I've never used a cam site. I've been to strip bars three times maybe four. I don't tip them, first because I'm not American so I'm not obsessed with tipping culture and second I've paid the fee they want for the dance.
Revealing? No, you're projecting.
I'm not sure if you're going to care or not, but we can get into the economics of strip clubs a little bit!
Most performers have to pay "rent" to perform on a stage. By that I mean, they're only given a certain cut from whatever money is made for the night. Mostly money made by "private" affairs (dances, etc) but also basic cover fees, etc. I think we can all agree that it isn't unfair... but the point here is, most strippers are not on any kind of payroll.
The vast majority of strip clubs will also charge exorbitant fees for those performers and it's not infrequently that performers will leave the club with about 20% of what they actually pulled in that night. Some of the higher profile dancers will be able to negotiate better rates but it's pretty rare, especially with a physically demanding job. So if a girl charges $60 for a half hour dance, she may see 6-12 bucks off of that.
Tipping, however, goes straight into the pockets (metaphorically speaking) of the performer you enjoy. Obviously. So, by tipping you're helping to support someone that legitimately isn't making money if they don't make much off of dances for the night. This isn't an American thing, either. Most strip clubs work this way world-wide. Hell, it's even worse in some regions! A lot of people assume that a stripper is getting paid just to be there like any old job, but even unlike the service industry they aren't. There is no payroll and no promise of money for the night.
Tipping, in essence, isn't relegated to the culture of an area but rather common decency. A waiter in France is gonna be making enough money to not need tips, so the culture looks down on the practice. A stripper? Not so much.
Speaking as someone who has never watched a cam girl show:
If they don't want people to watch for free, they should charge people to watch. But they've probably figured out that the freemium business model makes more money, so they have to take the good with the bad with that.
I don't think F2P mobile game developers are constantly salty about the people who play their games who don't pay a dime, because they know that the "F2P + some normal-paying customers + handful of whales" business model makes them way more money in the end than a monthly sub fee would have.
It's definitely not piracy to consume media that is offered for free, at least.
Some sites don't allow you to perform for free. Others do, but a lot of people perform "for free" as a method of advertising. Sure, she'll fuck herself for a room full of people if some random schmoe drops $20 on tokens for the whole room. Imagine what she'll do if you drop $30 to get her in private! The other unfortunate reality is that the best chance at making decent money is to perform on the sites that allow and encourage free performances. You're limiting yourself if you don't rail yourself for free on cam. It's why more and more you're seeing camgirls head off to patreon (under different guises but the same end result) or have a plethora of donation incentives.
Granted, there are also people that are camming because if they're gonna have sex they might as well make a few bucks off of it.
