General
I have almost never tipped, in my whole life. I believe that it is another societal scam involving our financial decisions that peer pressure people into wasting their money. An equivalent action to tipping would be feeling pressured to get a present for someone's half birthday, or any other form of inefficient generosity. I genuinely don't like the additional charges being added on to a set price, if I am buying something from someone, the price I am getting for it needs to be very clear. This is why I think that taxes should be calculated into the stated price of anything that anyone is buying, so people have an exact idea of where their finances are going before they buy something.

People perceive a statement like that as selfish and ungenerous, but I will go into several of my reasons as to why this simply is not true. Maybe my initial reason for being against tipping may have had a hint of selfishness, but when are our personal volitions not tainted with selfishness, sin and greed. I only want to see a consistency in all aspects of society, and tipping always seems to be a sore thumb that sticks out. I believe that if tipping was consistent, then it should be the standard for everything to involve tipping. Tipping is a cultural thing that is another contribution to peoples fictional need that they need more and more money just to live a normal life. People have gotten by on a lot less, it is our habits that are hammered into us by how we are raised that attach onto us like parasites, pickpocketing us throughout our lives. Tipping should always be an option and it can be a nice thing to do in the proper intention and setting, but to enforce it as a social standard meaning that you are seen as greedy if you don't do it is ridiculous.

Experiences
When I began my journey into being a young adult, I realized how difficult it is to afford anything lasting such as a home in the modern world, and that one of the only consistent and reliable ways to help this is to show frugality and to be very conservative in how you spend your money. I started questioning all sorts of different things that people do and from this, greatly reduced how much I relied on restaurants for food as well as realized how strange tipping was for reasons I'll get to.

I began to start not tipping on the rare time I do go out on a date. I get a little anxious when I do it worried that the server may get mad at me or that they might remember me months down if I come again and spit in my food or something because I didn't tip. All these unrealistic scenarios. What I got pretty much every time was almost no noticeable behavior that was different to how they were acting before. If I really examined their body language, I could tell that they seem the tiniest bit more on the edge, but it really makes no difference. Not tipping doesn't save much money for that one time, but over time you are actually keeping a noticeable amount of money that you shouldn't have felt pressured to give away in the first place but the reasons for that, I will get into later.

The type of card machine and your angle of attack when they hand the bill to you is also something to over think. Some of these portable machines are ruthless. You have to manually navigate through a custom tip amount and press zero (horrible) while other ones simply make it one of the options. I usually position it so that they don't see me press that option though they find out anyway when the receipt is printed.

Using gift cards is also annoying as it can be used up with a small amount left over that you still have to awkwardly pay and select no tip again. You cannot blame people for having a negative attitude towards people that don't tip, it's so ingrained in the culture that to not tip is instantly considered as horrible and selfish, even though the point of a tip is that it is additional, it is charity, it is an optional thing. People go into the fact that again, it is selfish for you to hold on to that money instead of giving it to the server who may need it more, though that is the employer's job, not my job.

People see it as such a greedy and horrible thing. I remember once hearing a thing on the radio about a girl saying she went on a date with a guy and he paid for the meal and didn't tip, and she didn't like him because of this. When she asked him, he said that he doesn't agree with the tipping system and that's why he doesn't tip at restaurants. The stereotypically obnoxious radio hosts then went on to laugh at that and say its stupid to be against tipping and show that by not tipping instead of trying to advocate for change. To that I say, if I disagree with abortion (which i do) and live in Canada, the most dangerous and discriminatory country against pre-born humans, then I probably won't go and get an abortion (if I could). This is simple.

Average people waste their money so much anyways, the tip charity money you give them is very likely to go to something futile than be put in a savings account. Why does that little amount matter that much socially. Our defined 'standard of living' is way higher than the overwhelming vast majority of humans throughout history, living in famines, diseases and droughts. If being generous was that much of a concern, do not waste your money eating out but eat at home and donate the money you would have wasted to a charity or your church.

Reasons
So why do I go out of my way to not tip? I have several reasons on several different levels as to why I personally don't tip, though if you want to tip no matter what the argument is, there is nothing wrong with that. It is your money. It becomes excess to the paid income of the people at the restaurant making it okay for them to greed after it when they don't get a proper tip. In where I live, servers make the same amount as any other minimum wage job, meaning that people who are doing pretty much the same work as anyone else are expecting tips for some weird cultural reason.

Me for example, I work at a retirement home sometimes as a server and I am expected to show respect and create a comfortable environment for the old people there, the exact same expectations for a server at any regular restaurant and I do all this without the expectation of a tip, like a normal job. It also sort of enforces this weird feeling where I am questioning if I should care as much being a server who is not receiving tips compared to one who does. What is the standard, what is the point?

In the opposite of that point, I've seen so many times at restaurants where servers tryhard so much just to get a good tip (which they probably have to split among all the servers and the kitchen staff), its painful to watch sometimes. One time we got a server at a restaurant that kept refilling our waters every time we took one sip and even came by to bus a singular toothpick from somebody's plate. You want to try really hard and I have to endure how awkward it is just in the hope that I give you a tip? Even one that would exceed a regular tip amount? I don't owe the restaurant any more money besides the money that I put towards the food I am eating, I can tip if I want to, and the server can be happy that I do that, but when they see it as the norm, they take it for granted and it becomes an expectation which is exactly what a tip isn't.

Its lovely setting such a silly social standard that instills a fear in you that if you don't give them unnecessary extra money just for doing their job then you will be seen as greedy and will fear that the next time you go to that restaurant, they might remember you and spit in your food or something. That is such garbage. I appreciated how you did the job you choose to do, but I don't need to show that through my charity. If I choose to give you that, then a tip has true meaning and appreciation. It is to be appreciated and not expected.

Geography
As I stated before, servers at a restaurant where I live legally should be making the same amount as any other entry minimum wage job, which removes the point of tipping which is to ensure they are making as much as everyone else. In different countries in Europe, tipping is not a normal thing unless someone really wants to. Why do the French not need to tip but we need to waste money? I would like some consistency and would not like to have negative intentions applied to me for simply not following along with our cultural standards, in a place that really has no real grounded culture. Eating out at restaurants is already enough of a waste of money.

Money Money
This is a conservative estimate:
If someone were to eat out monthly and spent $30 each time they went out, tipping at the national average of 15%, then over one year, they would be giving away $54 dollars to people that are not in poverty and likely do not need any sort of charity. Do they want more money? Yes. Should it socially enforced upon you to give them extra money outside of the money that the restaurant pays them for working there? No. This example is a conservative estimate for the average person, many people go out once or twice at least biweekly, this adds up a lot. Save money, don't feel like you are forced to tip.

Why don't you take the money you would have used to tip and give it to someone who is guaranteed to need it, or a charity or your church, if not being greedy is your goal. What is your ultimate intention in how you use your money? They make as much as any other basic job and have to split that tip among the kitchen staff, in Canada at least.

Being Hospitable
If you want to tip every time, then go ahead. There's nothing wrong with that, what is wrong is the social obligation that you must tip or be regarded as bad. I've tipped before, my friend was our server and I knew her so I wanted to. Or in the future, if I want to do a hospitable act and have extra money, then I'll just casually give a large tip. I believe there's many more ways to be generous and hospitable especially in a biblical context without throwing your money towards meaningless things. I would much rather invite random people over to dinner for example then try to show that same love through a tip. Even in the context of money, there's better options than tipping.

Its almost legalism to claim that your specific way of being hospitable to xenos is the right way and everyone should do it like that. This is all not a big deal at all.

Gratuity
If I lived in some other country where servers are payed significantly under minimum wage as it is expected for their profit to rely on tips, then it would be a slightly different scenario for me to openly oppose tipping people and discourage it. I would maybe then consider tipping if I liked the service and the food. Places that are like that are silly and it should not be that way, all minimum wage jobs should be played the same regardless of whether they are busy or not. You can't just pay someone less because you aren't busy, if you can then why can't you apply that to all industries?

Giving someone a big tip when you don't have to to make their day or demonstrate some evangelism of some sort might be a good idea for other people, but not for me. I could understand why people might think its greedy in certain specific situations not to tip, but overall it should never be expected. A synonym for gratuity would be a present because that is what it is. I very strongly believe that nobody should ever expect a present and people shouldn't feel pressured to give a present. Imagine a struggling father trying to waste as much money as possible on the perfect gift for his children, or someone over stressing about what they should get their friend for their birthday. Presents are a form of grace, a relationship should not be reliant on them. It is the type of thing you do for someone without being asked but never assume a bad intention if they didn't know what to get you or were too busy in life to get you a present. We give presents to friends and family, why should the same be expected for random people that are obligated to serve us in a very small way for a short period of time. Very inconsistent.

Tipping for everything
Some of this tipping garbage is getting to be too much. I once heard a story of a friend that went to subway (where they ask for tips) and the guy was telling her to press no tip as all the tips went straight to the company and not to the person who made your sandwich. Firstly, a borderline fast food place like subway should not even be asking for tips and secondly, how ridiculous is it that people are tipping in hopes of being gratuitous towards the person behind the counter and instead it goes to the corporate entity, complete garbage.

I also remember seeing somewhere that a guy was in one of those overpriced shops in an airport that was complete self service, so he went to grab his $6 water bottle and went to the self checkout and the silly machine asked for a tip. How ridiculous is that, zero human service, overpriced and you have to do it all yourself and they had the audacity to program a tip in the self checkout machine. Why? Who did this? Mega fire them.

These are some stupid situations that show our sort of neo-tipping society where you have to tip someone every 5 minutes. I believe this is a byproduct of the many changes made under the table while the covid pandemic was occurring, hoping we wouldn't notice. I would not get uber eats or a similar service because one, it's a waste of money and two, you are forced to tip before they deliver the food, meaning they can do whatever they want to your food before it reaches you, because you didn't tip. Mega sketch.

Conclusion
Overall, I greatly disagree with the concept of tipping in the food service industry in Canadian society especially. There's gotta be a more sensible way. Until then, I will continue to not tip and watch servers get paid the same as everyone else.