Thank You. You're Welcome.

When did the response to "thank you" become "thank you?" It seems to happen all of the time on radio and television, and more often than I like in real life as well. Some announcer interviews an individual and when the whole thing is over, says "Mr. X, thank you for appearing," and Mr. X replies "thank you." It happens so much that I find myself sometimes coming close to doing it at, say a checkout counter in a store. The clerk (sorry, "sales associate" - funny, they still get paid like a clerk...) says "thank you" and I stumble over "th - you're welcome." Because, after all, that is the proper response, yes? There are many variations, and I use them as the situation warrants: "you're welcome," "oh, it was nothing," "my pleasure," even, in very relaxed circumstances, some variation of "sure, no problem." And, very rarely, "no, thank you." But that's a special situation, as you can no doubt tell from the italics. Anyway, it bugs me, because the whole point of the "thank you, you're welcome" dance is to show appreciation on one side, and to acknowledge it on the other. Two "thank you's" essentially say "we're all equal here, yes you did something for me, but my letting you do it for me is just as important as your doing it..." or some such nonsense. It's egalitarianising (no, I don't think it's a word, but it should be) one more aspect of our society where everyone is "special" and we're all above average. Well, phooey. Social conventions exist for a reason, and that reason is to grease the operation of the otherwise cranky machine we call society. When they become bastardized, it should be for a good reason, not for some silly cultural equalization process that is for our own good. Thank you. And you're welcome.