The article on tipping originating in slavery is short on any actual details, and says that the pratice began originally in feudal Europe. Could it have started in the USA at Antoine's in New Orleans? I would imagine that a server's job there now would be a premium one. Even though freed slaves were generally limited to the South after the ACW, tipping seems to have caught on all over. Around the turn of the century many states tried to outlaw tipping as some kind of moral deficiency, mostly states in the Deep South which presumably was where the most black people were. People basically ignored the laws and they went away.

Maybe giving someone a gratuity for good service is a natural human thing to do. It will insure good service the next time you eat or drink somewhere. How do servers and other people who recieve tips for their work feel about the practice? After being served thousands and thousands of times in bars and eateries, I have never had someone refuse a gratuity I offered them.

I eat fast food about once a week at lunch with work friends because most pubs and taverns in my area don't open until mid afternoon. I also need my meal quickly because I have to return to work. 5 Guys makes a really, really good burger, and their fries are the best, and I like the idea that I can voluntarily pay the cooks something extra for making my sandwich. I know that If I were to eat at a tavern, the waitron or bartender will get all of any gratuity I leave. But I get it that leftists don't like economic decisions that are voluntary, and would rather that people were guided by the state.