A couple of idle thoughts about Steemit
In the last day or so, I had some idle thoughts pop into my mind about Steemit and how it parallels some of the things that I do, or have listened to.
Steemit and Invoice Writing
As a freelancer, one of the most annoying things to do is to write invoices. Well, that's not quite true, as doing the quarterly VAT (BTW) returns is also really annoying!However, invoices I find particularly annoying as it the last step of the any particular job. I play a concert, and as a musician, I consider the end of the concert to be the end of my work. However, if I want to be paid, then I have to write an invoice. This can be somewhat tedious to track down all the work expenses and all the little bits and pieces of details hidden (often in plain sight) in a contract.
Anyway, whilst I am away from home, it is a great time to write invoices without disturbance from family and kids. In fact, it is possible to pre-write some of them too! So, as I was writing a batch yesterday, I started to think how it was like writing a post for Steemit!
I write an invoice (a Steemit post), and hopefully at some point in the future the writing pays out! At least on Steemit, it will payout in a known time (7 days), for invoices, it can sometimes be months of chasing up people and subtle reminders by email....
Steemit and Wage Growth?
This one is a bit more of a stretch, but I think it does start to touch upon ideas that are important to the continued growth of Steemit.
I was listening to an interview about the stagnant wage growth in Australia. It is something that I've noticed everytime I go back to Australia, that the cost of living is going up fast, while the earning power of people is declining due to wages not keeping track of inflation. All of this is further muddied by the fact that companies are in general doing well, but that largesse is not being passed onwards to workers. This is most noticeable in the middle to lower classes, whilst it is not really much of a concern in the upper classes.
This got me to thinking about the usual debate of how to best fine tune an economy (of which Steemit is a rough mirror). The ideas of "trickle-down" vs "supporting the base".
Quick explainer
I'll be brief and not too partisan, I hope, I personally believe that a combination of both is best. Apologies, these are going to be pretty basic and simplistic explanations.
"Trickle Down" is the idea that by allowing the top to get more access to funds (tax breaks or whatever) that they will spend more and thus create more jobs and do better for the economy.
"Support the base" is the idea that you give more back to the lower end (welfare, minimum/award wage...) such that they are more likely to spend the money and thus keep the churn of the economy working.
However, I guess if you press me harder, I would have to say the idea of an economy based upon eternal growth is not perhaps the best model. Partly because it is unsustainable in a finite resources scenario (okay, we can always find more resources from space...), but also because it encourages the idea that you need to stay ahead of others (or push others down) to stay on pace.
Back on topic
In Steemit, we have the essence of a class society. There are the whales that have larger resources that those of us at the bottom could ever dream of. Again, there is the debate about whether you consider success to be depend more on luck or skill, some people favour luck, others favour skill.
So, what would be the way to grow Steemit as an economy? Would it be best to highlight the whales and the incredible amounts of earning potential that is possible? Or would true lasting growth be best achieved by supporting the base and ensuring a decent earning potential for those who struggle around nearer to the bottom?
I'm afraid that I showed my colours with that last statement! I really think that any changes to the Steemit ecosystem (via witness updates) really need to support the middle and lower. Our growth as an ecosystem depends on mass adoption (for crypto in general as well), and this will not be achieved if so many people bounce off it at the beginning, and in the end the whales will also lose out if STEEM drops. There are many projects that have been grafted onto the existing structure that try to achieve this, but these are a bit of a band-aid.
That said, I'm not really 100 percent sure what would be good ideas. In addition, often the best of intended ideas collect some pretty nasty untended side-effects. However, I have cast my votes for some visionary leaders (witnesses) to hopefully lead us forward to a better Steemit future!
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Interesting ideas indeed, if we want to replace the broken economy system where the establishments, ultra-rich and banks gather all the ressources and speculate on the real to steal a big part of our productivity while doing nothing.
Also finit ressource planet need to consider a non exponential system for the economy.
Although, like you, I think not everything should be free and people should be encourage to contribute and those contributing more should receive more. Allowing people to gather ressource to give a better live to their children is one of the best driver to awesomeness in occidental society. Property right also some kind of peace of mind, because always relying on a big overnement to provide for you have big abuse concerns in my opinion.
Although a basic income that allow a decent survival to everyone should help reduce violence in poor areas.
It will be difficult to change the existing system, it will be like steering a large boat. The course is set, and it will really require something quite drastic to change it. A lot of people hold faith that crypto will be the thnig that does it, but I'm hopeful but skeptical about that idea.
I think the better way, is a more accountable system of governance/democracy (maybe enabled by crypto). In the end, I think the only way to keep the establishment/rich/banks/companies in check is by having a bigger bully that is firmly bound by democratic accountability.
I don't like bigger bullies like big states.
It's in human nature to accumulate ressouces and more you have more you want and dirtier are your actions to grow your stack. Power corrupts and people in majority always want to improve their condition event if they already have by far the best condition in a society. Ans since more you have power and ressource, easier it is to manipulate the system in your advantages.
Direct democraty, good education, cultural values are in my opinion the way to preserve some hope for humanity and avoid pitfalls, violence and to much injustice.
Great post , thanks for sharing @bengy i never knew that everything required invoices mostly to get paid and again for you that was part of a concert . Ion know maybe is where i stay i believe your systems a bit orderly and work often . Back to the future in steemit i feel u nailed the coffin based on my statistics i have observed that skills mean little or nothing. The resources keep those high up above but how does the top survive without the BASE. The base keep them up i feel its high time there is some more support for the lower level steemians. I would also pitch my tent with you and put my faith in the witnesses and keep doing what i do to the best of my abilities...jah blesss(am in the wind)
Yes, it is the life of a freelancer to be always writing invoices after the "real" part of the job is over. Unfortunately, in my specialisation of music, it is only freelancing...
Pick good witnesses!
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by Bengy (also musicapoetica) from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.
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Enjoyed your post.
A half a dozen poignant topics (in the context of informed societal regret) for your future articles.
Namaste, JaiChai
Thanks for stopping by to read!
" Supporting the base" is the idea behind many community and curation programs which are running successfull here I think. But they doesn't seem to work as efficient as they should because of the increasing user base. Only way to grow here is to work really hard and smart!
Agreed, and part of the inefficient nature can also be attributed to the wave of dodgy accounts. Plagiarism and cut and paste, it makes it difficult to see who is posting original quality content.
This post has received a 4.59 % upvote from @boomerang.
Im not sure I can relate to the invoice analogy but it's certainly an issue here in Australia 're increased expenses eg healthcare and so on without the wage increase to match. It also seems the bandaids, whilst heartening (for eg being part of a curation trail that can earn me up to 20 a post) aren't really a solution.. (eg now I have a bigger rep I'll never get a whale vote again and now I'm apparently earning a little bit more why upvote me to keep me here?) ... and unless you are the driving force of a great initiative that gets some good payout I'm not sure if it's really worth being here. Great crew for sure and a fun game..but not entirely sure it's worth my time. Ugh.. forgive me... I'm in Geelong and it's raining.
Ha ha, Geelong isn't that bad! When I lived in Melbourne for a year, I was in Sunshine...
Ha I was born in Sunshine. 🌞 That always looks fabulous on my passport....people love the name! Geelong is quite nice these days really but Victoria in wind and rain can bring anyone down... 😉
It hilarious, no one could believe that I lived in a place that was actually called "Sunshine". Now, I live in Netherlands, so I think I might have you beat for wind and rain!
Ahaha yep, fair play!!!
This is so well written. Some sound questions and ideas here. I've had this exact thought myself:
Perseverance is necessary, and there needs to be a realistic economic dynamic that encourages everyone to succeed. Great post!
Thanks! I was pretty tired, and I thought I was rambling a bit. But I'm glad it came out vaguely coherent! (Although, I see in your quote a wrong word...).
Perseverance is definitely necessary on Steemit, as well as the internal fight to avoid comparing our accounts with others! However, something systemic change that spreads the rewards in a more equitable way would be nice. That said, everyone's idea of equitable is quite different...
I agree with you @bengy. I think the lower and middle tiers need to be promoted more. I suppose I am a little biased as I am probably in the lower/middle category, but I feel that whales get a lot of attention and it leaves people disillusioned with Steemit itself. I've had many friends who signed up but decided it wasn't worth it after only receiving 1 cent on each post they worked hard on. I know it takes time, but it's a little demoralising.
Anyway, I don't really have an idea of how to fix it apart from working together as a community (which I think people are doing). It just takes time for a platform like this to mature and develop. Keep up the good work yourself! :)
You too! I know the feeling, that we work hard and get a small payout, and then we look at others that get huge amounts on things that are really not worth it. I think that this might prove to be a huge minus against the mass adoption of Steem, if we don't get a feeling that the platform is equitable, then it is likely that most people won't put the effort and time in to grow their accounts past the first month.
I think some of the people that steemit delegates power to should go to users who actually support the platform rather than just steal from it like most of them do. There are many ways to improve the steemit ecosystem it just seems like no one really cares because all of the witnesses are already whales who circle jerk each other. Its just the way things work.. Why would the people at the top want to give up the easy money to share with the minnow? that would just take money out of their pockets.. I have seen plenty of good ideas to improve steemit, all of them have fell on deaf ears.. :/
Yes, it seems that way. Unforunately, if they aren't careful, it will bring the whole thing down. On the other hand, I guess they will have already taken their money out and left! On the third hand, that leaves more space for the rest of us....
Maybe, the truth is that the steem network doesn't really need steemit to exist. Steemit is more of a test net (still in beta mode) to prove that we can reward people with cryptos in a social network type atmosphere. They have already shown it can work with not much oversight or work, so imagine when SMT's come out like Appics, a crypto that IS focused on social media not just running a beta test net, I feel like steem will really take off then regardless of what steemit is doing or not doing. So truth be told I don't think STEEM really cares about steemit at all, they are looking forward to bigger better things where they are just the platform on which other cryptos ride, kind of like etherium in a sense but for social media outlets..