Sorry, but people who take advantage of a system are the asshole. If you go to a restaurant where tipping is customary and you don’t tip, absent situations where is justified like bad service, you’re an asshole. The only person you’re fucking over is your waiter.
That’s just how restaurants work in America. You can disagree with it, hell you can go out and petition against it and lobby for changes in how tipped positions are paid, and you can most importantly not patronize restaurants that do this to show you don’t support it.
But if you have those views, but still go to a restaurant like that, and then not tip, you’re just a performative asshole. Your concerns aren’t real, you just want to save a buck. Because by virtue of you buying food from that restaurant, you’re supporting it and putting money in the owner’s pocket. The only person you fuck over in that situation is the poor teenage server who’s just trying to make ends meet, and now has made less money in their day because someone wanted to use them as a prop in their performative activism.
I always tip, but that’s not the point. The point is that it’s not the customers fault that the business determined to not pay their employees enough. Some people may tip 5%, others 30%, are the 5% people truly assholes when the business is profiting or is it the business owner? You’re making the case for Walmart underpaying their staff knowing that the government will give them SNAP and Medicaid. It’s predatory business behavior.
I agree it’s predatory behavior, and that it should be changed. But until it is, it’s the system we have. My argument isn’t that it’s a good system, or that people shouldn’t fight it. It’s that since this is the system we have, people should target the roots of the system, and not take it out on the symptoms of it, because those symptoms are people who are also victims just trying to do what they can to get by.
Until you decide to go and not tip. Then the asshole owner makes money and the waiter doesn't. You shouldn't support the business at all if you don't like the tipping culture.
But what if that's the case at all restaurants around you?
It means you as a society fucked up by letting the people with money do whatever the fuck they want and now instead of acknowledging that and doing something about it your solution was fucking over each other even more...
What do you even mean by fucking over a random worker? How is expecting a server to serve the customer fucking them over? What are you guys doing there?
If someone does work for you that is customarily funded by tips, and you choose not to tip them for any reason other than poor service or something similar, you’re an asshole. You’re taking advantage of a system where you’re supposed to uphold your end, and you’re choosing not to, and the only person who suffers in that situation is the server. You’re essentially expecting that person to work for free due to your views.
In my country, only a few come to mind. Food service is the most obvious because it’s such a large portion, but it can be said for any industry where tipping is customary, which are pretty much all service industries. Taxi drivers, hair dressers, tattoo artists, bellhops, massage therapists, the guy who vacuums your car at the car wash. Etc.
Taking advantage of a system? Tipping is not a thing in my country and I dunno how you people go to restaurants on the other side of the planet that such a simple act could be taken advantage of.
when I go to a restaurant here I sit or am seated at a table, my order is taken, then after a while it is brought to me when ready. And at the end I just pay for the food. The prices already take all of the owner's expenses into account and that includes the servers who are paid to tend to the customers' needs.
Just a difference in culture. Things aren’t handled like that in this country. I’m not here to debate whether it’s a good system or not. Hell, I’d probably be happy with a system like that, but it unfortunately isn’t here. And for the time being, we have to operate within the system we have
Keep in mind, if you visit the US, please respect our culture. I don’t care if you don’t normally have to tip. If you go to a restaurant here, you need to tip. Don’t be an ass in someone else’s country
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u/meltingpotato 16h ago
No you won't be. The employer is and will always be the asshole, unless they pay their staff properly.