As of late, I've been become preoccupied with when and how much to tip. This might have something to do with living in Richmond, VA where a significant portion of the population is the starving artist type who lives off tips. I've also read several posts by service industry workers expressing that if I don't dole out after out I order a muffin at the counter, then they can't afford to live in their 10' x 10' studio that they share with a roommate and a cat over a storefront.

There seems to be an expectation to tip everywhere. No one wants to be seen as cheap. (My mom criticizes that I always calculate my tip so that the total sums to the nearest whole dollar. She argues that my tip should be in whole dollars lest I look stingy. I bristle because oftentimes the server is getting above 20 percent with my computation; I do study math.)