I really don't care about their story.
I worked for about a dozen restaurants, bars and clubs back in the day. I lived in some of the shittiest places imaginable (in the US,) including 3 weeks in my car parked outside the low-rent, skank-infested strip club at which I DJed.
I get it; life is hard. However, tipping isn't a "charity surcharge" -- it's to reward service that went beyond the service you agreed to buy. A gardener watering my plants doesn't get a tip. A gardener helping find an escaped dog -- definitely.
I donate to charities I care about. I pay my taxes. I ensure the team I have working for me now gets paid before I do. I definitely don't need to be admonished that because I am a white guy that makes a bit of money now that somehow I don't understand the plight of those in service industries.
The great majority of people on HN aren't Stanford grads born with silver spoons -- nearly all of us worked our asses off to get the luxury of writing code or making companies.
Regardless of all that the implicit requirement that we tip as a form of charity is nonsense. The reason low wage people don't have a 'living wage' is because the supply of their labor is greater than the demand. Nothing will change that unless we implement a Soviet economy. Even Sweden has a poverty rate of 7% -- the U.K. is at 10% -- Spain is at 15%, France is at 14%.
The idea that "living wages" or tipping somehow makes any difference in poverty is not supported by facts. If we want to really help the poor, we should be supporting a culture of entrepreneurial freedom instead of excessive regulation. Some lady wants to sell tamales out of her house -- legally she can't do it without a health inspection and a permit. So someone that could have the means to start a small business with just a few dollars and some labor can't do it because of all of the barriers to entry. Some guy wants to cut hair on a street corner -- he can't do it without a cosmetology license. Some family wants to use the family car to pick up people at the airport -- they can't do it without permits, licenses or approvals.
Promoting micro-entrepreneurism would have a far bigger impact that tipping an Uber driver $10.
But the same people that love to virtue-signal often happen to be the same kind of people that support increased government regulation in all aspects of society. We're so busy protecting people from themselves that we stifle any ambitions they might have to attempt to improve their lot.