1. You could make an argument that tipping a business could be desirable, but that is a different discussion.
Not necessarily in favor of tipping myself, but I take issue with that statement. The reason that springs to mind immediately is that tipping is a mechanism by which good employees (polite ones, or ones who go above and beyond to provide excellent service) are paid more relative to worse ones. The mechanism is imperfect which is why I don't take this argument as proof of the necessity of tipping, but it's a solid argument.
To put it in academic terms, tipping is a technology that can help an employer solve the principal-agent problem.
Secondly, solving the principal-agent problem is the employer's problem, and they could do that by collecting feedback, paying bonuses, firing people, etc. Punting the whole thing to clients just means that it becomes a lottery based on the client's mood, wealth, expectations, instead of something objective.
It's incredibly naive to think the people who get tipped the most are the best employees, even if the pool ultimately levels out the playing field.
What kind of a fucking awful system do we have where hot white girls are better coworkers simply because they're hot white girls, and not because they do a good job?
Uh? Is that just your opinion or are there studies to back it?
* https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/01/21/...
* http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/07/abol...
* http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/restaurants/a23132/why-tip...
* http://www.wagehourlitigation.com/files/2015/10/cornell.pdf
* https://news.ncsu.edu/2012/04/wms-rusche-restaurants/
* http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2016/02/19/45436/
* http://business.time.com/2013/11/18/worst-restaurant-custome...
* http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1329241
* http://www.tippingresearch.com/uploads/JFSBR_race_revision_a...
This is not (just) my opinion.
It is pretty sad that HNers are quick to downvote your post while demonstrating little inquisitiveness.
A waiter may tip out a bartender depending upon how much of their tab was alcohol but otherwise they generally don't divvy it up with all the other servers.
Avoiding taxes by collecting cash tips is also a common practice, though that does end up requiring one to collect cash - sometimes on the order of $10^5 and keeping it in ones apartment, since you can't put it in a bank account and not be taxed on it eventually.
If only that were true. It is not quality of service that drives tipping size, but to put it crudely, hotness.
Even if your statement were true it is for the business to resolve, not the customer. If the level of service provided by the employee does not match the level expected by management then management needs step in and solve. All tipping does is screw up the normal relationship between the employer and the employee.
[0]: http://www.wigdorlaw.com/2014/04/07/unlawful-tip-pooling-und...
Although in practice, the employer would probably act as arbiter for pooling tips. (Those restaurants I'm aware of are in Norway, so circumstances are quite different: while there is no minimum wage, the de-facto minimum wage usually hovers around what the unions negotiate -- and end up being quite substantial as compared to eg: the US).
For one, 10% on $15786 is a little silly, sure. But current etiquette already recommends flat rates for certain types of services so this could logically be extended to certain other cases.
And secondly, even brought to the logical conclusion, extending tipping would only make sense where it could reinforce proper incentives and would be actively bad where it reinforces perverse incentives. A legal avenue for bribing cops is certainly problematic in a way that bribing waiters for better service isn't, for example.
That's not to say I'm arguing in favour of tipping but I don't think it's as clearly unreasonably as your example would suggest.
That said, there are key differences between a dentist or plumber and a waiter or cashier. The obvious one is a private-practice dentist or self-employed plumber where they're setting their own fee and getting directly paid. In such cases there's no problem for tipping to solve. The other big one regardless of public or private is that there's a major power imbalance where the dentist or plumber is effectively acting as the agent of the patient or customer. Check-ups, routine cleanings, and such aren't an issue but when it comes to things that need fixing it's the dentist or plumber telling the customer "this is the service you require" and selling them that service. This is a principal-agent problem itself and tipping only exacerbates the issue rather than solving it.
Like I said previously, the logic of where tipping could or could not make sense is based on what sort of incentives it reinforces, if any. And, also like I said previously, I am not arguing in favour of tipping, either, and I'm especially not arguing in favour of tipping making up an essential part of one's income.
To a large extent it's society's way of allowing "the right kind" of drug addicts or whatever to have a way of earning a living wage.