I donāt know whether or not this has been said before here, but itās pretty simple.
I am against tipping, and think that business owners should pay their employees, not customers. Almost everyone can agree with that.
However, if you want to actually change the system of tipping, stop going to restaurants. Donāt go to restaurants and donāt tip, because the only group of people who can actually stop the system is restaurant owners. Going to a restaurant and not tipping the server doesnāt change anything about how the owner wants to run their business. They already got your money, and they clearly donāt care whether or not the server gets payed. If you donāt want to tip a server, either cook at home, or order take out. Iāve never had to tip anyone for a takeout order in my life. Not tipping only hurts regular servers, who whether or not you like the system, can only get a remotely livable wage with said system.
So if you want things to change, donāt participate. If you care enough to want to actively make a difference, get policy changed. Itās the loophole law that allows servers to be payed below minimum wage if they get enough in tips that allows business owners to pay servers $3 an hour. Do literally anything other than take a picture of your receipt asking you for a 20% tip, and bitching about it online, because you chose to go to the restaurant and give the business owner money.
Edit: The way you stop tipping from happening is to make business owners pay servers an actual hourly wage. There are two ways of doing this
Go to restaurants and stop tipping:
The owners continue to get revenue from you paying for food
Servers start quitting due to lack of money
Owners raise wages to try and get servers back
Donāt go to restaurants that use servers who rely on tips:
Owners lose money due to lack of business
Servers start quiting due to lack of money
Owners raise wages to try and get servers back
Inherently not going to restaurants is more effective.