INDUSTRY.co.id - “Go Dutch” is more than a method of paying bill. It encompasses the way people perceive money, lifestyle, responsibility, friendship and more. It is a window to our culture: the values, norms and mores. “Go Dutch” is a common term referred to when each person participating in a paid activity covers their own expenses. Collins dictionary defines “Going Dutch” as “If two or more people go Dutch, each of them pays their own bill, for example in a restaurant”. The term is said to originate from the concept of a traditional Dutch door whose upper and lower parts can be opened independently.
The practice of Dutch paying has been common in Europe and North America for decades whereas a contradictory phenomenon prevailed in Asia, Middle East and South American countries. Nowadays, “Go Dutch” is considered a logical method of payment and has been widely accepted across the globe. Aside from the everyday experience of college life of the author, introduction of popular mobile applications such as Venmo, Splitwise and Settle Up and new features of Point of Sale (POS) restaurant software which offers split-bill, further enforces the argument that the differences of opinion on the concept of “Go Dutch” has been breached.
The term 'Go Dutch" originates from a country of merchants, bankers and high-finance, the Netherlands, home to first modern central bank. It wouldn't be too far-fetching to be classified as inherently Western. Tracing back to the clear distinction between the principles of Western and Eastern philosophy, it is bound to result in different values, norms and mores which make up the fundamentals of the corresponding culture. There is ample evidence that some stereotypes such that Westerners are more individualists whereas Easterners (Asians) are more community-based is anything but stereotype. No wonder, as the philosophical underpinnings create various cultures.
The current trend of “Go Dutch” popularity provides some ground to the argument that there is a cultural transition from a community-based to individualist, in other words, becoming more Western-oriented. Before unveiling the underlying implications of the act, a brief overlook on the relationship between philosophy, culture and Business ethics.
What drives the human evolution of physical realm is economy in which multinational corporations and other large, small and medium businesses play central role. Effectiveness and efficiency are the core principle of managing a business, in other words, getting the most out of limited resources and thus making profit is the responsibility of the business. However, the term “Care Ethics” (In a different voice, 1982) has emerged as a contemporary ethical theory and has paved the way for a new type of business responsibility. In addition to a business’s responsibility to its shareholders, care ethics implies that the responsibility should be stretched beyond them to all stakeholders involved. This is commonly referred to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and is studied in the academics of business ethics: rules, principles, and standards for deciding what is morally right or wrong when doing business. As business is an essential part of our life, it can be justified to say that all of us uphold some type of business ethics principle, whether we realise it or not.
“Business ethics as part of culture, does not happen in vacuum or isolation”
( Scholtens and Dam, 2007)
In the Era of globalization and technological advancements, rapid changes are taking place everywhere: whether it be the physical and social surroundings, societal views on ideal life and even the way we interact. One of the commonly perceptions are that the youth of today are all about social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and etc.), eagerly following fashion trends and also very fortunate to have been given such excellent condition for academics with free online courses and endless data for referencing. Whether that is true or not is irrelevant. The importance lies in the fact that youth are surely different from their previous generations as a result of the dynamics of changing externalities, as the generation before them had been different compared to their past generations.
A typical university student in a city is bound to hang out with friends, often times for a meal or entertainment purposes. As long as it isn’t a mountainous area where one can hunt or swim in the seaside as extracurricular, pocket money is a must. Any meal at a restaurant follows a moment to pay. It is perfectly okay to split the bill since everyone is good friends and its been agreed upon beforehand. In this case, there isn’t any awkwardness. The reason this is okay is because there is common understanding that each one present is financially capable of paying for their share.
In Asian countries such as India, Bangladesh and Philippines the term literally translates to “You for your and me for mine”. In Indonesia, the synonym term for “Go Dutch” is “Bayar masing masing” which literally translates to “each pay individually”. This phenomenon is perceived to be economically efficient on the financial side and implied to promote awareness of equality (gender, age gap, class and etc.) of the individuals on the societal status side. That would be the argument from the individualist approach of ethical theories. It is no wonder that the phenomenon originates from western countries where individualist ethical theory is predominant.
However, there is another side to this seemingly independent, equality boosting and proud method of payment. One equality that “Go Dutch” implies, if at all, is the economic/ financial equality. People are deemed equal in terms of their paying capability and may as well imply that one of the aspects that define whether a person is equal or not derives from their propensity to earn money. As this phenomenon becomes more widely accepted, the tendency to hang out with the group of people whom one deems “equal” is likely to increase. This is a precursor to social blocking of similar income-level people, in other terms, grouping by income class: low, middle and high.
The “Go Dutch” phenomenon when secluded from human emotions may impose a bigger problem. Human beings, by nature are altruistic and that unique characteristics has been recognized as one of the keys to human evolution. Altruism is the result of empathetic emotion. In a hypothetical setting where a group of friends want to split bills based on what they consumed, there is likely to be more feelings involved as they directly conduct the action of calculating the split and if it is a situation where one is less financially capable, there is bound to be awkwardness or the guilt of being stingy. However, if this action was automatically done by, let’s say the restaurant Point-of-Sale software or a mobile application and without a hassle, presents the group with the split amount, there would be less chance for feelings to be involved. Thus, the chances of altruism emerging would be slim. In other words, the youth who are exactly in this stage today would not experience the uncomfortableness of splitting the bill, or a broader implication: contributing more that they are due.
The core argument that “Going Dutch” is a cultural phenomenon which leads to being more individualist, in this case implying selfishness and less altruistic behaviour seems a bit far-fetched but that such small factors slowly but permanently influence the mindset of the youth is plausible. Micro habits shape the way people think and behave and when “going Dutch” is a way of life among the youth, nothing less can be implied. The youth of today will make up the business world of tomorrow: they will conduct their own method of business ethics which will stem from the roots of their fundamental morals and values.
