If costs go up because people need more money to earn a living wage, then we should 100% do it. Everyone deserves a living wage.
America is the richest country in the world. We can afford to pay everyone a livable wage. The problem is that there are some extremely greedy oligarchs that have an addiction to greed, which in turn makes the lives of everyone else more difficult.
If everyone stopped tipping servers would realize it's their boss who is not paying them a livable wage in the first place. Stop subsidizing employers.
"Fake money for criminals" The US dollar has been around for quite some time...
Turbo Tax is the reason why the government doesn't just give you a number to pay. The process could be easy, but the giant corporation Intuit and their political lobbying is why it sucks.
"The only way to interpret statistics is with a healthy dose of skepticism and a thorough understanding of their context."
While people in this thread jump at the opportunity for this slice of statistics to affirm their confirmation biases, intelligent people will ask what the total carbon dioxide output looks like by comparison.