General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: "I don't tip." [View all]MrModerate
(9,753 posts)In other threads I've made my opinion clear that the practice of tipping is a fraud perpetrated by restaurant owners on customers and employees alike where the owner pretends that the uncertain kindness of strangers is a legitimate component of an employee's compensation while relying on guilty restaurant patrons who know servers are being cheated to make up the difference.
But this fraud is also perpetuated by its victims servers and patrons who seem to be helpless in the face of a grossly unjust system.
So rather than trying to bully patrons who object to the system, maybe organizations like ifyoucantaffordtotip should be advocating for industrial action rather than spitting in people's, err . . . faces.
And let's put the fantasy that tipping is based on "performance" to bed once and for all. Tipping is required because otherwise servers (good, bad and indifferent) can't survive. While good service might be appropriately rewarded with a more generous tip, mediocre servers need to pay their rent too, and as long as the system prevails, the moral obligation to tip remains.
The system sucks; it wouldn't be necessary if restaurants instead were required to pay a living wage, as is the case in other countries; and ifyoucantaffordtotip sucks, too, for being assholes about the whole thing.