Building a philosophy of voting on Steemit
In order to decide who to vote for I follow some simple moral principles:(most of the time,hey,I need money!)*
Number one: I give my support to those who need it, and not to those who don't need it.
who doesn't need it? The whales obviously. Who needs it? The minnows.
What do I base this on?
Income inequality plain and simple.
The morality of this can be based on different moral principles number one,the human rights perspective:
Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
This right to an adequate standard of living is not being followed by the majority of Nations in the world.
Number 2: the utilitarian perspesctive:
Maximizing the utility or well-being of the maximum amount of people.
Following this principle means that the bigger the lack of income.the more you can increase peoples well-being by increasing it,even very modestly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_inequality#Effects
Over a certain threshold, wealth does not increase your well-being:http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S15/15/09S18/index.xml?section=topstories ( whereas for a person who lives in poverty even small gains in income can have a substantial effect.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marissa_Diener/publication/227012666_The_relationship_between_income_and_subjective_well-being_Relative_or_absolute/links/004635209587e9bd0d000000.pdf
So I will keep on fighting for the less priviliged here on Steemit.
Including myself of course!
Hello @kooshikoo !
Very well said ! I assume your principles are the reason why you followed me and I wanted to thank you for it !
One quick comment on your post, I believe that your second principle referencing Bentham's utilitarianism could also be linked to Rawls' view on Justice.
This approach let's you say that you apply a rational criterion of Justice to your vote, which is reducing the maximum level of poverty existing in a society (here the steemit community).
This criterion is rational because that is the one that people would apply if they were placed behind what Rawls calls a "veil of ignorance". This veil suppressing the knowledge of an individual about his social position in the society, if asked what could be the perfect social justice criterion, this individual will rationally ask for a reduction of global poverty since he does not know what could be his future social position in society.
Sorry for the quite long argumentation, maybe you already know about all this... But I thought it would make a nice addition to your post ! I'm thinking about writing a post on this subject myself ! Thanks for the inspiration !
Very well said, we can all work together. If we all worked together we would be more successful.
I am voting up everything that I find interesting / useful. I don't know the #steemitcommunity well enough to know who is / isn't a minnow or whale -- if I like the information, I should vote with my steem.
My main challenge is finding people to follow / discovery of interesting posts. I am slowly following people.
I can’t answer to your message in my post. Reply is not available. I do not know why.
You know what? I started to answer you but I think it is better to continue in private. I guess people do not share the mail on this platform for security and privacy. Everyone can see everything and all the information is stored in the blockchain.
I just created a new email [email protected]
I hope you send me an email soon!
I have said time and time again steemit could change so many peoples lives every where people who need a little extra NOT the same members whose posts hit it big time and time again. Spend time on reading the new posts and help spread the wealth
Heyas, sry to put this here. Didn't have a better way.
Hop into steem.chat and we can talk in direct message :)
I think the ethic / logic that people use when voting is interesting. It is nice to see that you are supportive of content that you believe in and not merely just what you think sells.
I admire your voting principles and I wish you luck here so your steempower increase to the point you can make a bigger difference to those you choose to upvote.
apologies, I didn't realize why you flagged something I put up. I have been informed now.
Okay,that is fine. I The article was interesting. I did some research to check the claims, and it is not debunked, but not confirmed either. So, so far just a claim, but revolutionary if it turns out to be true. I will keep informed about it in the future. Keep posting this kind of stuff, while adding your own reflections,and citing sources, and you might do well here in the long run.
I agree everyone has the right to all these things , but they must deserve them. They should only get them if they try to better themselves and work for them, i don't think lazy people should have the right to any of these things. There are many people who abuse the system and i think they should get no help. Medical care should be given to the sick and nobody should be hungry no matter what. I just think nobody who is lazy and doesn't try in life should be handed anything.
Most people are not lazy. Studies of direct cash transfers and Universal Basic Income pilots clearly show this.
For instance the work done by GiveDirecly, the best charity organisation in my opinion. Read about it here
And I couldn´t disagree more. Even if people were lazy,they still have a right to basic necessities. Hardly anyone choses to live in poverty if given the means to escape from it, which is exactly what a Universal Basic Income does.
When supporting people on Steemit based on their economic situation, I obviously take the quality of their posts into consideration.
A lot of people keep repeating this myth about lazy people. A lot of people who appear to be lazy are depressed, caught in a poverty trap. Most welfare systems are means tested, and you lose your welfare if you get a job. This job will often be a low paid job,where you are toiling long hours for nothing. This system is dysfuntional. A lot of families can´t even get welfare.
http://groundswell.org/7-lies-about-welfare-that-many-people-believe-are-fact/
https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/09/the-progressive-case-for-replacing-the-welfare-state-with-basic-income/