I used to feel the same, but then I started to appreciate just how fortunate I am to not have to work in retail. This isn’t because I’m better. It’s just because I was born into the right situation.

I always tip now and use the experience as a reminder not to take my fortune for granted. It’s also a reminder that everything I have might be taken away at any time.

Just like George Carlin said: "The upper class keeps all of the money, pays none of the taxes. The middle class pays all of the taxes, does all of the work. The poor are there just to scare the shit out of the middle class. Keep 'em showin' up at those jobs."

It's too bad the owners of such establishments don't remind themselves in the same way by giving their employees living wages. I too am fortunate and thankful and have been duped many times but you know who is a lot more fortunate? The owners of these places trying to displace their costs onto us.

Is tipping a solution to to others misfortune?

I don’t know. I was saying that tipping is a solution to not take my good fortune for granted.

If they want to raise prices to give those folks a reasonable wage I'm fine with it.

The tipping system is not a good way to make things fair. People do not tip fairly as it is.

I don't think retail is a bad job. I would hate to be stuck at a computer all day writing code and dealing with non-technical managers and clients.

Someone who works a job where they receive consistent tips can make a lot of money, and if it's in cash it's tax free.

Plus the tips never go to the kitchen who do all the actual work.

> and if it's in cash it's tax free.

Obligatory nit: Being paid in cash is not exempt from regular income tax.

Just because you don't personally pay tax on that income doesn't mean it's "tax free". You may be getting away with it (for now), but income is taxable, regardless of whether it's paid in cash.

It seems strange to ask for a tip before the service has been rendered, if the tip is an incentive for good service.

It is strange. Tip them because they bothered .... I've not even seen my food yet...

So I'm making an assumption here but... how many orders of magnitude separate your pay and that of the people making your food?

Also: how much spit do you estimate you've consumed when eating at places where you're a regular who is known to never tip?

Raise the prices, fine by me.

I just don't like the tipping system. If you're worried about fairness I belive studies have shown that white women in their 30s get the best tips. Minority? Not so much.

I tip at restaurants, just not fast casual places where there is effectively no service beyond someone at the front.

So you see the tip as a sort of bribe to stop those filthy poors contaminating your food?

Tipping and bribes goes hand in hand...

https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/publications/h...