I'm not aware of how things are on the ground in the US; it's more of a general perspective not tied to any specific country (which is my separate "meh" about strongly America-centric Lemmy, but it's very tangential)
But seeing people actually hit the absolute mandated minimum is indeed depressing. I might expect that waiter's income with tips is normally greater than the federal minimum, so maybe there's a chance not all waiters will agree to work for that, which should balance it a bit?
If you believe no tipping will leave waiters to starve with no money, that's not true. The very reason they are so severely underpaid is that restaurants know they'll get their income from tips.
The less tips there are, the more your employer will have to pay you - in a form of salary that is way more predictable and reliable than tips.
Customers, on their end, will know price in the menu is final, and they won't add crazy extra just so that they won't feel like worst people on Earth.
In my country, tips do exist, but you are not expected to leave them by default and it's totally fine and common not to. The result? Waiters get livable wage and can last a month without ever receiving a single tip (which they actually have, too, from time to time).
As a lemmy.today user myself (though not American), it's cozy in there!
But the numbers are surprisingly low. It's an instance that is run without donations though, only on the good will of its creator (who refuses donations citing sufficient income to keep it as a hobby project), so I imagine having it big could potentially become a strain.
Lemmy World mods doing something good for once.
No, US exceptionalism is turning every single general purpose community into US politics.
For the 4% of Earth's population that does indeed live in the US, there could be local communities.
I already do, and it's great!
It's just that this post evaded all my filters anyway thanks to phrasing :D
Luckily, I am not
Me: unsubbing every single politics community
Showerthoughts:
I'd argue plenty of people are simply not aware such alternatives even exist, and don't bother researching.
Internet could be a different place if more people cared.
With that said, even then we'd probably be in a minority.
I, in fact, do not :)
Stack up on basic meds for when you catch cold. You're likely to have it a lot, it's kinda normal.
Also, if you're gonna live in an area with central heating, make sure heaters in your home are fully operational and don't need to have air removed. They should be hot all throughout their surface.
MGTOW is absolutely no better.