... I prefer as many areas in my life as possible to be responsive to my input. Tipping is, when practiced as I and many others do. Now my voting in national elections has essentially zero effect, and my local voting other than initiatives likewise. ...
I don't like the way a counterperson at a national store treats me, I cn complain but I am more or less out of luck if I expect any response. Not so my tipping behavior, though I concentrate more on rewarding good service than on punishing poor service. IF a I have a few hundred restaurants nearby, my remedy for poor service is clear enough.
I think to like the market system but not like tipping is at least somewhat inconsistent.
Ha
If it works for you, that is great. IME, I'd equate tipping with your view of voting - essentially zero effect.
The free-market aspect is just as you say - I'll stop going to that restaurant if the service is a problem. You are not tipping the chef, or the guy that delivers the meat and produce to the restaurant, or the many other people involved - I expect the restaurant manger to manage them, and the wait staff.
I think the last time this subject came up, there were some links to some restaurants that were dropping tipping, and they explained it just as I view it - let them take care of providing good people, and if they don't, let the manager know about it.
The one place that we are at often enough to really feel like our tipping might affect service is an inexpensive and casual Mexican-style place. It is family run, we've seen many of the same servers there for years and years. They really work as a team, any waitress walking by is likely to help you out if she sees an empty drink or a plate to take away, regardless of whether that is 'her table'. They pool their tips, we pay at the cash register, and so unless they are searching through our receipts trying to match us up to the tip amount, they'd never know who tipped what. Maybe the manager tracks average tips to monitor things, I don't know. But they do their job, I give a tip around 18%, maybe rounding up a bit since the food is pretty cheap, and they still have as much/more work as if the bill was double, and we keep going back, and it is usually pretty crowded.
There are just so many areas where we expect the manager to manage the people we interface with, I just don't understand why waiters should stand out as the main group that relies on tips. Are you saying you would prefer to tip the guy in the Home Depot aisle, the check-out person at Trader Joes, the guy sweeping the floor? Where does it end?
-ERD50