Here's how I look at this (sorry I've been away from the thread for a couple days. Working those doubles and making those tips
) Look at service on the airlines. Almost every thread that I read on FT is about how terrible of service they've been receiving lately. I've gotten to the point where I expect pretty much nothing except a drink order taken. These people don't (often) receive tips and hence they don't have any real incentive to not only go above and beyond, but even maintain the absolutely BASIC level of service -- civility. They're not making anything more for trying harder, and they're not getting fired for a bad job either. Like has been happening for a long time, employers pay their employees just enough to not make them quit, and employees work just hard enough not to get fired.
I think if they restaurants completely eliminated tipping, and increased the price of food and beverage to compensate for their additional labor costs, service in restaurants would eventually degenerate to the point that we're currently seeing on the airlines. Of course you're still going to have the employees who do a superb job, but you're also going to increase the percentage of those who, quite frankly, don't give a damn.
I think if we got to choose how much we paid, within reason, for our flights given what level of service we received, and a percentage of that money went directly to the flight attendants, gate agents, etc., you might see a few more smiles next time you have to go out of town on a business trip. Even during ir-opps you might actually get someone who sees you as a person instead of another body waiting in line.
To get back to the original topic a bit, my restaurant recently switched which tables "constitute" a section, and since the better servers in the restaurant get to pick which section they would like, I happened to choose one of the larger sections that will not have any parties of six or more. So, no more auto-gratuities for me. I couldn't afford it anymore.
Chris