Don't get me wrong, it's fine for people to be "in it for the money" if their contributions add value. Someone comes in and contributes a new piece of high quality content once an hour because they actually have the skill and determination to do so? Brilliant! Have at it, and here's a nice hunk of ching for your service to humanity! It's the group that makes 20 "Hello Steemit, I am getting paid to post online, please upvote and comment and follow me so I can make more money" posts a day with spammy tags that's the problem.

In the interest of non-censorship and all that, the latter shouldn't be prohibited from posting, but the peer curation system (giving more power to actual EYEBALLS) should be able to sink such content into oblivion within minutes, rewardless. If there's zero rewards for completing an action, it will eventually not be done.

But part of the challenge is imparting the idea that "it matters" in the greater picture... specifically that content matters beyond the initial 24 hours... even if the creator is no longer being PAID, the content remains an "ambassador" for Steemit in perpetuity; meaning the next potential Steemit contributor or investor who randomly lands here is going so see that piece of content and use it as a basis for the choice point "This is a GREAT venue! I'm joining!" vs. "This is a pile of CRAP! No way!" But people have to get onboard with a time horizon that stretches months and years, not just 24 hours...