I don't understand the tipping culture in the U.S. Why aren't restaurants paying at least the minimum wage, so their waiters can live comfortably in combination with the tips they receive? Waiters are basically costing the employer nothing. It's ridiculous that workers are putting up with it. What if everybody stopped tipping? Especially now, with the increased living costs and the already inflated prices of the U.S., adding another 20% to your bill every time you dine outside is excessive.

Honestly, I'd be pissed if I had to spend another $20 just to eat outside. Why are people, both workers and customers putting up with such a stupid culture?

Of course, life expectancy is linked to income levels. Someone barely making the minimum wage doesn't have the same access to health care as someone well off, nor does he have the same working conditions as someone well off. The Queen not only had the best access to medicine and healthcare, but also a life with little to no manual labor and poor working and living conditions, something which the average Joe has to go through in order to survive in this rat race.

I couldn't find an index on income levels and life expectancy in the OECD's book "Health at a Glance,", but I did find something close. Life expectancy by education level, which is usually correlated to income levels. The following graph represents the gap between lower and higher education levels for men and women. A 30-year-old with lower education can anticipate having 5.2 less years of life than a 30-year-old with a higher education (a university degree or equivalent). The life expectancy difference between males with lower and higher education levels is over ten years in many central and eastern European nations (Slovak Republic, Latvia, Poland, and Hungary), where socioeconomic inequalities are particularly pronounced among men.

It's understandable. Most, if not all, of 1xbit's participants had extremely slim chances of joining a decent campaign. The majority of them are spammers, lack basic English knowledge and/or have negative trust, which immediately blocks them from even applying to most campaigns. On the one hand, I don't blame them; they wouldn't manage to participate in any other event. On the other hand, they're taking the easy way out instead of spending more time around the forum getting to know each other better and improving their post quality, which could potentially lead to having a steady source of income through the forum for years to come. 1xbit's campaign probably won't stick around forever. Their account will be permanently stigmatized though.

It's a huge issue in the United States. Not only is everything expensive and overpriced, especially if you're from Europe for vacations, for instance, but you're also expected to tip over 10-20% of the total bill just because of the broken tipping culture in the U.S. Restaurants are not paying their staff a living wage, and it is expected of customers to pay their workers' salaries. What kind of messed up logic is that? It's not mandatory in Greece either, but you can round up to the nearest 0 or 5, for example, if the service was decent (paying 50 instead of 47, etc.). It's solely up to you. I don't think it's a huge issue in the western world, but only in the U.S.

The only places I was asked to tip were two restaurants in Poland, Krakow, when I visited for vacation. In one of them, the waiter went ahead and asked me if I could give him a tip, which was a bit strange, but since he was extremely polite and caring, I didn't mind. I wouldn't sit around and make a fuss about it on my holiday. In the latter, they went ahead and charged a small "service charge" of a few Polish Zloty. It was approximately a euro or two, max. The waiter informed me about it, but the service was decent and while I didn't like the forced tipping, I wasn't going to make a scene for a euro or two.

I've sent some your way because I know how it feels to be lacking just a little merit in order to rank up. Your posts are up to decent standards and you deserve the Hero rank. I would have given all the 17 merits required to rank up. However, you're lacking the necessary activity, which will require you to spend quite some time in the forum to reach the requirement for Hero. Thus, I saved just a few in order to help someone else too. I don't have much sMerit myself, you see. I'm certain that you'll get the necessary merit in no time, you just need to work on being active and growing your activity levels.

Judging by your activity, you'll need approximately 9-10 weeks to rank up. You're gaining 14 activity per 2 weeks. Unless your potential activity > current activity which means you're lacking the necessary posts. There used to be a tool to see potential activity but it's not working anymore or I can't find it.

All the best.

That is not entirely true. Gas, CNG, and electricity prices were already on the rise even before the end of summer 2021, due to a mixture of policies to ban coal-fueled plants, which are popular in Europe in an attempt to switch to greener alternatives. Certainly, the Ukrainian-Russian war was the icing on the cake, but honestly, I believe that all this fuel and energy crisis is also, to some degree, pure speculation. Electricity and fuel providers are recording massive profits during the past year, placing a huge burden on consumers throughout Europe.

That's the price you pay when you're dependent on Russia's oil and CNG, along with placing sanctions against a superpower.

They are screenshots from my phone. They can even be zoomed in if you click on each photo individually. I didn't have the time frame to turn on my computer in order to get decent print screens from there. Chances are that some of his posts would have already been edited out by then.
I don't know about Yobit's campaign; either I wasn't active back then or I wasn't paying attention. Anyway, 1xbit is consisted of 38 participants, certainly not an insignificant number. Roobet, for instance, has 60 members, which is one of the largest and most established campaigns. Most of 1xbit's participants feature terrible post quality, with only a few of them being average enough. The forum isn't filled with their spam posts, but there's a decent amount stemming from them.

Perhaps my statement was too bold. You're right, not everything is the same. However, most cases of human oppression and lack of freedom and rights for women or anyone who is different than the so-called "normal" (homosexuals, transgenders, you name it) are found in Islamic or Arab countries. Calling the hijab a religious thing and forcing it upon women is unacceptable. Even if it wasn't mandatory, I still wouldn't get why women would want to wear such a thing under the scorching sun. I find the whole ordeal degrading to women, and those who support human degradation in the name of their god make me sick to my stomach.

And this is only the beginning. The failure of the stock and crypto market could soon be the least of our worries. In the past few years, we've been hit by multiple crises again and again. First Covid-19, then the Ukrainian-Russian war, and who knows what else the future beholds. Economies eventually recover, but I believe that we should focus on Russia's threats regarding nuclear weapons. In my opinion, we're standing on a thin line, but we're yet to realize it. I'm hoping that when we do, it won't be too late. Things aren't looking too great for Russia right now, while it's been claimed to even mobilize teenagers and the elderly on a suicide mission against Ukraine.

If a single nuke were launched from Russia, it would spark a series of disastrous events for all of us. A larger scale war would break out while we'd be exchanging nukes against each other.

I also noticed that Preev.com was functioning again, but without the security of the HTTPS protocol. However, I'll also stick to Preev.net or even Pnnv, which I haven't used since its debut. I understand that its developer was possibly going through some trouble, but it disappearing and resurrecting without any warning or announcement is frustrating. Its developer could at least make a public announcement through the forum. He definitely knew how handy the service was.

I sent you some in order to help you rank up to Senior Member. I don't have much sMerit left, hence why I didn't send more your way. I'll try to review some of your threads later and may adjust accordingly.

By looking at your post history, I'd advise you to refrain from posting one-liners, especially on threads that have little to no purpose. Not only does that decrease your chances of earning merit, but also in order to enter a decent signature campaign.

Religion is the largest scam on earth. It's a form of oppression for everyone, not just women. I'm an atheist and am against any form of religion. Christianity is no better, but Islam is the most extreme form of human oppression. It's been the root of evil since the dawn of humanity.

I don't recall seeing much news coverage in Iran. What's happening there is astonishing for the 21st century. They're killing their own citizens. I wouldn't be surprised if they've actually cut internet access, like they threatened to do.

It is possible, but certainly not going to happen in the upcoming months or even years. The only positive we've seen in the past few weeks is oil and CNG prices massively dropping. Although they're still extremely volatile, both have marked significant drops during the past month, with crude oil having dropped from $100+ to well below $90/barrel, while natural gas has dropped from over $9.680 per 1000 cubic meters down to $6.700. The most upsetting fact about this is that, despite such a significant fall, gas prices here are still extremely expensive for whatever speculative reason.

Grocery prices, on the other hand, keep increasing week by week. Yogurt, milk, dairy products, and meat have become luxury goods. It's depressing to say the least.

The European economy is currently the one struggling the most, mostly due to the imposed sanctions caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war. The U.S. dollar is the most common currency used around the world. It is used in global trade (oil prices, for instance, are in USD, not EUR), while even countries such as El Salvador or Panama have adopted the U.S. dollar as their official currency. Thus, it's expected for the USD to be stronger than the EUR, especially during Europe's massive recession. Will the current exchange rate be sustained in the long term? Quite possibly, I'm afraid.

On the other hand, those of us in Europe can actually benefit from the EUR/USD exchange rate. In the past, the Euro was stronger than the US dollar; thus, if we were to sell Bitcoin at $20.000, for instance, we'd receive €19.000; now, we'd get an approximate 1:1 ratio, receiving €20.000.

You'll need to refrain from investing if you cannot bear the risk of failure. I don't know where you're from, but $200 is a small amount. I've been screwed off with way higher amounts, either by selling too early or by buying too high.

As someone who has previously suffered (and still occasionally suffers) with anxiety and stress, I'd advise you to keep off trading if you don't have the stomach for it. Anxiety was the main reason I gave up trading and stuck to holding Bitcoin. I don't even care how much Bitcoin is worth; my main goal is to accumulate as much as possible.

It wouldn't hurt if you were to seek help from a psychologist, as NotATether suggested. Money shouldn't revolve around our lives; it shouldn't stress us to the point of having a possible heart attack.

You're in a cryptocurrency forum suggesting that banks provide you with a guarantee for your savings, and for that reason, staking is unprofitable and not worth the risk. I don't know where you guys find such bank interests, because here even locked time deposits do not provide you with more than 0.10% interest.

Even the bank's investment programs do not offer a guarantee for your funds, with most of them offering petty APYs compared to cryptocurrencies and DeFi. Only deposits are protected, which won't yield more than a few euros per year. The most I've received is 2 euros every 3 months, having the triple money compared to Binance's savings option.

There are no guarantees when it comes to investing. That's the only way to battle rising inflation. If your money is sitting in the bank, it's losing value every year.

I'm happy that it turned out fine for you. Even though you only borrowed a small amount of money, I'm highly against using money that you don't practically own. It's an unspoken rule not to use borrowed funds for investments, not just Bitcoin, for the same reason you wouldn't go to a casino with borrowed money. Things can quickly deteriorate, and you're screwed, especially if you have a bank loan and are paying interest. If something occurs and you're unable to make your payments on time, accrued interest will quickly accumulate, putting you in serious debt. If I remember correctly, a member here recently claimed that he took a loan of over $10.000 in order to buy bitcoin. This not only poses significant risks in the event that Bitcoin or the market crashes severely, but it also significantly reduces your APY, assuming everything goes as planned.

Luckily, Bitcoin's prices were much lower in 2017 and it was considered a great period for purchases, regardless of what your capital was, in which case it was small and even if it didn't go as planned, you wouldn't be in so much trouble, but it is still something to be avoided.

Wasn't Ukraine's wish to join NATO the cause of this war in the first place? Ukraine has been trying for years to join NATO, since 1992 to be exact, and Putin has warned against having NATO at his borders. Surely, he's a mad man, but his concerns are understandable on the one hand. On the other hand, I see Putin being a whole lot more aggressive towards the West when it comes to being bordered by a NATO country than NATO itself. Regarding Russia's viewpoint, there are two versions. The more common and well-known perspective in the West is that Russia is and has always been an expansionist state, and that Vladimir Putin is the personification of that fundamental Russian ambition: to establish a new Russian empire and revive the former Soviet Union.

On the other hand, the opposite viewpoint contends that Russian security worries are legitimate and that Russians perceive NATO's eastward expansion as hostile to their nation. Putin has made it obvious for many years that if the expansion were to continue, the Russians would probably put up a strong fight, possibly even using force.

Even if Ukraine supposedly joined NATO now, they still can't interfere militarily for a long time frame, if I remember correctly. On top of that, as others have already suggested, Ukraine is unable to join NATO during a state of war. I fully comprehend that they wanted to distance themselves from Russia and Putin's threats, but in the end, was it worth it?

I also found the Reddit post you quoted. Not only are they centralized, but they also require KYC, according to a few other replies I read at least. Taking into account that I haven't found anyone directly mentioning that they've been scammed, except some users claiming that it's fishy and provides absurdly high APYs, I don't believe it's a straight up scam but rather suspicious to say the least. The website mentions Switzerland, but a whois domain lookup shows Finland.

The only thing concerning/surprising me is that there's not a single mention that they've been scammed by this platform. Their APYs are out of this world, especially for single stablecoin vaults. I'd understand if they were paired with a riskier algorithmic stablecoin, but single USDT/USDC/BUSD vaults offering up to 16%? That's crazy.

I am tempted to try with a small amount of money just to test how their platform functions.

I was browsing today trying to find a better alternative to Binance's savings, after suffering a third interest drop. I came across the following website: Stakingrewards.com, which presents you with all the available alternatives. I was interested in USDT/BUSD/USDC and was surprised to see the offered APY from a platform named "Midas Investments". They're offering absurdly high APY on coins such as USDT or USDC (up to 16%), and 8.5% and 10.4% on Bitcoin and Ethereum, respectively, without requiring a lock-in period. They also feature their own coin, named after their website, offering up to 27% APY.

Has anyone used them? While I don't believe they are currently a scam, I'm not sure if their business model is sustainable in the long term. Supposedly, they've been in business for over 4 years (haven't confirmed it myself), while according to Captainaltcoin.com's review, they're a registered business in Switzerland, with a pretty decent rating of 8.2/10.

Review
Midas Investments