All very interesting but doesn't it miss one important point; the complete lack of respect for Anglo Saxon culture?
Anglo Saxon culture is equal in stature to Middle Eastern, Asian or South Asian cultures. By this I mean that Anglo Saxons have as much right to expect their cultural wishes to be respected as anyone else.... Green, Pink, Orange or Brown.
As an Anglo Saxon I regard haggling with deep suspicion... I am used to vendors advertising a clear and transparent price in an honest way. I do not expect to play silly buggers with vendors who hope to sucker me into paying an over inflated price. If you aren't prepared to give me an honest price then I'm not prepared to do business with you.... I can't even trust you to be honest about the price.
I also resent dealing with people who freely enter into a contract and then see nothing wrong with attempting to haggle down the final price.... as in Dave Drane's case. This is NOT how commercial transactions are conducted in my culture... if you pull this trick then you will be regarded as an untrustworthy by Anglo Saxons. I phone Mr Drane and ask him to make me a sign, we agree what is going to be produced and how much the price will be... when Mr Drane delivers the sign and I hand over the precise amount of money we agreed should be paid. We both know the agreement and we are both honour bound to stick to it.
Obviously if one were wandering through the back streets of Cairo or Mumbai one would expect to follow local practice and accept that haggling and renegotiation were the cultural "done thing". This being the case I see no reason why people from Lahore or the Lebanon feel it is appropriate to ignore the Anglo Saxon way of doing things when in the US, UK or Australia... in these countries you don't haggle you don't renegotiate... you politely follow the "local custom" and do business in the accepted fashion.
We are far too ready to slap the "racist" label on anything which doesn't fit within the confines of some invented convention.... applying the same rules could lead you to argue that Asian communities who ignore Anglo Saxon practices are themselves "racist".
