Tipping in America was always something extra, it was a reward, an incentive for a worker to do their job well. Tipping was never designed or intended to replace wages, nor should it have. Giving a tip was like telling an employee “Thank you for taking care of me, I appreciate your attentive work and that you went beyond your jobs minimum expectations in taking care of me.”

But this is all a symptom of a bigger problem: greed. Businesses want indefinitely growing profits. They are not content to earn enough money to be able operate safely, and CEOs are definitely not content to skip buying their 13th beachfront mansion.

I’ve been noticing that a lot more POS tablets have been putting the 20% or 25% tip to the far left where people expect the “minimum” 15% to be, and some set the “minimum” to 18%.

Here’s where I tip:

1. Restaurant’s where waitstaff come to my table for my order and with my food.
2. Small coffee shops where the person taking my order is also making my coffee.

Nowhere else. AND, I have a small stash of bills that I use to tip in cash. Never use the built-in tipping feature.

Tipping culture is out of control. Don’t get me wrong, I leave tips when expected, but I hate it.

I hate those new swivel credit card payment things so much that I started paying for everything in cash.

I do a lot of takeout and I generally give 1-3 dollar bills as tip. People have been OK with that, and at least I can see who’s getting it.