Thanking people for the work that they've done -- unpaid -- that has benefited me directly and saved me money just feels like the right thing to do. I was raised to appreciate efforts that others take on my behalf and it's served me well so far.

I hope your approach is working as well for you.

Do you give annual gifts to your building or office cleaning staff? Or just people who have unaccountable authority over you.

They're his neighbors, Ray.

They’re his HOA, which is a different power relationship. It’s like bringing gifts to your boss at work.

My wife runs a community choir with some friends in a notional elected committee. Is buying the committee a token yearly thank you like buying gifts for a boss too?

It seems to me, at best, the HOA is a committee of volunteers from the community, serving the community. It is not your boss; it's your peers completing the executive function of the rules and procedures you have collectively agreed.

Buying a gift for a peer's uncompensated labour is standard politeness.

You of all people shouldn't be talking about dignity, because you have none.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31348078

> As an ethnic Bangladeshi my kids and I have a right of return. I can obtain Bangladeshi citizenship any time I want.

Well then, why aren't you returning. Why continue to impugn on America.

> > Why are you treating America as some kind of science experiment?

> I try not to! My family was invited here by Americans on certain terms, and nobody has ever really complained. But I think they have every right to complain if they wanted.

You were not "invited by Americans"

Your father received a visa from the "American government" and you were a tag along. You are not a special snowflake and when you tell Indians and Bangladeshis to go back to their own country, you should take the first step and go back to your "own country".

The US right wing is strongly anti immigrant and dont welcome you. Liberals don't care about your skin color but will notice your hypocrisy and won't welcome you either. Trust me, 90% of Americans don't want you here - including me.

So yeah, you should take your own advice and go back to your own country Bangladesh, before advising other people on dignity, lol. Clayton bigsby, if you had paid attention, was supposed to be a joke - not a role model.

Ah yes, my boss, whom I live next to, and vote for or against on a yearly basis.

I guess you don't like your HOA and you're projecting.

Wow, meta-projection. 'rayiner has been very clear ITT that he isn't subject to any HOA.

I have a quasi-HOA that has something to do with the county extending public sewer/water here a few years ago. But it's like the federal government during the wild west era. They keep to the "nice" side of the neighborhood, and don't hassle us out here on the frontier. The house in front of mine hasn't had siding up for the better part of a year.

My parents live in a real HOA and it's miserable. Lawyers had to get involved recently when they got into a fight with the HOA over cutting down trees on their own property.

para-projection as it turns out.

I do understand hating your parents' HOA, I don't get lacking the perspective to imagine a world where someone gets along with it. Sending a Christmas card to your neighbors isn't bootlicking if you like them.