You bring up some great points @dantheman.

It takes someone with great empathy to see fairness from another person's perspective.

To even begin to discuss this and come to a consensus we must take into account that our perspective is simply that "our" perspective. Others ideas should be treated with the same respect as your own. If you can have a respectful dialogue about your beliefs, you have a much better chance to have someone actually consider your ideas without instantly becoming defensive.

That being said, just because the value of the opinions should be equal, the amount of voting power should continue to be based on vested shares. Someone who just joined steemit and has only the few steem power given freely may have a great idea about the voting system, but a whale may have invested tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and their voting should reflect their stake in the system.

The whales best interests are to keep steemit running smoothly and to do what's best for the platform long term ecause they want their investment to pay dividends. New people see them as having too much power, but that power is usually used carefully to promote what the future of steemit should be according to each individual whale (or multiple users in @smooth case).

I also think that people become jealous far too easily. If you told people they could make up to $5 dollars commenting on users posts, I think everyone would have been thrilled. But since there is no cap, when someone sees their comment make $5 and someone else's make $500 they become jealous. That same $5 they would have been happy with now brings them to wish they had what someone else did and can cause bitterness.

I think all users should be grateful that there is any sort of reward system and that @dantheman and @ned value content enough to change people's lives and potentially make a career out of this platform.

The money is nice of course, but to me it is really just a bonus to a creative, heartfelt community that is working together to make something special in this world.

Hopefully we can set apart our differences in what we believe the "best" voting practice will be, because as humans there is never going to be a perfect system. If we can work together and form a solid majority, I think that will suffice, and while some may not like it, it sure beats the alternative of posting for free on twitter, facebook, or reditt.

I think we as a community should show some more gratitude for what has been done already and trust that those making some of the important decisions value our opinions, but may not always choose our way.

So thankyou @danthemman @ned @smooth @berniesanders and all the others that keep pushing steemit forward. It has truly changed my life and brought me out of a deep depression where I felt I had nothing to contribute to the world.

I see steemit as a place to help others, enjoy friendships, learn new things, be entertained and all while making money and having fun along the way.

I'll dismiss any minor voting discrepancies and say that for being in beta, steemit has far outperformed what I even thought possible. Where else are trolls so easily rendered invisible and comments so meaningful? If you can tell me of another place, I would love to know.