Yeah no kidding. I usually think of gerdy as logical but this one idk. Not tipping is not going to change the way the industry is structured. If you don't agree with the business ethics and structure, you should boycott businesses that don't pay their employees a living wage rather than justifying being cheap with an individual who works for them.

What you're essentially saying is parallel to "I don't like slavery, so I killed a slave." Wouldn't it make more sense to target the slaveholders seeing as they can just go get another slave? Killing the slave doesn't do anything productive and proves nothing. It just makes you look like an asshole with bad moral character.

Most people tip with plastic these days, those tips go on a paycheck, and most places in the industry offer benefits comparable to jobs in equal income brackets. Almost all (95%+) of my income from tips is taxed, and my pension will be comparable to a worker in a different industry around the same income, so you're actually just incorrect on that. While some businesses operate with under the table employees, that's against the law and hardly normal, so your input about benefits is actually just flat out incorrect.

That said, in fine dining, servers typically have the option to auto-gratuity tables. At my work, you can add a little 20% pre-tax gratuity to anyone's ticket and it even says we have the option to do so on the menu. Most servers just tend to choose not to for parties smaller than 5, because they believe people will not take their dissatisfaction with an industry out on a particular individual. So you'd get away with that at my job once and then my people would learn your face and make sure you no longer have the option. We're essentially providing you an opportunity not to be cheap, but if we learn you are, it's not a big deal. It's better than kneecapping a mfer.