Some of the reason is indeed due to fuckery such as companies intentionally making things difficult or illegal to repair, however part of it is also due to economic reasons. If you're trying to assemble something in the most economical way possible, you're probably not going to go out of your way to also make it more repairable. You're going to use single-use fasteners like rivets, glue, tack-welds, etc. - all things that are cheap to assemble the first time, but at the expense of more difficult disassembly later on.
In addition, diagnosing problems may be expensive depending on the appliance or machine. Would you spend four hours of your time repairing a dishwasher that could be replaced for $300? For some people it may be worth it; for some, not. I personally will spend quite a bit of time trying to repair something rather than replace it, however that's more of an ideological choice rather than an economic one.
Here's the methodology according to the YouGov website:
Methodology: This article includes findings from two U.S. News surveys conducted by YouGov on two nationally representative samples of 1,000 U.S. adult citizens interviewed online from January 14-20, 2022. The first survey included questions on groups involving race, education, income, family, gender, and sexuality, while the second survey included questions on religion, politics, and other miscellaneous groups. The samples were weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the 2018 American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, as well as 2016 and 2020 Presidential votes (or non-votes). Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. citizens. Real proportions were taken from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, YouGov’s internal poll results, and the results of other well-established polling firms. Most estimates were collected within the past three years; the oldest is from 2009. Because the real estimates presented cover a range of time periods, they may differ from actual population sizes at the time our survey was conducted.
I played around with incomes in the $25K-$50K range and came up with similar numbers to yours. Basically, someone in that range who makes most of their income from tips stands to save anywhere from $1K-$3K, which could be significant. As AOC pointed out though, that could quickly turn into a net loss if you lose Medicaid benefits.
I have to imagine that many people living off tips aren't making a whole lot of money, and consequently aren't currently paying much fed income tax anyway. How much money are they really going to save from this?
Some of the reason is indeed due to fuckery such as companies intentionally making things difficult or illegal to repair, however part of it is also due to economic reasons. If you're trying to assemble something in the most economical way possible, you're probably not going to go out of your way to also make it more repairable. You're going to use single-use fasteners like rivets, glue, tack-welds, etc. - all things that are cheap to assemble the first time, but at the expense of more difficult disassembly later on.
In addition, diagnosing problems may be expensive depending on the appliance or machine. Would you spend four hours of your time repairing a dishwasher that could be replaced for $300? For some people it may be worth it; for some, not. I personally will spend quite a bit of time trying to repair something rather than replace it, however that's more of an ideological choice rather than an economic one.