Furthermore, the system would likely aid these forces for rational reasons. If all these powers were to "buy in" in order to manipulate/suppress news, then the value of steem would rise as these huge buy orders came in. It would be a massive cash cow. The vast majority of users would benefit in the short term, but in the long term the system would now be held ransom by the very forces many are here to avoid.

But just like the stock market, current shareholders would LOVE a massive (and ongoing) spike from such markets because they would get wealthy off of it - just like bitcoin holders have seen the value skyrocket due to capital fleeing China.