That's pretty rude to be honest, those people are presenting you with their own generosity at their expense and you, what, give it back because you want more money? Tips are a luxury for good service, maybe you'd get better tips if you served people better, rather than complaining about tips!

t's not a perfect system, but in general, a more expensive meal requires a more expensive tip because the more money spent in general correlates to a longer meal. You're going to spend more time sitting and enjoying a steak than a burger, and a steak is more expensive than a burger. If you're in a large group, you're probably also going to take longer than a small group to enjoy your meal, along with having a bigger bill.

You tip more on a bigger meal because your server has to tip out more on it. At most restaurants, your server has to tip out the busser based on a percentage of their sales (say 2%). If you tip $2 on a $10 meal, they have to tip out 2% of that $10. If you tip $2 on a $25 meal, they still have to tip out 2%, so when you undertip or don't tip based on your philosophical ideals, you're screwing a person who makes below minimum wage. The place I work does not do an automatic gratuity on large checks, so it's not uncommon for large parties of cheap people to pick our establishment to patronize because they can run the server ragged, get everything they want and then leave $5 on a $300 check because they suck. In effect, when you don't tip or tip very poorly, I am paying for the "pleasure" of waiting on you. It's a shitty system, yes, but until the greedy people who own restaurants change the way they pay their employees, it's the way it is.