The emperor has no clothes (but this is disguised as lack of cultural sensitivity)

The tipping culture actually starts distorting the prices in an economy (like the one in my country) where we have a high influx of tourists. People that work in certain areas do expect and do get offended if you don't tip them, even though they can tell I could have been born in the same hospital they were.

I am more than happy to add some $ IF I WANT.

Take as an example once again my own country (Costa Rica) , the tip is mandatory so it always gets added to the bill (good service or not). Then I married my wonderful American wife who thought me that not leaving a tip in the US (EVEN IF the service was crappy) is some sort of 'declaration of war/don't ever come back to this restaurant...because I will remember how you tipped .......and then I will do 'x' to your food' statement

(I also dispise the notion of haggling, if I like the price I will pay it, I may ask for a discount but there is no way that I am going to start offers at 50% or lower of the tab as its customary in many places of the World)

all this tipping notion is somehow reminding me of the 'retention bonuses' in Wall Street, its (or was?) their culture