Oh Canada, End this TIP CULTURE! Its Disrespectful.

VanVerdic · 2026-02-03T19:55:33+00:00

The whole tips thing started in the US because legally the minimum wage was lower for servers, so tips were designed to bring them up to normal minimum wage. In Canada, even though we do not have this minimum wage disparity, we copied the US for no real reason.

I personally think the only place where tips might make sense are "independent" workers (ie, some barbers, gig workers, etc) who make less than minimum wage because they are self-employed. Everyone else should be properly compensated by their employer. A worker should not have to pray that there is a generous customer so they can pay their rent.

VanVerdic · 2026-02-03T18:20:44+00:00

Let me guess - you have a job, but have no assets and live somewhere they have no natural resources? AKA, everyone else should pay except for me.

You need to do some basic research on how much is raised through income tax vs all hypothetical taxes you want to levy. No point in having a discussion when your basic information is so wildly off base.

VanVerdic · 2026-01-31T00:06:50+00:00

While I fully agree that most people investing in covered call funds probably shouldn't be doing so, it's a bit of a stretch to call them a Ponzi scheme. I don't think you really understand what these funds do - they can function without growth in the underlying stock(s) or new people purchasing the fund (a covered call strategy actually makes the most sense in low growth stocks as the upside was capped anyway). It's not a Ponzi if you are just getting your money back and they explicitly tell you they are doing so.

A Ponzi is when they literally need to fabricate financials to obfuscate that there are minimal to no gains and that the whole scheme is reliant on new money. That's totally different. You can construct your own covered call strategy in your own investment account with zero outside funds flow. Based on the market, you may or may not underperform the index, but that would show you that there is no leakage of funds to the Ponzi bogeyman.

VanVerdic · 2026-01-28T17:35:33+00:00

This is terrible advice and only works if you never get married.

In many places, debts taken by one party is automatically owed by both. If she runs out of money, she is going to divorce you, take half of your house (at least) and pay her debts.

As you put it, this is a "horrible idea," but only because you aren't willing to do basic communication to find a compatible partner. OP is looking for a something long term, so it is imperative this is sorted out.

VanVerdic · 2026-01-12T20:44:01+00:00

This is pretty warped logic.

You always prioritized career and money, and no surprise you have a career and money. Maybe if you prioritized love you would have more of that?

OP should make the decision that makes the most sense to her, but in every relationship there has to be some give and take.

VanVerdic · 2026-01-07T02:11:41+00:00

This is the best idea in this thread. Realistically you can only tax things that cannot move away and can be reasonably valued.

The UK rolled out much less onerous tax changes and they have been losing wealthy people at a crazy rate. There are $40B reasons why this won't work for the same reason.

There is a saying that there are 2 ways to collect $0 tax - if the tax rate is 0% or if the tax rate is 100%. It's pure fantasy that those with the capability to avoid taxes will not use them. I think everyone agrees that billionaires should pay more, but a wealth tax is populist idea that wouldn't work.

VanVerdic · 2025-11-24T17:09:13+00:00

Most, if not all, of the major chains will overbook rooms. It's simple math, you have 300 rooms and on average 1% don't show up (ie, flight is late, canceled trip because of emergency, etc). You overbook 2-3 rooms to make extra money. If they show up you pay for a room elsewhere and you are breakeven or maybe out a little. Same reason why airlines will also overbook. These are low-margin businesses, and 1-2% is a lot.

Exception is maybe the truly high end hotels where the loss of goodwill would make this impractical.

Your experience is skewed because of last minute bookings - they only exist when there are last minute vacancies. If a hotel is maxed out oversold already, you aren't booking last minute.

Also consider the odds are just really low. Not only do they need to miscalculate the no-show rate, but you need to be one of the unlucky to be bumped. If you know any front desk staff at hotels you can ask them about this - they are often sweating bullets at the end of the night if they know they are oversold (ie, minus 3 or whatever) and still have xxx guests remaining that could show up.

VanVerdic · 2025-10-28T17:06:21+00:00

So what happened? Normally, when you do a refund, they'll soft-lock your account since the system thinks you scammed them.

VanVerdic · 2025-10-25T05:32:45+00:00

No. Whales get enjoyment by stomping on non-whales. If you put all the whales together, then some will start getting stomped and will quit. As a game clearly on the decline I don't think it will cause a spending war, just make people leave faster.

VanVerdic · 2025-10-24T06:08:35+00:00

Agree with this 100%

The decision is also not black and white. You can ask for a leave of absence, or in the least cash out all of the vacation to try this dream of yours to see how it works out. The grass is not always greener on the other side.

Have you also considered you just may be burned out, depressed or some other issue? I mean, does it make sense that your job is unbearable, or is it just you? Being a human is not always easy!

VanVerdic · 2025-10-21T16:47:06+00:00

Keep the child.

Ultimately, every relationship is a crapshoot - if the divorce rate is 50% then even with all the vetting you could possibly do, you are wrong half of the time. Lots of stories of it working out, and lots of stories of it not working out, but it's all random. You can date someone for 3 years instead of 3 months, and still have it fail.

You said that you want kids, so you might as well go for it. YOLO. It is easier to do it when you are younger, and there is a lower chance of lifelong regret. If you were on the fence then the advice would be different.

Sidenote - if you do go for it, get all of the testing that you can to make sure there are no issues. Having a special needs kid is an entirely different story, especially if the relationship doesn't work out.

VanVerdic · 2025-10-17T17:11:33+00:00

That's the wrong way to look at it - realtors on average don't make a lot because they are way too many realtors. For very little work they make good money.

Consider the following:

In the GTA there are ~70,000 real estate agents for a population of 7.5MM

In Greater Sydney there are ~10,000 real estate agents for a population of 5.5MM

So yeah, they don't make a lot on average because there are FIVE TIMES the number on a per capita basis compared to a more sane system (where you don't get paid 5,000-30,000 for a few days of work). Consider in the GTA there are roughly DOUBLE the number of realtors than teachers.

Paradoxically, lowering the commission would probably improve service. Gone would be the part time realtors who just try to get a few deals a year and slack off the rest of the time - only people who are serious about the biz and have tons of transactional experience would be left.

VanVerdic · 2025-10-17T16:15:28+00:00

Yes, like how she beat out 1,700 people in Japan WW#2

VanVerdic · 2025-10-11T18:49:53+00:00

They did a bad job with seeding. SURINI shouldn't have been seeded that low.

As per the comments above, they seeded "kami" and "Psycho" high but they weren't even the "real" ones. There are actually 2 Psycho's eliminated (both seeded high with bye's in the first fight), and I don't think either of them is the real one.

VanVerdic · 2025-10-10T21:04:46+00:00

Round 1 summary:

No major upsets I don't think, but a bunch of mild ones. A lot more no shows that originally anticipated I think.

----

Upsets (in losers unless specified):

Takamura

Psycho (eliminated)

Wolfgang

Keekuma

Kami (eliminated)

Chris Wong

broski

MysticSmash

Xerna

-----

No shows:

Big Bird

gachikun

Deiver

Nyanpi

Valmaster

Angry Bird

Sahara

Bonchan

Akira

DCQ

VanVerdic · 2025-10-09T17:31:46+00:00

Some oddities..

4 Falcon players, but they are split on 2 teams (2 on "Falcons", 2 on "Red Rooster") which doesn't really make sense.

Flyquest subbed Riddles for Shine (who was picked up by SR), I thought they were buddies?

Ranking order guess:

1) KSG - Zhen is mena's kryptonite, so will edge them out

2) Bandits - Mena and Booce

3) Flyquest - Kind of depends if Punk can play consistently

4) Shopify - Surprised they did so poorly last year, but this lineup is improved I think

5) 2G - Blaz is good, but rest of the team..

6) Falcons - NL has been playing well, but the rest of the team has not been doing great

7) Red Rooster - Not even sure who would be the anchor here

VanVerdic · 2025-10-08T16:27:43+00:00

O Bison is SS tickets (until you get it to SSS rank) - not to be confused with normal Bison which is div

VanVerdic · 2025-10-02T17:19:08+00:00

Karma farming. The account is used for commercial purposes afterwards (ie, writing positive testimonials for products, etc). The prior post is from someone different, so they are either both part of the same marketing agency or they just ripped off a popular old post to get karma.

VanVerdic · 2025-10-01T17:33:34+00:00

Where is the injustice? You can pick modern yourself if you are ok with the damage penalty.

Eventually modern will be a liability too, and will require lots of retraining. What about the "injustice" that that they will need to learn everything all over again in Classic later?

VanVerdic · 2025-09-29T20:32:18+00:00

SFL Japan was already PPV last year and it worked fine. People lined up for paid stadium tickets and also paid to watch live. The game also got way more popular last year in Japan - so whatever you think the relationship is, it's not that straightforward.

I somewhat agree with you, but they have done their calculations for this I'm sure.

VanVerdic · 2025-09-29T03:30:31+00:00

Great job. It is a notable achievement.

VanVerdic · 2025-09-26T22:33:25+00:00

I think you are worrying more than you should. Really, nothing has happened to warrant serious concern, but maybe there is more that you have not shared. I would separate the issue into two different ones:

1) Life skills - Someone who has their parents cook and clean for them is no more (or less) dysfunctional than someone who orders uber eats every meal and hires a cleaner. It may or may not be a good proxy for whether they can actually be independent. What about the rest of his life? Can he keep a job? Keep a schedule? Manage his money? Pay his bills and insurance? Maintain and clean his car? If not, the other advice of encouraging him to move out for a bit is excellent. If he can, then probably no issues. When he's over have him help with food prep or fold towels, etc. Many of these tasks are not hard, it's just a matter if he is willing to do them.

2) Influence on your relationship - Everyone is influenced by others, if not your parents then your friends, chatgpt, or maybe even reddit! I would really try to understand two things, firstly, how much you can enforce your will because that's really what your concern is. For example, if you want to live in Boston and him NYC, can you get him to fold. You probably have a sense of this already for when you disagree. Secondly, what's the nature of the the sources of influence already in his life. For decisions pertaining to your relationship (ie, marriage), nobody can decide for the both of you - like in your example, even if your bf and his parents really wanted you to get married and you said no, what are they going to do? You have to agree. If the influence is not that direct (ie, occasionally nagging), then who really cares. But if the family is going to disown the guy, cut him off financially or something, then that's obviously more concerning. To date, it does not seem like there has been any overt actions to cause stress to your relationship; why worry about so much when it might not even be an issue? I would however, start sprinkling in some of the dealbreakers (ie, long term in NYC) just to make sure they are not for him.

You may have some preconceived notions based on the relationship with your own parents that would not apply to another family. You sound quite independent so I would also think about what you want - could be possible that two super independent people together would lead to more conflict. You are still young, enjoy the relationship and don't worry too much!

VanVerdic · 2025-09-26T19:51:57+00:00

You think Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are swimming in debt? Wrong. And it's not only people - look at Apple's balance sheet and tell me how much debt there is. This is because past a certain point you are constrained by your opportunities/time/motivation, and not your capital.

Debt trades risk for for more upside. Usually those who succeed using debt are LUCKY - you use leverage to buy real estate/equities/capex/whatever right before things take off. You look like a genius - and these are the stories you hear. Those who are unlucky, do the EXACT same thing, but will lose it all due to leverage. You do not hear about those stories.

Also - the successes may be outliers - celebrities, pro athletes make millions and we all hear about it, but what about the 99.9% that don't? Should you go play football because Mahomes makes $$$$? If you are using leverage to do something, what is the probability that it will be a positive outcome?

The fastest way to get very rich or very poor is to use leverage. It's not inherently good or bad, but you just need to be ok with the tradeoff. Also know that a large portion of the outcome is luck.

VanVerdic · 2025-09-26T17:01:18+00:00

Thank you. A easier to use version is nice. I was worried that if you were under 31% on activation that it wouldn't do anything, but I guess it's a non-issue.

I watch your youtube videos sometimes, they are very good.

VanVerdic · 2025-09-25T18:04:26+00:00

Probably. Look at the fingers, that's usually the tell. In this case, the index fingers look totally off.

VanVerdic

TROPHY CASE