On Saturday, I came across the below Blondie comic while reading the paper…

This “Blondie” comic touches on something that is very prevalent in American society today.

It stood out to me because I was shamed recently at a McDonald’s drive-thru for not rounding up for whatever good cause they were pushing at the time. Lucky for me, the shame didn’t come from the cars behind me (could you imagine the honking and jeers?) but just from the McDonald’s employee who was taking the drive-thru orders. To be fair, this particular employee was being trained and probably didn’t know that hassling customers to round up beyond the standard initial solicitation isn’t a best practice.

But perhaps I deserved it? After all, literally giving cents would seem like the absolute least a person could do to give back. However, and this probably isn’t a good excuse, but I feel like I am experiencing “round up” fatigue. From every transaction we make at the grocery store to every Domino’s pizza we purchase and absolutely everything else in-between we get asked to round up to the nearest dollar.

Then again, I might need to get over this “fatigue.” Because as I think about the round up practice—which has become just as common as every person in America asking for a 20% gratuity—I have to admit that it is probably the quickest, least invasive, and non-cost prohibitive way of raising money for charities and worthy initiatives. How hard is it to round up a $19.43 bill to $20?

Obviously for me it is a conundrum and that should probably be a wake up call that I need to be more generous. But I think that wake up call needs to come from my own personal conscience and not at the urging/shame of another person.

Do you have thoughts, practices, or philosophies when it comes to rounding up your bill? Don’t Blink.