As a new foreign student in the US, it's the restaurants underpaying the waiters/servers and their income being heavily reliant on tips.

Absolutely baffling.

The average tip income for wait staff in the U.S. is almost twice the average pay for a salaried/hourly paid waiter with no tips in London.

Almost all of the people who complain about tipping are people who are expected to leave tips. It isn't the wait staff if they are good at their jobs.

Waiting at a restaurant is one of the few really good paying, easily accessible jobs for many people.

Your food is subsidized to compensate.

If you don't want wait staff to make the money they do and you want to save a couple dollars on your meal, then just say that.

But don't try to take some moral fucking high ground because you're too cheap to tip.