Freeloading, mooching and other parasitical behavior

I once ate half of Ironman’s Bambi off of his plate at Carnage. And he paid for the whole meal :blush:

Why did I do it? :s Cuz it was yummy?

But, seriously, why does anyone mooch, freeload at the expense of others? Is it personal, cultural, purely economical?

In my culture moochers are considered pretty much the lowest of the lowest. Being able to pay for yourself and often for others is a matter of pride and face in the Balkans.

In my adopted culture Holland, however, there’s no showoff mentality, so there’s a lot less “on the house” and a lot more “looking for the best bargain”.

I guess somewhere between those two would be the best way to go. IMO anyway.

How about you? Do you hate moochers? Are you one yourself? If so, tell us why you do it?

I’ll share my thoughts over lunch sometime. You’re buying, right?

I’m Scottish. We don’t call it mooching. We call it common sense. :wink:

And yet, they’re so generous with their scorn? :laughing:

HG

You’re just trying to scare me out of collecting that cup of coffee you still owe me…

I hate freeloaders. Guys who’ll accept a pint and never return the favour, and my personal favourite moocher. The cigarette bummer. It boggles my mind why you have to bum fags off other people. Either you smoke or you don’t. If you don’t, fine. If you do, buy your own bloody cigarettes… :fume:

As to the drinking, whenever someone buys me a beer or a shot I always return the favour. If not on the same day, definitely the next time I see the person.

Why did I share? Because your company is delightful. I’ll be very happy to repeat the experience in the future.

Anyway, more calorie sharing than free loading. Carnage provide a big feed.

[quote=“bismarck”]I hate freeloaders. Guys who’ll accept a pint and never return the favour, and my personal favourite moocher. The cigarette bummer. It boggles my mind why you have to bum fags off other people. Either you smoke or you don’t. If you don’t, fine. If you do, buy your own bloody cigarettes… :fume:

As to the drinking, whenever someone buys me a beer or a shot I always return the favour. If not on the same day, definitely the next time I see the person.[/quote]

:bravo:

I will buy you a pint for that.

BroonAgrees

my fave is the group drinking session where the moocher waits til the 5th, 6th, 7th, whatever beer and excuses themselves in order to avoid buying their round.

The pool is shallow on this end…Dive elsewhere!!!

Friendship is reciprocation not expectation…Jeeezuz.

Damn, do I owe you too? I’m actually a generous guy but I have skipped out of necessity from time to time, certainly I owe Taipei Bob a beer or ten, otherwise, aside from you, I’m in good stead . . . I think?

HG

[quote=“M0NSTER”]The pool is shallow on this end…Dive elsewhere!!!

Friendship is reciprocation not expectation…Jeeezuz.[/quote]

Point taken, but for the most part a moocher isn’t a real friend. Just some casual acquintance at the pub who bums cigs off you and tries to get away with a free beer or two…

Gotta say it folks, but I reckon the Taiwanese have got it all over the barbarians on this one…

I’ve never been out with a bunch of locals and had problems about who picks-up the tab. There’s usually a race for the cash register at the end of the meal or drinking session. It certainly aint the same when I go out with a bunch of hairy-arsed types (i.e. foreigners). There’s all that shite about splitting the bill, and “who’s round is it?” blah, blah, blah… Really anti-social stuff. Here we are, some of the best paid stiffs in the country, and we still insist on splitting the bill?! Jeeesus…

In my view, foreigner often = tightarse. Chinese custom beats ours hands-down when it comes to socializing.

NB: THAT’S the first time in ages I’ve said something positive about Taiwan. Think I’m going soft…

Some people are just scrooges. Smooching is only one of many affections caused by scroogeness.

bobepine

Freeloading is my #1 gripe with Filipino culture. It seems that so much of their culture is built around mooching…take the example of the Filipina working in Taiwan, who sends money back to support her family. “So, do your mother, father, sisters, brothers, cousins have jobs back home?” “No, I’m the breadwinner, I support them all…” :fume: No wonder that country will always be a third-world economic basketcase.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed my holidays down there, but the constant “share the wealth, moneybags gringo” attitude got very annoying very fast. I understand that many people are poor, but the ingrained cultural attitude of non-self-reliance partially explains why so many of them are poor.

[quote=“guangtou”]Gotta say it folks, but I reckon the Taiwanese have got it all over the barbarians on this one…

I’ve never been out with a bunch of locals and had problems about who picks-up the tab. There’s usually a race for the cash register at the end of the meal or drinking session. It certainly aint the same when I go out with a bunch of hairy-arsed types (i.e. foreigners). There’s all that shite about splitting the bill, and “who’s round is it?” blah, blah, blah… Really anti-social stuff. Here we are, some of the best paid stiffs in the country, and we still insist on splitting the bill?! Jeeesus…

In my view, foreigner often = tightarse. Chinese custom beats ours hands-down when it comes to socializing.

NB: THAT’S the first time in ages I’ve said something positive about Taiwan. Think I’m going soft…[/quote]

Now that’s solid! :bravo:

bobepine

My experience echoes Guangtou’s. I generally dislike the whole “face” culture, but for once, it does have its advantages.

[quote]Why did I share? Because your company is delightful. I’ll be very happy to repeat the experience in the future.
[/quote]

You’ve been duped.
I always steal off Tashes plate at every opportunity, so don’t worry. What comes around, goes around.
You don’t need to be polite to her either. Just tell her what you are thinking: “Piss off and buy your own nosh.”

I always come off worse with the round thing though. I don’t generally drink beer and usually have coke or something else of similar sissyness, so I lose out big time when it’s my round. :fume: :slight_smile:

Jees, I went to the bathroom, man. And when I got out you’d all vanished. Really.

[quote=“guangtou”]Gotta say it folks, but I reckon the Taiwanese have got it all over the barbarians on this one…

I’ve never been out with a bunch of locals and had problems about who picks-up the tab. There’s usually a race for the cash register at the end of the meal or drinking session. It certainly aint the same when I go out with a bunch of hairy-arsed types (i.e. foreigners). There’s all that shite about splitting the bill, and “who’s round is it?” blah, blah, blah… Really anti-social stuff. Here we are, some of the best paid stiffs in the country, and we still insist on splitting the bill?! Jeeesus…

In my view, foreigner often = tightarse. Chinese custom beats ours hands-down when it comes to socializing.

NB: THAT’S the first time in ages I’ve said something positive about Taiwan. Think I’m going soft…[/quote]

Point taken you are right… but thats a whole face thing…in perhaps every other area the locals will be cheaper…(except perhaps fashion because that also involves face). I don’t like to be cheap with food or with travel.

For example, its ok to eat 50 NT (wouldn’t feed it to my dog) lunchboxes everyday so that they can afford to buy a real $30,000 NT LV f’ing handbag… By the time they’ve bought the damn thing, they have no money to put in it. (I swear their are more Taiwanese women than Italian women with LV.)

I could get a 6-pack of LV handbags (but I’m not buying into the “man-bag” thing) from Shenzhen for $1000 NT that look exactly the same!

“But its not real!!” they exclaim behind their pearlescent SKII expressions of horror.