That is not relevant to the subject at hand, because the cost of living and social support systems vary so widely between the US and the rest of the world. Without knowing anything else about your locale, I can only speculate that your restaurant industry is either far more exploitative than the US and keeps prices low by underpaying workers, or the people who profit from the businesses are slightly less greedy and allow a more generous portion of the budget to be allotted for pay.

Different things are different, I’m talking about the United States

Tips may have been that way a hundred years ago but I’ve been in the restaurant industry in the US for over 15 years, and for the duration tips have been used as a means to offload labor costs to the customer. They are not optional for the majority of people who work for tips, they are the difference between paying bills and not.

The practice is antiquated and should be completely removed as the standard way to compensate restaurant workers. But the thing that anti tippers always seem to miss is that the labor costs will still be there and the owners are not going to take it out of their cut. The menu prices will per force go up when companies get rid of tips. The same people will be complaining about that just as loudly, I’m willing to bet.

As I said in another comment, it’s a bad system, but if you don’t tip, you’re a bad person.

It’s a bad system but you are a bad person if you don’t tip.

Take your time, it’s worth it. I reluctantly finished my “first” playthrough (not counting my actual first attempt when I started as the dark urge and restarted after 20 hours because it was clearly fucking everything up) at around 250 hours played. This patch is making me consider starting again. Best game I’ve played in ages.