Originally Posted by
peachfront
We both know perfectly well if you cared that much about helping the starving, you'd be dishing up meals at the soup kitchen or donating at your church or something, not pondering the creme brulee and the martini menu in a froo-froo restaurant.
These two things are not mutually exclusive. Just saying...
I agree that tipping a server is definitely not charity. Or at least it's not supposed to be. To me a tip should be a reward for good service. Servers generally work hard for their tips. I enjoy eating at a nice restaurant and getting excellent service. I also enjoy writing in that 20% tip in those cases because it's part of the overall experience. What I don't like is the rabid tipping culture that's been created in the US and that if I don't tip 20% (because the service was mediocre) I am made to feel like
I've done something wrong. I also don't like that if you receive really bad service you're still expected to tip at least 10%. The reason that's expected is because of the low wage of servers in most states. That's when it goes into the realm of charity, IMO. It shouldn't be up to the patrons of a restaurant to make sure a "bad" server gets paid a decent wage.