I think it would be uncharitable to describe the crux of your argument as pro-tip given what you’ve said so far. Honestly, I’m in the same boat as you, since I still tip in spite of my own feelings about how it’s affecting us because I’m powerless to change current doctrine.
However, I would like to point out that your argument does come off as an appeal to Nirvana in my mind as it is essentially advocating we do nothing but maintain status quo because there’s no current perfect solution. I think we can both agree that if we all decided to cease tipping, this would not be an issue within a year (granted it would take untold amounts of human suffering in that short time). Of course, it also would work if we simply boycotted every establishment dependent on tips.
But, again, both of these solutions are completely dependent on us stepping in to change conditions for restaurant employees on their behalf.
To be fair, I’m somewhat in the weeds here. My primary opinion is that no one is entitled to a fanciful tip, and I’m not really here to destroy tipping culture. I’m just getting fatigued by ever increasing expectations.
I understand how it comes off as supporting the status quo, but I assure you, I do not. I am more pointing out that an individual not giving tips without any sort of a larger plan in motion is just cruelty.
To give a real world example, there are more restaurants here opening up that incorporate a service charge straight into the bill. They often itemize it very clearly for you and clearly label the tip as “additional tip.“ I’ve even had some servers point it out to us to make sure we see that. My response has been to seek out more of these restaurants when I can, because I want to reward that behavior and help institute a change.
The best thing I can do as an individual consumer is help support the restaurants actively trying to avoid tipping as we know it. It’s realistic and I get to not participate in tip culture without hurting the people who depend on it. Going “I don’t tip because it will get workers off their asses to find a better job or organize against their employers” (yes a real argument I’ve seen throughout this very thread!) is absolutely insane to me. All I can assume is they are looking for a palatable excuse for why they don’t tip without outright saying they simply don’t want to.
It’s just so ridiculous seeing all these people justify it while also saying they are totally cool to go to these places that expect you to tip. If they want to undermine these businesses then they have to stop giving them money. It’s a big ask! Don’t get me wrong. But refusing to tip and claiming it helps to end tip culture is absurd. To look at it from more from my framework: I’m not telling people never to go to these places, I’m saying “if you are going to go to them, then you need to tip.“ The only reason I’m even saying to not go to these places is because they are allegedly in favor of punishing these businesses. Well, stiffing servers their tips is not going to accomplish that.
I think it would be uncharitable to describe the crux of your argument as pro-tip given what you’ve said so far. Honestly, I’m in the same boat as you, since I still tip in spite of my own feelings about how it’s affecting us because I’m powerless to change current doctrine.
However, I would like to point out that your argument does come off as an appeal to Nirvana in my mind as it is essentially advocating we do nothing but maintain status quo because there’s no current perfect solution. I think we can both agree that if we all decided to cease tipping, this would not be an issue within a year (granted it would take untold amounts of human suffering in that short time). Of course, it also would work if we simply boycotted every establishment dependent on tips.
But, again, both of these solutions are completely dependent on us stepping in to change conditions for restaurant employees on their behalf.
To be fair, I’m somewhat in the weeds here. My primary opinion is that no one is entitled to a fanciful tip, and I’m not really here to destroy tipping culture. I’m just getting fatigued by ever increasing expectations.
I understand how it comes off as supporting the status quo, but I assure you, I do not. I am more pointing out that an individual not giving tips without any sort of a larger plan in motion is just cruelty.
To give a real world example, there are more restaurants here opening up that incorporate a service charge straight into the bill. They often itemize it very clearly for you and clearly label the tip as “additional tip.“ I’ve even had some servers point it out to us to make sure we see that. My response has been to seek out more of these restaurants when I can, because I want to reward that behavior and help institute a change.
The best thing I can do as an individual consumer is help support the restaurants actively trying to avoid tipping as we know it. It’s realistic and I get to not participate in tip culture without hurting the people who depend on it. Going “I don’t tip because it will get workers off their asses to find a better job or organize against their employers” (yes a real argument I’ve seen throughout this very thread!) is absolutely insane to me. All I can assume is they are looking for a palatable excuse for why they don’t tip without outright saying they simply don’t want to.
It’s just so ridiculous seeing all these people justify it while also saying they are totally cool to go to these places that expect you to tip. If they want to undermine these businesses then they have to stop giving them money. It’s a big ask! Don’t get me wrong. But refusing to tip and claiming it helps to end tip culture is absurd. To look at it from more from my framework: I’m not telling people never to go to these places, I’m saying “if you are going to go to them, then you need to tip.“ The only reason I’m even saying to not go to these places is because they are allegedly in favor of punishing these businesses. Well, stiffing servers their tips is not going to accomplish that.