ANDY KESSLER: The Tyranny of Today’s Tipping: When did it become expected to shell out a 25% gratuity for soggy takeout fries?

The screen reads: “Add a tip: 18%. 20%. 25%.” For a takeout sack of burgers and soggy fries? C’mon. It takes extra taps to change it to 10% or zero. Instead, we sheepishly tip and feel resentful. Using Internal Revenue Service data, I extrapolate that tipping has almost doubled since 2013, when San Francisco-based Square …

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ANDY KESSLER: The Lost Era of Reliability: We can no longer count on politicians, media or even the latest technology.

“Photoshopping the then-missing princess of Wales. The press twisting Donald Trump’s “bloodbath” comment out of context. AT&T Wireless down for hours. And (gasp!) Instagram offline. Is anything reliable anymore? Reliability is a lost art. Our electricity used to be so steady that plugged-in wall clocks rarely needed adjusting. That’s funny now because power outages are …

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