[rant]

This may sound harsh, but the tipping culture in this country has gotten woefully out of hand. I understand that some of these professions are criminally low paying and that bartenders' and servers' salaries are designed to rely on tips. However...

Servers at even low-end restaurants demand at least 20% for the bare minimum of service.

Cab drivers--who tend to be serial ripoff artists in the first place--openly sneer at a $2 tip on a $6 fare.

Horror stories are floating around about skycaps putting garbage in people's luggage if they don't tip over $5 (personally, I'll never use a skycap).

The sense of entitlement among some service personnel has become extremely disproportionate to the value of the service that they provide. A line has to be drawn, and housekeeping is where I draw it.

[/rant]