This is why I'm often willing to upvote holders even if I don't necessarily have time to vet the content. Supporting financially responsible users with long-term goals is an automatic win for Steem.

By upvoting someone you essentially give them money.

and that money could have gone anywhere, including the upvoter's own pocket. It's interesting that many do not view the obvious reality for what it is. upvoting is like a clever trick that fools us into being more willing to give away money and more likely to believe that we deserve the money we were given.

Theoretically Steem should work just fine with zero inflation and direct tipping, but we all know it wouldn't work out like this in reality. The trickery of inflation (devaluing all stake) and upvoting is very very powerful. That's because central banks have already done the work for us as they constantly try to brainwash the population into ignoring the devaluation effects of inflation.

The frog boils slowly.