From the About Damn Time Department: in today's Slate, the Seattle cook Sara Dickerman notes what I've been saying for years -- that tipping is a social tax on customers to make up for the shitty wages restaurants pay their wait staffs. What is so wrong with paying good money for good workers and just leaving me out of it? Dickerman is "inclined to argue for a regime change in the restaurant world, shifting the onus of paying servers decently from the customer to the employer. A service charge would be added to the bill, making the tip unnecessary. This system has worked in Europe for years."