Giving or receiving tips are contextually differ across various culture and regions, also can be seen very much aligning with the economic principles and values that each may exercise. In many customs offering tips are considered as offensive where in many regions service charges are part of the final billing so that it will be directed to person providing any sort of service there by excluding the dilemma of tipping. Patterns shows that the countries in that are listed high on ‘Happiness Index’ often tend to avoid tipping by various means. In such cases service provider is committed themselves to provide the best service possible to the customer assuming it’s their responsibility to do so, declining to accept further perks. Also, such societies provide a greater respect to the employee irrespective of the level he/she is working without stereotyping.
Now on System’s viewpoint to bring in the equilibrium, it adjusts organically to each scenario. Let’s consider a place where tipping is accepted in a restaurant setting. There could be high and low tippers coming into a restaurant. Based on the interactions between customer and the service provider there will be an active judging going on between all parties directly involved. And tipping amplifies such thought process. This creates mental calculations which are unnecessary or even stressful and is in fact reflecting in the ‘Happiness Index’ ranking I mentioned before. Where in a dynamic service charge (let’s say a fixed percentage of sale executed) is added to the bill making them essentially a passionate sales team which is competing to provide best service.
In contrast to this, in low-income countries or in countries with high inflation/cost of living with large wealth disparity, tips are seen as a favour given the financial circumstances and it’s more like the act of pleasing the customer. Such services many not be coming due to metal satisfaction and there are cases where mandatory tipping is enforced either to the customer or the service provider. This brings in lot of judging across all the parties including system itself. System has to place most eligible provider to the most deserving customer to that high tips are directed to the most deserving candidate. Even winning a lottery could be seen a parallel but with little uncertainty. Most eligible candidates are brought to the lottery pool where in any random person within the pool winning is acceptable and manageable to the System with closer control than otherwise.
Also, there could be negative downstream consequences for odd scenario examples like willfully asking/accepting more than deserving tips considering how System would balance the equation to form equilibrium afterwards given the choices. For a region or organization to be developed beyond materialistically, I would say fixed pricing without tips would do well in a ‘Socialistic’ setting and dynamic service charge pricing in a ‘Free Market’ setting. This should come with a moral acceptance that the passion or commitment provided by the provider is part of the cost incurred and also customer is to be respected for paying/accepting the services offered nevertheless negating the irrationality of ‘favour given/taken’. Otherwise, transactions should happen with the understanding that care given or taken should always be equal to form an equilibrium which involves a lot of mutual respect. A gesture of honest feedback if possible or offering a beverage who dropped food at your doorstep during harsh winter or rain could be seen as such scenarios. Once we finish our part, rest is up to the System to figure out the math associated and surely it does mean we should do we are supposed to do within our limits, but carefully enough not to overdo something which would make ourself uncomfortable later on deviating from our true selves. Also, honor rules of the place we are in where pivot and adjust if necessary. There might be other demographic factors that need to be considered as well. Like always, there are no hard and fast rules as each framework has some uniqueness within, so in essence it's about our heart and mind work in tandem bringing best versions of everything around.