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I can sympathize with the feeling of wanting to share with those less fortunate, and that tipping provides me with a non-awkward way of doing so (instead of "he

I can sympathize with the feeling of wanting to share with those less fortunate, and that tipping provides me with a non-awkward way of doing so (instead of "here, want a dollar?"). But this: > If you can afford to spend $3 on a coffee, you can afford to spend $3.60 on a coffee. sounds like a logical fallacy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorites_paradox#Paradox_of_the_heap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorites_paradox#Paradox_of_the... It might be that $3 is right at the limit of what I am willing to spend on a cup of coffee, and that doesn't deserve a "check your (expletive) privilege."

rayiner 8y ago
When a coffee costs $3, the marginal buyer will be willing to pay $3. But many other buyers would have been willing to pay more, i.e. they would've bought the coffee at $3.50 or $4. In economics, this is called "consumer surplus." Tipping as it exists in the U.S. is a way to share some of this consumer surplus with the wait staff. If you really would not have bought the coffee at $3.50, then don't tip. But the majority of people probably would've bought the coffee at $3.50 or even $4.50. Unless you are really one of those marginal customers, you should just tip. (Note that people tipping is also good for the marginal customer. Like other forms of price discrimination, it allows the provider to price the product lower and allows customers to purchase the product who otherwise could not have done so.)