CMV: Tipping in the US is insane and a way to pay fast food wages to workers in the service industry.

I'm from a country in Central Europe, and I've never tipped a waiter or waitress before. I was recently on vacation in the United States and I was eating at a restaurant and the waiter came up to me and said "Do you need anything else?". I replied "I'm good on everything actually". After I said this, the waiter literally looked at me like I punched him in the face. It looked like he was going to cry for a moment. He just said "ok then" and walked away with attitude. I found this to be very strange. Even though tipping is a part of the culture in the US, I don't think it makes it right. I've done some research and found out that waiters in the US often make minimum wage or below that and they make up for it with tips. It's insane that the onus is on the customer to pay the waiters wages. I just feel that the business model for restaurants in the US is flawed. I don't really order out that often and I usually go to a sit down restaurant, so I have no idea how tipping works if you order take out. I just feel that restaurants should pay their staff a living wage instead of relying on tips. The service industry is a big part of the culture in the US, so they obviously aren't going anywhere, so I think they could afford to pay better wages instead of relying on tips.<br><br>Edit: I didn't know that tipping culture in the US was so divisive. Thank you all for changing my view.