That is a good way to put it nickle, thanks! And I guess I was just thinking aloud do we need it because we need it or do we need it because we have been conditioned to... like if we all just universally agreed to accept people were grateful without hearing so and did away with the words completely would things change? Is thank you only the default level of courtesy because we have made it so? But then I realise it wouldnt really work to get rid of it (even if this was a parallel world where it never existed in the first place) because somebody would find someway to show "more" gratitude and then people would begin adopting it to try and meet that level and then more do and it becomes the default where everybody needs to adopt it as it becomes expected which I guess is exactly how we got here in the first place. So Im sold, it probably is a good base level to keep lol.