I agree with you. You scooped ice-cream for me and you want me to tip you? The gall of some people is just too much. Why should I just give you money?
It's totally the people making minimum wage working the counters who are happy for an extra $20 per day that have all the gall, not the tech industry folks making six figures complaining about spending a couple extra bucks per day on tips.
Considering the free-market slant of HN, these comments are remarkably obtuse. Let those who do not care to tip choose any of the countless options where tipping is not involved. The rest of us who tip will continue paying a bit more and getting a lot more in return.
Tipping makes my life easier and more enjoyable, and continues giving returns, for a very small investment. Compared to the $1000s (millions?) thrown away on kickstarter-startup life-improvement possibilities, tipping should be an easy choice.
Third world or not, customers would have to bear that weight either way. Restaurants can't pay people 'actual liveable wages' without recouping those costs from the customers in the first place.
When you work behind a counter you don't get paid via the weird US minimum cash wage/tip model. You get a full wage (at least in my experience). The idea that a full wage worker should get tips as a matter of course is strange to me. I wonder how young the defenders of this practice here are.
My upvotes indicate there are people who agree with me, but not many have said so in these replies. Try to look at it from the perspective of someone who grew up in a world where this wasn't normal.
In the case of table side food servers, tips are not charity. They're a customary component of the wage - wether anyone likes this or not - and that's why the government carves out special exemptions and tax rules for that case.
If I am feeling poor, I pack a lunch, I have dinner at home. If I eat out, I do my part to improve income distribution in America, while routing around rent-seeking intermediaries. You can too.