Let’s say you stumble into the State Diner at 4 a.m. on a Saturday for a western omelette, the server treats you and your friends terribly (you may or may not have been drunkenly shooting spitballs at the mirrored walls), yet you leave 20 percent of the bill for her. Now, I understand that serving is not a predominantly glorious or lucrative occupation, but the service industry, by definition, revolves around satisfying the consumer. The mindless tipping to which we’ve become accustomed has not only shaped the wage rates of our waiters and waitresses, but it has also decreased the quality of service we get when we sit down at a restaurant.

Economics studies the way people respond to incentives. If you touch a stove and burn your hand, you will not touch that stove again — common sense. This is because there is a strong disincentive — physical injury — in touching the stove. The same logic holds for waiting tables. If a waitress is left pocket change and a stick of gum for being grouchy and inconsiderate, she’ll probably throw on a smile for the next family. Conversely, if she gets a larger tip for cracking jokes and being courteous, she’ll probably do that again.

The problem is, flying the 15 percent flag has been so ingrained into our social mores that we fail to provide incentives for good service (or disincentives for bad service). If we all tipped our servers in reflection of the service we receive — including (gasp) tipping under 15 percent — we’d all receive better service in the long run. In a perfectly competitive labor market, poor servers would have little financial incentive to keep their job waiting tables, or they’d quickly learn to become better servers. Alternatively, serving for polite and competent servers would remain a financially rewarding option compared to similar jobs, thus providing the restaurant world with an increase in skilled servers.

I can see a potential backlash against this idea, considering servers are already paid below minimum wage and many servers depend on tips. The economics behind it, though says better servers could indeed come out ahead and be rewarded for their skill. This is one of those situations where economic analysis can be wholly unsympathetic — which is one of the reasons why I personally revere the science.

America is a smiling, single, Midwestern mother serving coffee and BLTs to truckers on I-80 West. America is not a high school drama queen who can’t remember if you ordered white or wheat toast because she was too busy texting behind the register.