The answer is in your last sentences, employers should just pay a livable wage (mandated by the government really). In your first paragraph, all the things you explain to me are just part of the job. Nobody is going above and beyond to give me a better service/experience, it’s literally just people doing their jobs. In non hospitality services, people don’t get tipped for doing their job either, right? I’ve never seen anyone tip a nurse, teacher, police officer, etc.

The whole tipping culture in the US is such a wild concept. In that aspect, I’m glad that we here in The Netherlands don’t have that culture (yet), that we are not expected to tip and that we only tip great hospitality. But meanwhile the times are changing, we also see a “leave tip” prompt more often and it is really starting to annoy me. I’ll decide if I want to tip, no need to shove it in my face, especially not considering people make a living wage without tips anyways.

I don’t tip for take out I have to pick up myself. But tipping culture here in The Netherlands is vastly different than the US. We basically only tip in restaurants, and only if the service was really good. Most people don’t tip for bad or average service.

Is there an option to pick up my own food at the counter? I’d gladly do it.

Yes he’s dumb, but on the topic of tariffs he knows it will not bring blue collar jobs back to the US_, look at his own merch or the phone he is selling, all made in China. Secondly, he didn’t write Project 2025, there are smarter people than Trump pulling the strings, there is ulterior motive to push for these tariffs. I personally don’t really know what, other than wrecking the economy or maybe purposefully devaluating the dollar.