienced they are not taken seriously in matters that require a brain (regardless of how intelligent they really are.) This is not the case with attractive men, at least not as far as I've noticed. This is just an observation, please do not read any bitterness into that statement. This is just how I've seen it.
Weight plays a role too. I was much heavier at one point and even though I still had a "pretty face" I felt pretty much ignored. I was never approached by sales associates, I was overlooked at work, etc. Then I lost 60+ lbs and was shocked when I realized why people were paying more attention to me all the sudden.
We have come a long way in this country, but we aren't there yet.
I think it would be very, very difficult to boycott all Chinese products. I do try to not purchase or use any products that go in my body or on it. (Clothes I don't mind as much but stuff like skin-care products....)
Here's a joke : Why are they building Wallmarts all across China?
So the Chinese will feel at home when they invade.
That joke was told to me by a former Wallmart employee. He said later his boss at work told him he should be careful about what he said, as one of the co-workers was "depressed" by the joke or something.
The question I have is if a married couple files a joint acct and it is according to the last two digits of the social security number which ssn do they use. Will the mail out two seperate checks on each ssn for 600 dollars.
I think by general population being more frugal will likely limit the swings we have seen in the economy. The reason for this would be that consumer habits will not be dictated by the general economic conditions. When people see imaginary net worth go up, they get the wealth effect created by the mirage and go on spending binge. This creates me-too effect on people who are not as well off and they follow suit with borrowed money. When the upswing ends, the piper has to be paid but there is no money left! What is left are junk people bought that is clogging their homes, that inevitable end up in dumps or selling for pennies on the dollar. This causes contraction in spending and many miseries, which leads to recession.
If people were more responsible with their personal finance and were frugal, their spending binge would not have occurred and consumption would remain constant regardless of the economy. Obviously, this will cause the boom cycle to be less extreme as we have been with dotcom and housing.
During the recessionary periods, people would continue to spend frugally, similar to during expansionary periods as they would have saved up money in savings for rainy days. As such, recessionary affects would be short-lived, or at least, not as bad as we have experienced as consumer spending would continue, which will stimulate the economy into recovery.
By looking at growing economies, this we can see examples of this, especially in Asia. During the 70s and 80s, Japanese economy grew double digits. This was followed by Asian Tigers economy in the 90s and China over the past 10 years. When these economies discover buying on credit was when the growth ended and started experiencing similar swings as we have seen in the US. During the growth phase all you hear is how the people in these regions are saving 30-40% of their income but by the time their economies falter, you hear about excessive consumption that brought them down. I think we should relearn our lesson from our past mistakes.
I've heard it said that attractive people are given better service due to a Darwin-like instinct to continue the species with only the most attractive, most fit, etc... Though I notice when I am put together all sorts of people are much kinder and more helpful to me than when I'm a mess. Could it be that instinct or is it the way we carry ourselves when we're more confident? I'm sure it factors in but we can't ignore the bias.
Oh, and in retail, women are supposed to be the wild card. Men will likely spend what they intended to spend. Women on the other hand usually spend more and respond to sales people sucking up or pressuring them. Or so goes the gender-biased rumor in the sales world.
I definitely benefit from my looks. I'm thin and delicate looking, and people assume that I'm sweet and harmless. I'm sure that's very handy in airports these days. And I know it helped me when I was a kid because I was very quiet. Often quiet people are assumed to be stuck-up or even psychotic. I was just shy. And and assumption of sweetness was much more pleasant than an assumption of haughtiness would have been.
Here's another weird reaction I get: I cut my hair once and people stopped referring to me as the one with the long hair and started referring to me as the one who's so skinny they want to kill me. What? My hair is long again.
People do sometimes assume I'm weaker or dumber than I am, but I kind of enjoy exceeding people's expectations (much more than not being able to meet them), so it works out for me.
I know someone who's bald and a little scary looking, and he uses that to his advantage. For example, at theatres, if someone's kicking the back of his seat, he says all he has to do is turn around and raise one eyebrow and the kicking stops for the entire duration of the movie.
And to the person who thinks someone with a DDD chest "chooses" to wear tight shirts, let me just inform you that it's not easy to find shirts that aren't tight when you are shaped like that. Women have very stupid clothing sizes. (Men can get dress shirts with different neck/chest ratios and pants with different waist/inseam ratios from the same company, but that is almost unheard of for women.)
I think that one of the reasons why buying an expensive television on credit makes one feel wealthy is because we live in a world full of abstractions. The majority of my banking is done through my bank's web-site. The only checks I write are for my doctor appointments and monthly rent. I rarely pay for anything in cash, preferring to use debit or credit cards (I always pay my balances in full). My pay-checks are direct-deposited to my bank. It's not much of a stretch to say that our money is literally floating our in the ether. I have six-figures in cash savings, but have never held in my hands more than $1,000. It takes discipline to understand, respect, and value something which is so intangible.
I think that when people splurge on expensive toys, it reflects a desire to have a tangible representation of wealth. I don't think this is anything new. But it's easier to spend frivolously when debt and savings are just numbers on paper or, more increasingly, pixels on a computer monitor.
I think this is a great discussion. I don’t find anything offensive in the post at all. I personally do not like the knee jerk reaction that anything that mentions sexuality or talks about gender differences in an offhand, fun way is automatically sexist. We live in a complex world. I would be really bored if every post had to go through a politically correct filter and all females were referred to only as “women” and males as “men”. Slang and colorful adjectives are what make blogs fun and interesting to read. And look at how much discussion has been spurred by this post. It’s OK to disagree but it doesn’t make the blogger a bad person because he doesn’t write about the subject in the same way that you would.
*I’m off to see what being a sassy redhead can get me!
I get what you are saying, but what I'm saying is that the outward appearance is interconnected with the inner confidence etc. I was going to avoid specifics, but consider the posters with the DDD's. There is no way they don't know full well the reactions they get from both men and women. This influences their confidence level, which exhibits itself in how they are perceived outwardly.
Similarly, when I see a pretty woman from a distance, I am intrigued, but if she proves herself to be a B****, she instantly becomes ugly to me, and she will be ignored accordingly.
I liked how one poster seemed oblivious that she got better treatment BECAUSE she had DDD's and a "tight shirt". Again, she chose to wear an outfit that elicited a specific response. Some people here seem to do just that, and then become offended when they get the response they were looking for.
My boyfriend was able to get away with a lot with his Irish accent (his good looks probably didn't hurt much either). He had the women at the bank swooning (despite the fact that they were 50+) and they were always to eager to help him, ask how he was doing, etc. I, on the other hand, didn't quite get the red carpet rolled out for me and despite the fact he's been back in Ireland for five months now, they still ask about him.
I think good looks (and sometimes a foreign accent) can help you get a little more service, mostly because people enjoy spending time with you. I've noticed on my trips abroad, I get paid a lot more attention when I open my mouth, because it's something rather new and exciting, and if you're nice to look at, well, people enjoy that.
I've found that even if you're of average looks, you can get a lot further with people if you just are polite and perhaps even a little flirty, it flatters whoever you're trying to get service from and makes them more inclined to go out of their way for you. If you're rotten on the inside and out, people can't wait to get away from you fast enough.
Hey there, my husband is actually Filipino. You're right about the difference, though. Filipinos do see money as a private matter and having lots of parties and giving lots of random gifts is encouraged. I am not really used to that yet because I never had a huge family before. I think Filipinos are more westernized because of a heavy Spanish/Catholic influence so they are sort of different from the Chinese. My in-laws are sorta more spendy than my parents, too. It's pretty interesting, but we get along pretty well.
In the post she said "This means that young people like me probably cannot count on solely Social Security for our retirement."
Social Security was always meant to be an addition to personal retirement savings or pensions. So many people have come to believe that SS will be there to meet all their needs in retirement, when it just wont cover everything.
So, now with most employers no longer offering pensions, it is vital that we are all investing for our futures in Roth's or traditional accounts.
Another thing to consider with SS is the vast numbers of people needed to keep paying into the system to keep benefits at current levels. When the baby boomers start retiring en masse in the next 7-10 years, there will be a big drain on the entire system. Take away the 48+ million future contributors to SS that have been aborted the last 30 or so years, and you can see one of the factors eroding the entire SS system.
i was a bartender for the whole length of my twenties, i am now 37 and retired. i never, ever, ever, ever bought a woman a drink because of their looks. ever, period. i could never stoop to that banal of a level. it is degrading to me to imagine myself doing that (that would mean the woman wins based on her looks, not skills). i worked in the "a" clubs in my city, i am alright to look at, i know bar patrons. and women who expected a free drink from me never received one. i did, however, give away THOUSANDS of drinks to people, male and female, who were great customers. that was my only qualifier for special service. good looking girls who get freebies are losers...if you accept a freebie because of your appearance, you just given your gender another step in the wrong direction.
Yeah, I personally think private accounts are a good idea because it is like a government mandated savings plan and you have your name on it. Right now I feel like I'm paying for random people who could be irresponsible with money for all I know. The worst part is as commenter #1 says, if I don't pay I could land in jail.
Why do you think they fought Bush so hard over the Private Accounts you could put part of your Social Security in???
My parents both died just before they were able to collect the first dime and made enough that they paid the Maximum into the system all their lives.
I figured out that if even Bushes 2% had been put into a Private account over their lives and into a stock market mutual fund the account would have had over $250,000 in it.
But if you can actually look at an account with your name on it and see it grow over time it suddenly is "Yours" and the government can't allow that...especially because you want to leave it to your heirs..or god forbid the heirs see how much they Would Have gotten.
Every dime my parents paid in was lost even to them because they died before retirement age and the government keeps all the money.
And just wait...as the insolvency deepens they will look to tax any source of revenue they can....and where will the money be then...Why in ROTH IRA's!!!!
Don't ever believe that they will always remain Tax Free!!!!!
This is probably nothing new, but here I go anyways...the worse quirk about the whole system is that the Social Security Trust Fund is held in Treasury Bonds.
This means that whatever money that goes into the Trust Fund (amounts above the current payout) is nothing more that a big fat I.O.U. from Congress. The money doesn't sit there waiting, it gets spent in the current budget.
Once the out-go exceeds the funds going in, Congress will have to start paying benefits out of the Trust Fund, ie. paying back on those Tresaury Bonds, which comes out of currently collected taxes.
The only way that can happen is by either cutting back in other spending (which we know isn't going to happen) or raising tax revenues.
That is the moment that I'm scared of. I know Social Security won't be there for me, and I seriously doubt it will be there for my parents (with its current design).
The Social Security Administration actually calls the program a "pay-as-you-go insurance system"
More accurately, it's a "pay-or-go-to-jail insurance system".
What's wrong with a DVD for Mother's Day? Maybe that's what she wanted. When Valentine's Day rolls around, I tell my husband all I want is my favorite candy - Reese's peanut butter hearts.
What's the Pepsi Challenge?
Amen, Healthy Amelia! It drives me nuts when people latch onto some mention of gender, race, whatever, even if there was NO prejudicial content in the comment, and start screaming bloody murder. Don't read things that aren't there and then start blaming the author for it!
I do take exception to Coming Clean's response to Angela, however. She was clearly saying that she unintentionally gets better service due to coincidentally wearing a tight shirt (which, as has been pointed out, is likely due to the difficulty for large-chested ladies of finding well-fitting shirts off the rack--no pun intended). She is not oblivious about it. How could she comment on something she was oblivious to?? Her point was that it's not (always, or for all people) intentional. I do agree with his general point about attractiveness being linked to confidence as much as to actual physical beauty, but his treatment of Angela makes him come off like a complete douche. And THAT is unattractive.
to people who respond this way. I was annoyed at the waiter, and the barstaff, as was clearly indicated in my article.
And the DVD had major significance and is not the norm...my wife will tell you, when it comes to gift-giving I'll take the Pepsi challenge with anyone. Not that I really need to explain that to anyone, but there you go.
I have to come clean too. I wouldn't say I'm a babe, but I'm not plain either. I am, however, disabled, and I do sometimes play on that. I don't think the world/life/people etc owe me anything, but being disabled adds a lot of expenses that able-bodied people don't incur and I have to think smart in order to make ends meet.
I never emphasise or exaggerate my disability but the wheelchair is really obvious and if smiling extra hard, laughing at bad jokes and fluttering my eyelashes gets me favors, discounts or freebies/extras, I'll do it. I get what I want and they get to feel good about themselves.
Well... if this behavior is bothersome, shouldn't you be mad at the people GIVING the attention rather those who get the attention?
I mean... no one forces a group of men to help one little-bitty hot girl with a great rack while ignoring everyone else.
Or maybe (do Circuit City people work on commission?) your DVD (really? for Mother's Day? I'm just saying... ) wasn't flashing enough $$$signs compared to a Blu-Ray.
Absolutely! Well said.
If anything, it should be a permanent holiday.
On a joint return you get a combined payment. The schedule is determined by the social security number listed first on the return.
Yes, attractive women do sometimes get preferential treatment, but from what I've experienced they are not taken seriously in matters that require a brain (regardless of how intelligent they really are.) This is not the case with attractive men, at least not as far as I've noticed. This is just an observation, please do not read any bitterness into that statement. This is just how I've seen it.
Weight plays a role too. I was much heavier at one point and even though I still had a "pretty face" I felt pretty much ignored. I was never approached by sales associates, I was overlooked at work, etc. Then I lost 60+ lbs and was shocked when I realized why people were paying more attention to me all the sudden.
We have come a long way in this country, but we aren't there yet.
I think it would be very, very difficult to boycott all Chinese products. I do try to not purchase or use any products that go in my body or on it. (Clothes I don't mind as much but stuff like skin-care products....)
Here's a joke : Why are they building Wallmarts all across China?
So the Chinese will feel at home when they invade.
That joke was told to me by a former Wallmart employee. He said later his boss at work told him he should be careful about what he said, as one of the co-workers was "depressed" by the joke or something.
"Doghouse Reilly"
The question I have is if a married couple files a joint acct and it is according to the last two digits of the social security number which ssn do they use. Will the mail out two seperate checks on each ssn for 600 dollars.
I think by general population being more frugal will likely limit the swings we have seen in the economy. The reason for this would be that consumer habits will not be dictated by the general economic conditions. When people see imaginary net worth go up, they get the wealth effect created by the mirage and go on spending binge. This creates me-too effect on people who are not as well off and they follow suit with borrowed money. When the upswing ends, the piper has to be paid but there is no money left! What is left are junk people bought that is clogging their homes, that inevitable end up in dumps or selling for pennies on the dollar. This causes contraction in spending and many miseries, which leads to recession.
If people were more responsible with their personal finance and were frugal, their spending binge would not have occurred and consumption would remain constant regardless of the economy. Obviously, this will cause the boom cycle to be less extreme as we have been with dotcom and housing.
During the recessionary periods, people would continue to spend frugally, similar to during expansionary periods as they would have saved up money in savings for rainy days. As such, recessionary affects would be short-lived, or at least, not as bad as we have experienced as consumer spending would continue, which will stimulate the economy into recovery.
By looking at growing economies, this we can see examples of this, especially in Asia. During the 70s and 80s, Japanese economy grew double digits. This was followed by Asian Tigers economy in the 90s and China over the past 10 years. When these economies discover buying on credit was when the growth ended and started experiencing similar swings as we have seen in the US. During the growth phase all you hear is how the people in these regions are saving 30-40% of their income but by the time their economies falter, you hear about excessive consumption that brought them down. I think we should relearn our lesson from our past mistakes.
I've heard it said that attractive people are given better service due to a Darwin-like instinct to continue the species with only the most attractive, most fit, etc... Though I notice when I am put together all sorts of people are much kinder and more helpful to me than when I'm a mess. Could it be that instinct or is it the way we carry ourselves when we're more confident? I'm sure it factors in but we can't ignore the bias.
Oh, and in retail, women are supposed to be the wild card. Men will likely spend what they intended to spend. Women on the other hand usually spend more and respond to sales people sucking up or pressuring them. Or so goes the gender-biased rumor in the sales world.
I definitely benefit from my looks. I'm thin and delicate looking, and people assume that I'm sweet and harmless. I'm sure that's very handy in airports these days. And I know it helped me when I was a kid because I was very quiet. Often quiet people are assumed to be stuck-up or even psychotic. I was just shy. And and assumption of sweetness was much more pleasant than an assumption of haughtiness would have been.
Here's another weird reaction I get: I cut my hair once and people stopped referring to me as the one with the long hair and started referring to me as the one who's so skinny they want to kill me. What? My hair is long again.
People do sometimes assume I'm weaker or dumber than I am, but I kind of enjoy exceeding people's expectations (much more than not being able to meet them), so it works out for me.
I know someone who's bald and a little scary looking, and he uses that to his advantage. For example, at theatres, if someone's kicking the back of his seat, he says all he has to do is turn around and raise one eyebrow and the kicking stops for the entire duration of the movie.
And to the person who thinks someone with a DDD chest "chooses" to wear tight shirts, let me just inform you that it's not easy to find shirts that aren't tight when you are shaped like that. Women have very stupid clothing sizes. (Men can get dress shirts with different neck/chest ratios and pants with different waist/inseam ratios from the same company, but that is almost unheard of for women.)
I think that one of the reasons why buying an expensive television on credit makes one feel wealthy is because we live in a world full of abstractions. The majority of my banking is done through my bank's web-site. The only checks I write are for my doctor appointments and monthly rent. I rarely pay for anything in cash, preferring to use debit or credit cards (I always pay my balances in full). My pay-checks are direct-deposited to my bank. It's not much of a stretch to say that our money is literally floating our in the ether. I have six-figures in cash savings, but have never held in my hands more than $1,000. It takes discipline to understand, respect, and value something which is so intangible.
I think that when people splurge on expensive toys, it reflects a desire to have a tangible representation of wealth. I don't think this is anything new. But it's easier to spend frivolously when debt and savings are just numbers on paper or, more increasingly, pixels on a computer monitor.
I think this is a great discussion. I don’t find anything offensive in the post at all. I personally do not like the knee jerk reaction that anything that mentions sexuality or talks about gender differences in an offhand, fun way is automatically sexist. We live in a complex world. I would be really bored if every post had to go through a politically correct filter and all females were referred to only as “women” and males as “men”. Slang and colorful adjectives are what make blogs fun and interesting to read. And look at how much discussion has been spurred by this post. It’s OK to disagree but it doesn’t make the blogger a bad person because he doesn’t write about the subject in the same way that you would.
*I’m off to see what being a sassy redhead can get me!
I get what you are saying, but what I'm saying is that the outward appearance is interconnected with the inner confidence etc. I was going to avoid specifics, but consider the posters with the DDD's. There is no way they don't know full well the reactions they get from both men and women. This influences their confidence level, which exhibits itself in how they are perceived outwardly.
Similarly, when I see a pretty woman from a distance, I am intrigued, but if she proves herself to be a B****, she instantly becomes ugly to me, and she will be ignored accordingly.
I liked how one poster seemed oblivious that she got better treatment BECAUSE she had DDD's and a "tight shirt". Again, she chose to wear an outfit that elicited a specific response. Some people here seem to do just that, and then become offended when they get the response they were looking for.
My boyfriend was able to get away with a lot with his Irish accent (his good looks probably didn't hurt much either). He had the women at the bank swooning (despite the fact that they were 50+) and they were always to eager to help him, ask how he was doing, etc. I, on the other hand, didn't quite get the red carpet rolled out for me and despite the fact he's been back in Ireland for five months now, they still ask about him.
I think good looks (and sometimes a foreign accent) can help you get a little more service, mostly because people enjoy spending time with you. I've noticed on my trips abroad, I get paid a lot more attention when I open my mouth, because it's something rather new and exciting, and if you're nice to look at, well, people enjoy that.
I've found that even if you're of average looks, you can get a lot further with people if you just are polite and perhaps even a little flirty, it flatters whoever you're trying to get service from and makes them more inclined to go out of their way for you. If you're rotten on the inside and out, people can't wait to get away from you fast enough.