I've found this thread quite fantastically amusing and interesting.

I come from a culture where tipping is quite new (<20 years, if that). I think we only adopted it because of cultural creep. I still have many friends who get major attitude when either I tip, or they are expected to, and rightly so. We have a minimum wage which is somewhat liveable, and different social welfare systems to north america. For a fantastic meal here, I will leave a nice tip. However, I am also one who generally cannot claim back the tip from work. Therefore an expense of me having to work to pay for the meal I am forced to eat out for due to work, I have to personally pay the tip (I know, it doesnt seem to make sense, but if you read it again...).

I for one would love to see the US adopt a system where the price quoted was the price you paid. The amount of money that disappears on tips is really rather frightening to someone trying to live on a per diem that has to be explained away. 20% of a meal, twice a day may help a server pay their bills, but it also helps me to get into trouble when I put in my expenses. While not the servers problem, I have to tip the valet, the bag boy and fifteen other people that I get nothing back from work for. It all adds up far too quickly.

To be honest, the places I've had the best service in the US tend to be the restaurants that have quality in all they do: food; environment; staff. I am loathe to tip someone $10 when they've virtually slung my food down in front of me. I am any number of four letter words that you'd like to call me, but I will leave a $1 tip, and then explain to the manager why I feel bad for my wallet even leaving that. I have a major problem getting my head around the "paying someone extra for doing their job" aspect of tipping, however I can understand that being a cultural aspect. I don't, however, think it should ever be expect that I should have to tip someone because, even though they did a poor job, they are on minimum wage and have bills to pay. If I did my job poorly, I doubt my clients would be so kind as so think that. As the job of server being hard to do, I could totally see that. However are there that many servers who are good at what they do? And just because the servers job is hard, doesn't mean all those people sitting at the tables don't have their nose to grindstone either.

Some of the higher end restaurants here have actually gotten rid of casual staff, and every member is salaried. They do not rely on tips, and I believe in most the tips are spread evenly between all staff. It's certain not to work in all situations, but certainly makes for an interesting idea.

Oh, and I had a bottle of chateau d'yquem 2001 not long ago. And I didn't tip the server for it. But I did tip the sommelier