If I am not mistaken some time back there were a couple of so notion on tipping presented on Goanet. In the following article, what I found interesting was the following and particularly the last line. And btw, we of course know about the low wages etc., so spare me / us that angle.:
"Tipping, and the aristocratic idea it exemplifies, is what we left Europe to escape," wrote William Rufus Scott in 1916. His anti-tipping manual, The Itching Palm, went on: "In a republic where all men were supposed to be equal, some cannot be superior until they grind other men into dust. Tipping comes into a democracy to provide that relation." + + To tip or not to tip... or should it be banned? By Tom Geoghegan, BBC News Magazine, Washington DC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22846846 ++ vjp