If you don't know by now that you're expected to tip when you order a pizza or sit down at a restaurant then there is something wrong with you. You should know what's coming before you ever pick up the phone to order or sit down at the restaurant. No one is springing anything on you, tipping has been a part of American culture before most of the people on this forum were ever born. Unless you're from outside of America you should never be surprised when the guy delivering your pizza is expecting a tip.
So what if I was raised to tip 10%? (edit: I've noticed my dad usually tips about 10%, even if the service was fine. Some might see that as "bad" tipping, but maybe 10% was normal for most of his life? Is he supposed to track and keep up with inflation now?) Some people say 15% is standard. Will that prevent my food from being spit on? Some people have said 20% is standard. Some states have stronger minimum wage laws, do I tip less there? Some states have higher cost of living, do I tip more there? I know I tip restaurants, sure. Oh yeah, and pizza delivery drivers. But wait, package delivery drivers don't get tips? And they do far more heavy lifting than a pizza delivery person. But I get it, pizza delivery drivers only get minimum wage, and it's an extra optional service, that's why you should tip. Oh, look, there's a delivery fee that gets charged when I order delivery,
obviously that means that the cost of delivery is covered by that, right?
Taxi drivers? Do I have to tip on Uber? They drive me around too. So does the local bus service, do I tip the bus driver as well? The person who takes my luggage at the hotel is supposed to be tip. I think. But I can take my own luggage, do I have to run the person down when they rush to grab my luggage, because I actually don't want to pay for the "service"?
Arguing for payment based on a vague thing like "tradition" may be a "functional" system, but I have no idea how one could argue that it should be the preferred or optimal system. Healthcare through an employer is "tradition" in the US, but it's hardly the best way to provide health care services to a nation, according to pretty much all evidence.
And I don't know why people get mad and want to be charged up front. These companies are giving you an in to save money if you get shitty service. Why would you want that extra $5 always tacked on when you could just save that money every time you got bad service? Tipping is actually beneficial for the consumer if used correctly but people seem more concerned with getting rid of it so they can definitely spend more money every time they go out to eat.
If it's always bad service, then I'd eat somewhere else. Plus there's this weird idea that a tipping system automatically leads to better service, when that's pretty much obvious that it's not really true. And also by that logic, we should have
every service be based on tipping, and not some arbirtrary list based on "tradition". But no one ever argues for that...
And if we just want to reward people for going above and beyond, then sure, someone can go ahead and tip if they want. But building entire industries economic system around
required tipping seems completely dumb.
Other arguments against tipping:
http://www.vox.com/2014/7/17/5888347/one-more-case-against-tipping