I agree that this is the most interesting topic the author touches upon. I bet if you compared wages to the cost of living, you'd find that it is less about honor, and more about survival. That said, in China, wait staff get paid shit even in nice restaurants and they don't get tipped at all. I also doubt that economists are scratching their heads over it. I delivered pizza for a couple of years and tips were what I lived off of. Well, tips and shitty pizza. It's pretty clear that the guy driving his beater car around the suburbs needs what extra you are willing to give. That's why people do. There's only one way to deliver a pizza, and there is no special table. Oddly, pizza doesn't have a clear 20% rule. A lot of folk give $1-2 no matter how many pies you deliver.It seems that the more honourable that restaurant work is in a society, the less that staff are tipped.