This is not the Pareto distribution, because that would imply they were actually doing something of value. In the Pareto distribution, only a few need to be productive, and the rest can live off of their production.

This is a class system, rather than a Pareto distribution. Think of the top earners as a mix of hard working people AND parasites. You will find that some people in any society earned their way, and many others scammed. Those that scammed are parasitic, and they manipulate the social system so that the actual producers are working for their benefit. Class systems develop strictly because parasites wish to control wealth. People who actually earn their wealth do not involve themselves in control schemes, because they have no such need. Eventually, the parasites rise to the top and control everything. This is how any master/slave system forms, and it never lasts because the producers eventually recognize the game and usurp the system.

The Steemit plutocrats are just like typical aristocrats. They don't do anything of value. They just funnel the wealth through the system like parasites.

It is better to recognize that the Pareto distribution is a way to describe the # of productive people in a system vs the number of parasites. In Steemit, without actual statistics it appears like we have 90% contributors, and 10% parasites. The reason so many contributors aren't getting any wealth is because this is not a merit based system any longer. The Pareto distribution only applies to merit based systems.

Edit: multiple times to resolve very poorly written parts ... ugh