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Palácio da Bolsa in Porto is not, at all, a castle. It was built in the XIX century as the stock market and never served defensive purposes as castles would. Not to speak about the sheer amount of misses in Portugal. This is off by a lot!
It might be the case, but "lots" is an overstatement in my opinion. I was able to pay with card even in the most remote locations within the country. The restaurants that don't accept it are usually the exception and that argument of taxes over transactions is mostly bullshit for them to be able to escape proper taxation. A customer who pays with money and doesn't ask for receipt is all profit for dishonest owners.
Portugal:
P2P payments - MBWay, has taken over by storam and is the defacto method for transfering smaller amounts of money between peers. For example, rent can be payed to landlords via MBWay, cleaning lady, etc. ATMs support it to.
Almost every business allows payment with cards and the central bank is rumored to want to enforce digital payments for every business in the future.
Personally, I hardly use cash now, heck, I hardly use any cards now. I use my phone for almost all payments.
Yes, run is boring to me and probably to a lot of people. That's why I do things that are less boring and varied, like crossfit or other HIIT. It works for me. And still demotivation and excuses keep poping up for me to don't do it.
That exactly the point of the article. Sports, even if it's just a mile run everyday, do probably more for you than just sitting around and finding excuses to do nothing. Because it's easier and people often tend to sit on their comfort zones.
Also, to me, that's what lifechanging about daily sporting activities. Is NOT only getting fitter, thiner, etc. It's the mental empowerement that it provides you.
It's the only (that I know of) way to avoid tax evasion and paralel economy.
There are incentives (tax deductions) that are granted to citizens who ask for invoices with their fiscal details
It is indeed progressive because it unburdens citizens from a massive yearly headache when submiting taxes. It's progressive because it avoids physical printing of receipts, thus reducing waste and paper consumption. It is progressive because less tax evasion means more taxes to apply in free healthcare and social security.
Having people not dying because they can't afford insurance, or being restful that the state will cover up part of their expenses if they can't work (for eg: if they have a flu and can't work for a week) seems pretty progressive to me and a good tradeoff for leting the government know about a few purchases you make.
Also, if you want go paperless, your bank also knows about all your financial transactions and I don't see people caring too much about it as they care with government...
In Portugal, every transaction should, by law, be sent to the tax authority. Every employer should also report what paid to their employees and also retain in source part of the income
Everything is then setup centraly by tax authority which enables the process of submiting tax reports being automatic for most or either, if you have a more complex tax situation, taking you a couple hours tops to self-fill and submit.
It's rather surprising how progressive USA can be in some fields but so far behind in others...
As the one who did the comment, I've never seen or heard PHP devs calling themselves artisans. My phrasing was an analogy. What I meant was, don't confuse PHP with the bad practices that were propagated for years from careless devs.
Yet this internet myth of "PHP no bueno" persists.
Don't confuse the tool with the artisan. PHP is an incredible language that's getting more mature with each new release.
In this case, it does. Bridge toll is 12€ per person, and it's inserted into one of the most popular pedestrian course in Portugal (Passadiços do Paiva).
You could be very well organised in terms of rollout and distribution. But every European country is having the same problem - shortage of production and provider's incapacity to distribute it without fail. Israel case is unique, because they payed more per vaccine, thus guaranteeing the supply needed to be able to mass vaccinate the population.