tipping tyrrany

I'm in the USA, mainly to visit Microsoft HQ for a couple of weeks.

Something I so easily forget about this country is how much I hate the
tipping culture. It's not just that I am cheap, though I am. It's
not just that I don't always know when to tip, or how much. [When my
brother first moved to the States, he had the maxim "if it moves, tip
it". That seems to work.] It's not just that it seems so arbitrary -
as far as I can see, if the person stays behind a counter or desk, you
don't generally tip them; if they walk around, you do... It's not
just that in much of the civilized world, a tip is a reward, a thank
you for outstanding service, rather than an automatic right.

No. Over all, my problem with the culture of tipping is the way that
it puts some people in a permanent position of subservience. Much of
the service economy is built on this notion that we don't really want
to guarantee you a living wage, but if you make the customer happy,
you can get a bit extra.

Now, I'm not really advocating the opposite, that we should not care
about how well or badly those people do their jobs: travel in the
former Iron Curtain countries was certainly no fun. But there are
plenty of cultures - Australia is a great example - where they mange
to structure things so that people working in such jobs get paid a
decent wage, and occasionally get a tip, while at the same time having
generally great cusomer service. Is it really so hard?

Or look at it the other way: perhaps we should tip people in all walks
of life. How great it would be if students gave me some cash at the
end of each lecture? Or if we tipped the checkout assistant at the
supermarket? Or the preacher, after the sermon? Maybe we should tip
the dentist after the tooth extraction? Why do all those sound weird?