system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
I think tipping is a bad system that should be eliminated. CMV.

Tipping servers and other workers could be a nice gesture if you've enjoyed their service. However, many restaurants give their workers ridiculously low pay because the rest is supposed to come from tips and many servers live mainly on that income. That is, in my opinion, wrong.

As an employee, your pay should come from your employer. As a customer, you should pay the demanded price. Having a customer decide how much the server is worth - after the service in question has already been delivered - is silly. The customer is left with the power to leave no tip at all for an excellent service.

On top of that there is the question of cultural differences - when travelling I have no idea how much to tip and where. Why not just put those extra percent into the price of the food/whatever else is being bought in the first place? You can still be allowed to tip when you think you received such excellent service that they deserve something extra but it should not be expected or counted on.

CMV.

EDIT to add: It's also more about looks and luck than who gives the best service. Women most often get bigger tips than men, and those women get more when they're wearing makeup. The general customer is not able to differentiate between good service or bad service, they just subjectively give more if they like the server or if they are in a good mood.
gpt
Tipping solves the problem of information conveyed through price for products with unusually subjective value.

The restaurant owner does not know what the value of a meal is to his customer because he has to charge the same price for all customers, yet the customer will value the meal by many subjective criteria: was he hungry? Did he like the decor? Did he sit in the draft of the air-conditioning? Does he have a working copy of the TAS2R38 gene that makes him sensitive to phenylthiocarbamide (and thus hate brussels sprouts)? Oh brother, how the heck do you handle crap like that?

It's impossible to guarantee happiness, but it is possible for a human agent to make amends. Enter the wait-staff.

You solve the price-information problem by using a social mechanism that the customer understands intuitively and which conveys the value of everything that the menu cannot encode. Water too cold, too warm? Waitress fixes. Potatoes too mushy? Waiter takes it back. Sauce has too many aldehydes that trigger the nose of someone with an active OR6A2 gene that makes it taste like soap? Waitress has it re-done: NO CILANTRO!

Tipping is a natural consequence of a product which, unlike washing machines or microwave ovens, is extremely sensitive to personal judgement. When you find a restaurant with good wait-staff, and you communicate with them through tipping (and money speaks louder than words), the customer can create a product that is customized in ways few other industries can match.

Michelle, your favourite waitress, sees you coming in, and she makes sure everything is the way you like it to be because you give her 20% or better. The owner of the restaurant *cannot* provide that any other way, nor can he get the customer to communicate those preferences through the menu.