u/Ok-Lettuce-9397

I noticed that when I commented on political and some other subreddits my karma started heading downwards, fast. In other words I got a lot of down votes. Consequently I stopped commenting, unless I agreed with the other posters. I didn't want to go to zero, which started to look inevitable. Have you had similar experiences? If yes, do you think it would be better if Reddit showed both up and down votes and the sum separately?

Increasing tourism, and thus flown airmiles, etc., at first seems like bad for the environment. However, many areas we wish to protect have populations who need to extract their livelihood from those environments. Is it then better that we encourage more tourism to support those economies or is it better to allow them to exploit the natural resources (fishing, hunting, logging, etc.) instead?

Rent control lowers rents but who gets to decide who gets to live in a rent controlled apartment? When rents are set by the market, rents in desirables places such as NYC go up. The ability and willingness to pay rent determines who gets to live in any particular apartment, house etc. With rent control, the number of people who can afford the rent grows, so that some other metrics then determine who gets to live there. Friends and their friends, nice looking people, relatives, people who command respect (doctors, nurses, police, firefighters), famous people, etc. have a better chance of finding an apartment. Do you think it's fair? (Landlords' property rights are another topic. Please comment on those elsewhere.)

It's easy to give other peoples' money willy nilly without much thinking. It's not yours and you didn't earn it, so it's not like you are losing anything. You just do a good deed and someone else pays for it.
Giving your own money is different. You earned it, and after you donate it, it's gone forever. There are no guarantees it's going to do what you intended it to do. The people who receive it or are in charge of managing it could be dishonest or incompetent. You feel compelled to research their past activities carefully and you will also make sure to monitor how the money is spent. If all goes well, you feel good. Until then you are
anxious and worry.

Since tips are not taxed anymore, does it also mean that your waiter will not be automatically taxed a preset amount by the taxman? Is this so, and have tips come down?

Anybody looked into Cosmo recently? They seem to be close to commercializing their new hair loss drug. The stock is down right now but I think that's irrelevant if the new drug takes off. Any thoughts?