The expansion of tipping culture has been here for awhile. This particular instance generated outrage, but usually people comply. First it was restaurants becau

The expansion of tipping culture has been here for awhile. This particular instance generated outrage, but usually people comply. First it was restaurants because in some states waiters don't even make minimum wage. Then it became almost all restaurants, regardless of whether the employees legally make minimum wage before tips or not. Now it's ride sharing. And food trucks. Anywhere they have Square. As if handing the food through the food truck window is somehow worthy of a tip. Ice cream shops. Food delivery. In addition to exorbitant fees and overpriced items, a tip is still required or the driver is likely not even making money. I can accept this during the pandemic since the driver is risking their life, but outside, every single one of these cases is preposterous. The underlying issue is that companies are allowed to not pay employees enough and often are allowed to classify employees as contractors. Unless you're easily paying your health insurance out of pocket (premiums, deductible, and out of pocket max), there's no way one should be classified as a contractor. It's absurd to think people making whatever uber offers have control over their lives and their work. It's tiring that these multi-billion dollar companies as refusing to pay living wages and externalizing their pay onto their customers. Unfortunately, the only recourse is to not tip and this, like so many things, hurts the workers more than their companies. But what else to do? In a society where learned helplessness is the norm and that has no practical way of addressing one's concerns, boycotting remains the only viable action. What am I going to do? Sue? Write my representative? Please. Let's not be delusional. Hopefully if employees suffer enough, they might unionize, and claw back power for themselves. Or these business will go out of business. It's sad, but that's what it seems to take.