Either for doing the job well and making your experience more enjoyable, or because they’re being undercompensated. It doesn’t work this way in all countries, but in the U.S., waiters and waitresses can be paid less than the minimum wage because it’s assumed they’ll make it up in tips. A lot of people think that’s unfair and it very well may be, but it’s a good reason to tip - if you don’t do it, the person who serves you gets screwed.
The good reason is that these guys are paid substandard wages, and they have to earn a living from the tip. If you received the services, you should pay for them.
It’s a bad system, it’s not your fault, but it’s not theirs either.
But then you said this:
So I have no problem saying now: Oh yeah? Let’s see you do it.
Do what, take a beer out of a fridge and open it? It is ridiculous that people get paid to do that. (Does a bar exist that has vending machines instead of bartenders?)
Well, the concept of service itself is kind of dumb. It would be of practically no inconvenience for me to get the beer out of the fridge and open it myself. But of course the bar owner isn’t going to trust me to do that, so I’ll just drink at home.
People could seat themselves, get their own food, and bus their own tables at every restaurant in the world. The problem is that it starts to become less relaxing and fun and the whole thing doesn’t work as smoothly. That’s why somebody else gets paid to do with it.
So that the people I’m with and the people that are serving me will be fooled into thinking that I might not be a raging asshole beneath the nicey nice facade. Let them find out some other way and in the meantime I get plenty of business referrals. You do realize that once we find out that someone doesn’t tip, or is a crappy tipper, that we don’t trust them about anything? Get to know the servers at your regular hang outs well enough and you can learn who isn’t worth trusting. And to answer the next question, yes, I wouldn’t trust a person who doesn’t tip in a culture where it is customary.
Move to [pretty much every country in the world apart from the US - (is tipping bartenders in Canada de regeur too?)]. You don’t have to tip: just get your drink and relax. Though usually when there’s table service you tip. Don’t ask why. In particular you could move to Japan, where tipping is hardly even understood or even considered rude in some cases.
One tips in this country so one is not considered a raging douchebag.
Until the system in which bartenders and waitstaff are paid significantly less than minimum wage and expected to make up the difference with tips and are TAXED on those tips is changed, not tipping doesn’t make one an edgy rebel, it makes one a douchebag.
If you don’t pay for your overpriced beer, it may become a police matter. If you don’t leave an (overpriced?) tip, it won’t. I would ask OP whether that’s the distinction he makes; i.e. that his policy is to make the minimum legal payment.
Out of interest, is there a special minimum wage for bartenders / waiters, or will it vary from place to place just how inadequate their basic wage is?