The tipping problem in the US can be solved most simply by signage

You're looking for a restaurant. You see two side by side.

One has a sign above it that says 'No tipping in this restaurant. Tipping is not permitted' beside a restaurant that doesn't have this sign.

Which one are you going in?

(And staff are instructed to return any tips customers try to give, and if the customer finally won't accept the money back they put it outside on the street to blow away.)

Tipping culture, which almost everyone I talk to is aggravated by (except waiters), can be dried up by simple competition, if the two types of restaurants are marked this way.

(This problem has been exported to other countries now, who also complain about it. This includes the countries I live in, so it's become a problem harder to avoid by simply avoiding North America.)