[roganartu]

You simplify the tax code so that, like the vast majority of other developed nations, these situations do not apply.

However that requires a centralization of power that is politically unpalatable in the US currently.

In practice, I think that this issue largely persists in the US because of tipping culture though. It perpetuates an acceptance of final cost uncertainty that makes the insanity of all the examples you describe seem somehow not so weird after all.