I take your point, and I have a lot of compassion. I myself lived in Romania 23 years of my life, but Medium is a business that has to balance things in a way that they make money as well and not have to fire more people. $10 is very little money even in Romania so it makes little to no difference if you can cash out $5 every month or $10 every two months. I am all for compassion, but I also believe in hard work and continuous learning. As someone who reset his life with a backpack, a suitcase and nothing more than a month's rent in this pocket, I know what struggling feels like, but I would have never expected an American business that clearly states that generated income is not meant to be like a salary, to solve my problem. The problem is many advertise Medium as the place where you can make a salary and be your own boss, when that's not true. If someone writes for 2 years on Medium and still doesn't make $10 bucks a month, I really think they need to stop writing and focus on something else. Whether people like it or not, not everyone has talent for writing. Simple as that.