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RE: [DLive] Is Voting Socialism Possible?
"We cannot pay someone who takes out garbage, the same we pay the Head of Cardiology at a Chidren's Hospital."
I would argue that society should value the service of the garbage collector more than the one provided by the professional athlete.
The poisonous consumerism of the West, and professional sports, go hand in hand!
Unfortunately society decides how valuable a service is. Not everyone can throw a baseball 100 miles an hour with pin point accuracy. Most people can put garbage in a bag and put it in a bin. And while I'm not devaluing anyone doing manual labour or any kind of work like that (I've cleaned tables in the past) It's not about what society values as much as what people deem is rare. The more rare the skill/talent/trait the more society is willing to pay for it.
I agree @techwizardry.
I can see what you are saying @dnews, but ultimately how value is decided is kind of bullocks. What has to happen is to take the service away and see how many people decide it is valuable all of a sudden. See how important a 25 million dollar baseball player is when their trash is overflowing into the street and it reeks for miles...the problem is that people have become complacent with the way things are. There are ways to change that, and striking is a very effective one. If the people that are deemed unpayable and unworthy in society decided to quit for a bit, things would have to change.
Society could live forever without going to a baseball game, but only a few weeks without the basic essentials that most people provide.
This isn't to say that talented people don't deserve special recognition and such, but when I have seen sports players and celebrities go on strike, it gives me diabetes. It's effective though, they usually get what they want. So my advice is, if people want to make more doing what they do, then fight for it.
I am going to be broadcasting on the 28th from a giant nationwide teacher rally. My siblings are all teachers and are WOEFULLY underpaid. Sure, they can't throw a 100 mph fastball (well actually my brother could in college before he injured his shoulder, but that's besides the point.) but the world stops if teachers walk out. Parents no longer have anywhere to dump their kids when they go to their jobs, kids no longer have anyone to teach them.
I don't think socialism works, but what we have on Steemit is a plutocracy, and that has never worked in real life either. It will surely satisfy those that are maintaining their wealth and success, and it will surely draw new people in, like the California Gold Rush, but people will go packing as quickly as they came, disenchanted at the loss or opportunity they thought might happen.
I do think that @dlive is handling the plutocracy much more fairly than the other apps, though, the decentralized nature of Steemit has still been lost in having to invest faith into the very few that have wealth.
(And I know the knee jerk response is to "grow your own following" but that is just not possible. There is not enough accumulated wealth among the minnows to even come close to the upvotes that these whales are able to give. So just as a few other Dtubers have said, until ad revenue becomes a thing, we are solely reliant on mega upvotes, as most people would not have much without them!)
I come from a family of teachers on my fathers side so I do agree that teachers are underpaid. If it's one job that is truly taken for granted, it's teaching.
And while I agree that steemit is a plutocracy, as is THE WORLD :D I believe it still gives opportunities for those who wouldn't otherwise have it. For example, DTube just gave an upvote to my fellow countrymen. It was around $70. In the Philippines, that's like working for half a month...so there is good, there is bad and although we all want to move away from a plutocratic society, it's kind of how the world turns. It's either governed by the wealthy or in the wilderness, governed by the most powerful.
I believe knowledge is power. And at least on here, while there are whales and things aren't perfect, it still provides more opportunities than other social media outlets, wouldn't you agree?
I'm not sure. I don't think that a plutocracy is compatible with this new world. There are a lot of whispers about an administered basic income going around, and old me would have been like "whaaaa?" but new me wonders if it's possible.
Eventually this scarcity fear is going to drop off, people will realize that there is enough to go around, and the value of money will disintegrate. I think this is going to happen in our lifetime. If not ours, then our children's.
For now then, yes, it is nice that Steemit is able to provide for a select few around the world, but I suspect something much bigger on the horizon.