Fruits and fears of labor

I spent an hour or so talking to @galenkp as I drove to work this morning about various things but, Steem tends to feature heavily. He like, like me, is a relatively prolific writer on Steem, even though he hadn't really done much of it before and, like me, he enjoys it a lot too, as far as I can tell. Maybe it is because we are born on the same day.

We were talking about buying a little Steem since the price is low and one of the things he noted was that it seems that there are a lot of people who are financially struggling here, a lot seem to be unemployed, a lot need to be here for economic reasons. I reminded him, that the only reason I was introduced to Steem was because someone close to me knew how much financial strife I was in. To this day, I still haven't spent any crypto on living expenses as pretty soon I recognized, there was a long-term possibility here that outstrips the suffering in the moment.

A lot of people are likely in the same kind of situation where they are looking to make money from Steem to cover expenses, to ease some of life's crush and I wish them well. But, there is also this misinformed that somehow those who powerup or have higher SP are the rich, without recognizing that Steem is not a closed economic system and those who buy in generally have to work in the real world to be able to do so.

One of the comments that came the other day when I mentioned 50/50 curation in a post was that curators expect to get paid more for the simple act of clicking a button. Is it that simple? What about what goes on behind that click? For me to have the Steem I have in my wallet, what was the input I had to make to earn it and, what sacrifices did I make to keep it? What work goes on in the background of my life, in the unseen that allows me to power up in order to be able to provide that vote? do you know?

Suffice to say, there is a great deal of sacrifice in the present to give me a chance to build a foundation for the future and I am definitely not unique in this approach here. There are lots of people who have decided to forgo benefits now for the chance at larger benefits later - crypto it is a massive marshmallow test. Hodl for another marshmallow?

The point is that, regardless of what decisions get made or for what reasons, there is always a cost in opportunity of some kind, it could be the opportunity to invest in an SMT, an opportunity to sell at a higher price or, an opportunity to add value to the content of someone who deserves it. There is also the opportunity to pay off debts, buy food or the latest Xbox game. opportunities can be taken or foregone, it is called making decisions and sometimes, a decision made has no road back to the fork to make another choice.

I have made a lot of poor economic decisions in my life which led to me not being able to afford baby formula, albeit extremely expensive baby formula for my kid. So you have fair warning, don't follow me. But, my past decisions don't mean that I am unable to work toward some kind of economic strength in the future, I don't have to keep making the same mistakes.

Steem has meant that for the first time in my life I have seriously invested myself into something, it started off as time and energy and that continues today plus, a little bit of external income that I work hard for and sacrifice to have available to buy in a little occasionally too. The investment might turn sour one day and I will lose whatever kind of capital I have put in but, it doesn't mean I am not going to invest in something again. Loss is part of investing, going to the gym loses energy, as does reading a book or, watching TV. There is more energy lost than the calories burned, there is also the loss of time energy involved as well as the opportunity cost of doing other things.

AS I wrote about today, there is the chance for a lot of people to invest themselves on Steem and this opportunity is growing. I once called Steem a "Golden ticket" and I am still holding that position as, where else can one really put their brain power into something and get a financial return on it? Oh, that is right... in a job. That is what people get paid for when they go to work in a company - on Steem however, this is a platform of entrepreneurs. There is no salary.

The entitlement of the "Steem rich" is often much less so than people think if one was to actually see how many people live their lives in order to be able to buy-in, stake up and work to earn. Entitlement at all levels of Steem runs rampant but it is more about people expecting a return on every interaction, every investment. People complaining about games because they didn't get out more Steem than they put in - it is a game.

There are no guarantees of return on Steem but what is needed is a lot of eyes on creators of all kinds and, those eyes to have stake. While 50/50 curation would cut author rewards, what it would do is encourage powering up to curate and in time, those curation rewards add up to significant stake voting and adding increasing value upon posts. It also encourages those who are contributing to also consume the content of others instead of expecting to only earn on their own content. as I said before, the smallest accounts voting are the ones that are going to grow the fastest through 50/50 curation and, there are many more of them out there and, they are also the ones that will most likely be able to power up a little Steem to add a higher percentage return they they are currently getting.

Rather than having a whale buy a million Steem for 350,000 dollars, 10,000 accounts could buy a 100 Steem for 35 dollars each. Even though the whale would be able to add a great deal of vote weight on a few accounts, the 10,000 will spread theirs out to thousands more. It is the same million Steem of vest draw on the pool and, it can't all go to one, two or ten accounts. 35 dollars is a lot in some countries, while in others it is not very much at all, a few coffees or - some weed.

People have their priorities though, people have their lives and the decisions they have made to get to where they are today. There are many reasons why not to buy Steem or invest, and it is a lot of risk for those who can't afford to lose anything so, I don't recommend it for them. For those who can't buy but want to build that future foundation still, Learn and work, and work very hard. For those that would rather buy those coffees, the latest game, a Netflix subscription, a new pair of jeans or some other consumable, it is an economic choice and as such, carries an opportunity cost with it. It is difficult to take people seriously about economic opinion who expect others to give while they themselves spend unnecessarily.

If I went to a gym trainer in the hope of getting fit and they were heavily overweight, unable to walk a flight of stairs, eating donuts and on their last legs and advised - "do as I do," I would be skeptical of their ability to help me. What I have noticed in the world so far is that no one has got rich by consuming alone, work was done and often is continually done in order to be able to consume. Investments are made, investments are left to mature and profits are rolled-over into the investments to increase the cycle.

It might not be comfortable to recognize for those struggling but, having above average value generally requires above average levels of activity that can take many forms. If one does what everyone else does, the chance of it being economically rewarding is very low. Most people will never invest what they have out of fear of loss. Most people will never work more than they must out of fear that they will not get rewarded. Most people will not grind out of fear of looking a fool if the grind fails.

Most people live in fear.

I have spent most of my life living in fear that my card is going to get declined at the supermarket register. I am tired of living that fear over and over and waiting for someone to change the world for me. I don't mind doing the work, I don't mind the grind, I don't mind the criticism, I don't mind failing.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]