Agreed with all of this. I'm a US-American, and embarrassed by how we treat our workers. I started tipping more generously after reading the book Nickled and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. It showed me that it is literally impossible to make ends meet on minimum wage. Decades later, things have only gotten worse. And just voting for Democrats is not going to fix it. (ETA in case it isn't clear, I don't support the Republicans either.)