Once again I find myself doing delivery driving to make ends meet and get by. I'm glad to have a decent full-time job but it's never enough to cover the luxuries of a full stomach or paying bills on time. I used to live off of delivery pay and tips are sometimes literally the difference between eating for the day or actually sucking it up so you can afford gas to earn money the next day.
Over the years I've observed that the orders that give the largest tips, proportionately speaking, are the lowest socioeconomic households I deliver to. Elderly people usually don't tip because of how little they have; the cost of the delivery is already astronomical given their situation. But the several thousand square foot homes in gated communities? I'm lucky to get a tip at all with those deliveries and I wish I was exaggerating. Middle to upper class individuals/families tipping more than 5% let alone tipping at all is the exception.
The more a person earns per year, the less they're willing to pay for service. Yet as their income bracket increases they expect access to more premium services. You get what you pay for and across the board, the wealthy aren't paying. They're so paranoid about losing their wealth that they no longer feel secure paying for products and services at a market price. It's an absolutely insane phenomenon to witness.