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What's wild to me is that in the wake of touchscreens asking for tips at places you never thought to tip before, I felt like we in the States were having a national discussion on tipping.

If any portion of tips is declared tax-free, I believe the practice of tipping will be locked into American society forever.

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In my opinion that is the insidiousness of it. It pits the patrons against the workers where owners and managers can just throw their hands up and blame it on tax law. We really just should pay people better and prices should be upfront.

I completely agree. Tipping before services are even rendered drives me up a wall. Tipping in general is just disgusting, it's exploitative (of almost everyone) and is normally just a way for a business to pay someone less and guilt the customer into making up the difference. I tip because I feel compelled to lest I suffer the consequences of not going along with this charade but I'd love for tipping to go away.

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