Sounds like the people in your area can make enough money without tips to afford basic expenses - that's the way it should be. In many places around here - wai

Sounds like the people in your area can make enough money without tips to afford basic expenses - that's the way it should be. In many places around here - waitress/waiter staff get paid $2.13 / hour with the expectation of decent tips.. in some cases a place will bump up your pay to $7.75 / hour if you didn't get enough tips (and many places have been caught stealing all or parts of tips for the managers or owners regularly) - When I drove with lyft a couple years ago, I tracked it and after gas / taxes it amounted to about $6 per hour (most people do not understand it that way, I still hear ignorant people claim 'I can make $100 a day with X' (If someone will just lend me money to fix my brakes) ) The so called living wage around here is more than $21/hr. So lots of people live in uncomfortable situations, have anxiety about no health care coverage or other safety nets. Another problem I see a lot in the US is jealousy of the class differences - all sorts of people have a skewed idea of what other people have and what they deserve - it's only gotten worse since the social justice 'mostly peaceful protests' - and the defund police / publicizing the corporate policies of not stopping shoplifters. That's all reinforcing this skewed thinking. It's a mess.