The Moment Steemit Abandons Sound Economic Principle, Steemit is Dead: Observations of a Grumpy Anarcho-Capitalist.
A Japanese take on some Aristotelian logic?
BACK in MY day
....wait, wait...no....that didn’t come out right...
Back when I first joined Steemit.com,
The place was flooded with anarcho-capitalists, voluntaryists, and the like. I came in on the heels of a large wave of anarchists flocking to the platform after the explosion of “the Berwick Post”—an introduceyourself-tagged three-paragraph masterpiece that raked in a tidy $15,000 dollars or so—and had my mind blown.
To be fair to myself here, I had signed up prior to the payout fever that struck the Ancap community then, and had made a few posts, but they hadn’t done really well.
Hey, I was just starting, right?
With the encouragement of a few special users who were kind enough to help set me on the right track (here’s looking at you @sterlinluxan), I redoubled my efforts, and set out to do things right. Dig in, and write from the heart, paying extra attention to aesthetics and layout as well.
When I did this, I found success. I can still remember the first 25 dollar post. I was ecstatic. My wife had no fucking idea why her idiot husband was jumping around the house yelling about “My Steeemit post!”
That was then, this is now.
Steemit is still beautifully packed with anarchists. The Voluntaryist community here is fantastic, and second to none, really, in my humble estimation.
One of the things, if not the thing, that has made this platform as strong as it is, is a solid understanding of sound economic principle in the core development team. Actually, this understanding is the basis for the very creation of the platform itself. Don’t believe me? Just read the Steem white paper, and some of Dan Larimer’s ( @dan ) old posts here on the platform.
Steemit was built for the individual. Essentially, it is a platform that was created by a voluntarist, for voluntarists. Now, that may rub some that don’t identify with the label the wrong way, but I hope you’ll let me chase this point a little further to clarify.
If the platform was started as, say, a social media platform by Catholics and for Catholics, or something along those lines, I wouldn’t even be here. Many of us wouldn’t, most likely. All “voluntarist” or “voluntaryist” or “ancap” means is that one views stealing and violence (not self-defense) as illegitimate. That’s it. The end. I wonder if some of you were unaware that you are already anarchists. We could get into the ins and outs, on that basis—stealing is wrong—of why war, taxation, and all sorts of other state activities are immoral and illegitimate, and I’d love to, but that would take us beyond the scope of this little write-up here.
What is sound economic principle?
BASICALLY, AND I AM NOT JOKING, IT IS THIS:
IF YOU MOVE A FROM POSITION A, IT WILL NO LONGER BE IN POSTION A, BUT WILL BE SOMEWHERE ELSE, OTHER THAN IN POSITION A.
In other words:
YOU CAN’T HAVE YOUR CAKE, AND EAT IT TOO.
Things that state “governments” do that Steemit should not do!
Endlessly print new money in order to pay for new intiatives (even “good” ones, or those with noble intentions) thus devaluing the currency.
Attempt to curtail the self-executive autonomy of each user over his or her money/funds. The state taxes you, makes you jump through a million hoops just to get YOUR MONEY, and stands in the middle of every. single. financial. transaction. you. make.
Punish the rich. Lots of people have this weird and actually very greedy idea that just because someone has a lot of something, they owe it to everyone else. They don’t. The moment users here at Steemit.com begin to treat those with a lot of SP as the enemy just because they have a lot of SP/money/power, then it’s game over.
The paradox.
It’s almost viewed as a paradox to a lot of people, but actually it’s the most common sense thing there is. Often times, we voluntarists and ancaps are labeled as selfish, greedy, and destructive. In my life I’ve found things to be the exact opposite. I am self-interested.
Every single one of us is. Even “selfless” and beautiful acts like giving to charity or even, say, taking a literal bullet for someone else to save their life, would be self-interested acts. Refined self-interest, to be sure, but we would be doing these things because we want to help the person we are giving to. We want that other person to go on living. It’s absolutely beautiful. It is selfless, and it is also self-interested. We’re going to get lost in semantics, soon, though, so I’ll drop it.
Those most ready and willing to help me have always been those prepared to help, and those with a sound understanding of economics. My parents raised me to “give to those who ask,” according to a bastardized American Christian tradition. Shit, I gave so much of my money and things away, I often had to borrow from others when I ran out. My parents were stuck in this pattern. It’s actually more selfish, because this endless “selflessness” ends up making you a financial mess and dependent on the hard work and savings of others! You end up taking instead of giving! Now which then, is truly the “selfish” path?
In a real life example: It’s not that we ancaps don’t want everybody to have “free” healthcare, it’s that we want the market to provide it, without violent state regulation, so that everyone can afford it. Me stealing someone’s money at gunpoint to make them pay for my doctor’s visit is wrong.
THE ENEMY IS THE STATE WHICH HAS LEVERAGED VIOLENCE TO CREATE THESE ILLEGITIMATE MONOPOLIES IN THE FIRST PLACE!
This is why medicine is so disgustingly unaffordable.
We know that money doesn’t just come from nowhere. If everything is “free,” you can be goddamn sure some poor bastard is paying, somewhere. But I digress.
Here on Steemit, I want to see individual users
changing things, and making things easier and more fair for all users, insofar as fair doesn’t mean whining that someone has “more than me” so they “owe me.”
Remember money doesn’t come from nothing. It comes from value. It is related to time. There are a limited number of individual actors with limited time valuing limited content. To try to make our currency magical, and give everything away to everyone “magically,” means that the currency will no longer be scarce, and thus no longer valuable. To deny that the time and labor of individual market actors is unlimited is to deny reality.
I’m no economics expert, but I think this is important to keep in mind when we hear high and lofty proposals about how to make everything fair and improve the platform. I’m all for improvements! But remember, you can’t have your Steem and spend it, too.
~*~
If you are interested in learning more about Voluntaryism and sound economics, please check out www.mises.org and read any of their myriad resources/articles on the topic. Also, please enjoy my very simple and direct talk on the topic in the video directly below.
Thanks for reading/watching!
~KafkA
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as Facebook and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)
Brilliantly, cogently stated--as usual.
BTW, I am one of those voluntaryists who came in on the heels of the Berwick post... ;)
😄😇😄
I was here a week or two before he arrived.
You're all nooooooobs :)
Hahahahahaha! You're hysterical, Matt! :D
Yes! I’m in good company!
Why you were so happy? Do you know? Attention and money. Let's imegine that you join today, and you first 100 posts give you only 0,1$. Imagine this. Feel this. What do you feel?
I went through a lot of that. It’s funny because you likely have no idea. It’s always been frustrating when I put, say, 5+ hours (or days and days of research/prep) into a post and it goes nowhere.
It ultimately pissed me off to the point of being bound and determined to “get mine.” It was a gift, for me, to be frustrated, in my personal case.
Oh, then OK, I see that I've found good steemit bloger. It's bloody hard.
I went to your blog but it is mostly just reposts if videos, memes, and other people’s work. Why not try writing from the heart about something you care about?
I made some good works (how to use statistics, problems of steemit, how I went to the theatre) but they gave me nothing - no views, comments and $. Now I collecting material for my own blog, and comment on steemit how I can.
I don't like my meme content, but I don't see any incentives to make content for steemit now. For me steemit is tweeter(now).
It's my videos, what it's not my - memes. I copy paste and add pharase.
I know. And I know not everyone has the help and network I had, but I also had to build that through effort as well.
Great post Kafka.
Sadly I fear many of the new adopters and possibly some of the older ones don't understand anarchism let alone true economics. This 'tax the rich' meme is ridiculous and devisive. As long as the majority are 'educated' by the state and incapable of critical thinking it won't change. Hopefully Steemit can be an educational tool for those who have been misinformed and the number of true ancap's here will swell expodentially in the months and years to come. Many are afraid of identifying as anarchists for fear of being labelled as trouble makers or worse by the sheeple.
Everyone needs to use your statement below as a mantra and absorb it......
Once they get it, they'll want to get others to get it too then we'll have change.
We’re gonna have to find out which witnesses are Voluntaryist and keep them up there at the top.
Bloody hell!
I reckon you're right again.
I think I might be an Anarchist in the true sense, or maybe even a Anarcho-capitalist?
All this time I thought I was just a normal everyday Wanker!!
Things are looking up.
No reason you can't be both 😂😂😂😂😂
Seriously though, I was appalled to see so called ''Anarchists' out in the street complaining after we voted for Brexit here in the UK! What are they fucking stupid? Complaining that an unnecessary, unelected level of beauracracy was being removed from the power structure!
You couldn't make that shit up, the fucking halfwits don't even know the meaning of the word Anarchy.
Sighs.
G'day Mate.
Great post and I'm right there with you.
One of your statements should resonate with all of us! ...
"But remember, you can’t have your Steem and spend it, too" - absolutely correct, there's no quick out clause!
It's one or the other - once you make the commitment, you're in for long term" (or at least 13 weeks).
And by the way, There's nobody that can say it better than a "Grumpy Anarcho-Capitalist". (which could be either you or me????)
Last point - That image with the hand and gold coins should really be "Steemit" coins.
https://steemit.com/steemsilvergold/@zeartul/limited-edition-2017-steemit-community-1-oz-silver-rounds-arrived
I love mine!!
Thanks man. Working on getting my hands on one of those as we speak! Drooling.
If you luck out, let me know, I might be able to spare one! They are fairly awesome!
Excellent post. The writing skills on Steemit continues to amaze. Along with the overall intelligence level of the discussion. Compared to the rest of social media.
The "greed" thing always gets to me. A mob of people screaming at men with guns to go take someone else's earnings. Because that person is selfish.....
Thanks, @chieppa1.
Amen and amen! Jesus. Makes a man feel crazy, doesn’t it!?
I actually does. Until you take a minute and look around and realize you just have perspective others don't. Then there is a sense of calming confidence in your "beliefs".
Incredible post. I leave feeling like I've learned something, but need to re-read and re-watch it one more time. That's a compliment lol. If i had four beads...I'd spend 2 on @kafkanarchy84 for the hard work and upvotes.....invest one for later gratification...and yep, spend one on those hookers just to see what that's all about right now. All joking aside, good job of explaining voluntaryists and the economics of it all. It is fascinating stuff and makes perfect sense. You inspire us all.
Haha. Thanks for this incredible comment. I appreciate it, man. I’m glad you found value in it. That connection makes it all worthwhile.
Good stuff. Yes, I fucking forgot the homeless guy. Self centered I guess, distracted by hookers. Trying to split one of these beads.
The first two sentence was hilarious. Now, let me go back and finish reading the rest, but you had to know I was rolf when I read the opening.
Haha. Cheers :)
Funny you posted this on a day the market and external prices went crazy. I just want this to be a censorship free place I can get the word out about my message. Pipe dreams!
My worry with all capitalistic structures is the lopsided power which is eventually created through the concentration and hoarding of wealth. Without the voluntarism from those with controlling interest, the system will devolve. So just as the new, the powerless, and the poor shouldn’t raise pitchforks against the powerful whales and demand “free money,” the powerful should have a vested interest in helping the minnows succeed and keep the structure growing, flowing, and thriving. Whenever either side reacts with ill intention to hoard or steal, the structure is put into jeopardy.
Stealing is always wrong. Even if it is labeled as being for “the greater good.” The imbalance and suffering seen in the world today as far as money is concerned is largely the result of state interference. There will always be bad actors. This is a fact of life. What is absurd is opening seats of vast power to bad actors created by artificial, violence-backed monopolies.
You raise a good point, though. It is ultimately a philosophical revolution that is required. I in no way support the crony capitalism of statism. Only the right of each individual to nature-conferred self-ownership and legitimately acquired property. In a word: non-aggression. Beyond non-aggression nobody owes anyone anything.
I agree that nobody owes anyone anything by nature or default. But I think that can be a vast oversimplification when dealing with complex systems and all the mutual dependencies the individual actors in those systems possess. As long as we are acting in a system, one persons actions affects the other in a positive or negative way. Hoarding can be just as damaging to a system as stealing. I like to follow the simple adage “give honor where honor is due.”
I think the Steemit community is so great because this is the general attitude. Helping great content creators move up, regardless of their rep or steem power. As the platform grows, I think the bigger risk is the over commercilization and centralization of power, than the minnows demanding free steem power. As I look at the trending page, that seems to be the case somewhat already.
Stealing is always wrong. The system is what is causing these “complexities,” thus the system is what needs to be looked at, in my opinion. And not people and their legitimate property.
I agree with you about Steemit. Once mainstream adoption an commercialization hits, it will lose a lot of the freedom which draws people to it.
Dig it! I don't know exactly where I sit in the anarcho-Libertarian equation, but I dig everything you said :)