>Giving 50 cent for a restaurant when only using the bathroom is just a sign of good behavior in my view.

Why? If you're already eating there, why should you pay to use the toilet? And if you're not eating there, then why are you there to use the toilet? Just use a public one. If there aren't sufficient public toilets, that sounds like a failure of the municipal government. Any good city should have lots of public toilets outside, in train stations, or in large shared buildings.

Restaurants don't charge you when you're already there as a customer ( as mentioned in my last example)? They charge you when you need to go and use them as a public toilet sometimes ( eg. when it's urgent).

Again, why would you do this? Just go to one of the countless public toilets outside. How often are people trying to use the toilets in a restaurant without eating there? It seems insane they would even worry about this.

Also, my experience in Germany at a mall food court is that they DO charge you to use the toilet there, even though I was eating there.

> Just go to one of the countless public toilets outside.

If there even are public toilets, if they are open, if they are in a state to be used (and not just an uncleaned mess), if they are free... plenty of reasons to go to a restaurant to use their toilet.

> countless public toilets outside

Which might be also paid (assuming they even exist)

Civilized countries don't expect people to pay to use a toilet.

Tell that to Germany and a bunch of other countries in Europe (then again having to pay to use a toilet still sounds a bit better than having no toilet to use at all..)