> how might I find myself on the losing side of it?
Like I mentioned above, by having your livelihood depend on the whims of customers that may be offended by not having been treated with sufficient deference.
> abolition of tipping would mechanically imply prices raising across the board to the average level of the previous tipping. TANSTAAFL.
Quite the strawman, I never claimed tipping is extra cost, I just find the practice degrading. I would be very much in favor of bundling all costs in the displayed prices, like it happens in the rest of the world.
Most people's livelihoods depend to some extent on other people's whims. I tip mechanically, and think everybody else should too: as I said, it's a cost sharing mechanism. Part of the problem I think nerds like us have with tipping is that they think it's something they have to figure out, like a Yelp star rating. No: just divide by 10 and double, end of story.
I'll go you one further and candidly tell you that what I perceive lurking in the subtext of HN's biannual tipping freakout is the frustration some nerds have that they don't get to inflict their whims on American servers, because their tips are expected to be automatic. They feel ripped off by the expectation. That's the fucked up belief, right there.
You can feel free to ask one of your server friends how degraded they feel by your tips. I think you'll be surprised.
This thread is surreal. You started with "Tipping is a system in which customers explicitly, optionally, and variably share some of the cost of labor.", and now we got to no, actually, there is no optionality or variability, why would you want there to be any?
So we're back to tipping being just a way to artificially display lower prices on the menu and enjoy the psychological deception?
You have the option of not tipping mechanically; you might, for instance, find it acceptable to subject working class people to your whims about the quality of your service. I do not. Regardless, generally speaking, you are socially expected to tip at least 15% any time you dine out at a full service restaurant in America.
Like I mentioned above, by having your livelihood depend on the whims of customers that may be offended by not having been treated with sufficient deference.
> abolition of tipping would mechanically imply prices raising across the board to the average level of the previous tipping. TANSTAAFL.
Quite the strawman, I never claimed tipping is extra cost, I just find the practice degrading. I would be very much in favor of bundling all costs in the displayed prices, like it happens in the rest of the world.