Overthinking wealth Distribution - A practical guide to a quick headache
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No doubt economics is a complicated subject, and one that does not interest most of the its participants, as illogical as that may sound. But, its very interesting to draw these parallels between the Steem Economy and what we could only consider a this point "traditional" economic systems.
The Rich get Richer
Yes, you've heard it a thousand times before, and I'm not revealing some enlightened truth by repeating the phrase. However, repeating it, reading it, knowing about it, does not respond the reasons as to why this might be the case most of the time. In other words, we know it's happening, we think it's because they are cheating, but the deep dive is something we leave to the experts. Why? Because that's their job, some would say.
Interesting that the conversation gets truncated by our lack of desire to learn more about a complicated subject. Knowledge, mind you, that would allow you to have an upper hand in life. Hence why I think not learning about it makes very little sense.
There is no level playing field
Because we know corruption is present everywhere, there are other elements at play that make this be a reality. Power of will, discipline, preparation, creativity are just but a few things my keyboard and I can agree on at the moment, but the list is sure to be much longer.
Dismissing this observable fact with a simple - "Its because they cheat" - Also implies a moral higher ground (one eyebrow raises) and concepts of ethics that are hard to agree on, specially when one tries to make assertions in terms of absolutes. But, what we might fail to see, is that corruption is present at the core of humanity and it happens at all levels, almost with no exception, being the small corruptors the ones we safely ignore, specially if we are referring to ourselves.
Yes, I've just insulted you, but don't worry, I've insulted myself as well. We all have a tolerance for corruption to the point that we don't even see it at all. It's as if we are not equipped to hold up that mirror due to our logical constructs design in its justification.
This sounds like I'm making an excuse for bad players, but that's not really my goal. I'm simply trying to say, that if we could get away with cheating a parking meter, we will, but our little corrupt act of financial gain is justified, by the size of our wallets, and convenient defiance of authority at that particular time.
This is exactly the reason why it seems to be so confusing to so many of us. Because things get conflated, morality gets conflated with success rates, as much as failure gets conflated with the lack of ethics. In both scenarios causation does not imply correlation. But, these are thoughts almost always left inside the briefcases.
Mindset & Sacrifice
Is probably where the game is won. And I say probably, because I've not won it yet, and as a distant observer I'm trying to distinguish the colors on the walls. It was not that long ago that I had a great conversation with an investor of godzilla like proportions and with complete sincerity, he looked at me and said - "Poverty is a consequence of a mind, not purely circumstantial, but the lie is convenient".
Attempt to dissect some of that, and please do all the in between the lines reading that you must, because I've done this myself quite a bit too. His honesty, while brutal and discomforting is actually quite welcomed by the likes of me. I appreciate being told ugly truths, because I've been striving to live a little more grounded as I've gotten older.
The conversation did not end there of course, and hours later, a quick summary of a life was downloaded into my memories. The one constant in this whole journey is sacrifice, the idea of not seeking immediate gratification and keeping your eyes on the possibilities that long term thinking can bring to your life.
In other words, discarding the "successful" people who inherited their wealth. Those who are self made, had to face many winters before they saw the first glimpse of summer. The recurring theme sacrifice.
The Steem ecosystem
Seems to emulate these human truths. And if the world emulate is not the correct one to be using, the similarities are undeniable to anyone who transacts in honesty. Here we are participating of a system, of a whole economic system with the unique opportunity to rewrite the book, and we've chosen to copy/paste most of it.
I dont like, it is a bit frustrating for me to see. Our inability to see the long term possibilities rob us of the future that would more than likely come. How can I make such assertions? Well, because we the predictable humans are just that, predictable. And we apparently have not learnt, at least as a collective, the important lessons life has been trying to teach us.
Are you a 1% -er?
The answer to that question might be a punch in the gut, so I would recommend those who are easily offended to abandone ship at this moment. A little over a month ago one of my favorite authors @tarazkp shared this post on his blog. That day, that particular day, I felt the punch myself.
I would recommend you give it a good read, but if you rather know specifically what I'm talking about, or at least the TLDR version is this: If you have more than 500 SP on your wallet, you are the 1%
Now, if that doesn't feel like the ice bucket challenge is still going, then I don't know what will. To me, that little fact is scary ugly, and the word ugly does not cut the cheese, but I'm a slave to my inability to use another. I have to ask, because I simply have to. Does this make sense? Are we really two years into this? Why are so many people powering down? Where is the middle class?
The warty ugly truth is that we almost don't have one. We don't have a healthy middle class on Steem. Of course we could blame the whales, we could tell them that it's all their fault, and all the yelling and screaming, all the RAGE QUIT postings would fly beautifly into the abyss of "the ignored".
The cognitive consistency is just not there, not yet. Here we are blaming the distribution system, that grant you requires work, possibly a code change, while we powerdown everything we've ever made on here. As a matter of fact, just today I found 5 accounts in the mid 60's on reputation that had made dolphin size stakes, all of them turned to dust, inactive.
So what's more likely
That we've designed a flawed system or that we the participants are flawed? - I'm seriously asking that question to you, but not because you have to answer me, answering to me in a sense makes no difference, none whatsoever. This is a question for yourself, the one that should embrace you along with your favorite blanket.
If we have a Steemian population that does not feel confident in powering up, in using the platform as intended, but is just honed in on the myopic short term thinking: We will never have a healthy middle class - And we know how that turns out. We've seen it, we live it, we criticize it, it angers us... Gosh, that's why I'm here!
I think its time to look inward, to ask ourselves if we are willing to be part of that change, or we just want to perpetuate the cycle. Because, perpetuating it requires no effort, so if that's the goal, then we are doing a damn good job.
Other posts by yours truly
• Thoughts on Shitcoins aka Tiny caps
• Helpienaut Meeting 7/9/2018
• Unlimited content editing - New Steem Feature
• Got a facelift today. Well, kinda...
• A hard question to start off your monday
One thing I've noticed from my experience here:
Nearly everyone favors noobs. Minnows, whatever; fresh faces. Everyone wants to help the underdog; so we have groups who curate, then cut people off once they reach a certain level.
I remember a point where I felt like I was left for dead. Much of my support left because I was no longer a minnow and did not qualify. I had to battle and find my own way. That seems to happen to everyone and if they don't find their own way after enjoying a successful blogging experience for many months, they're done, and that makes sense because it's incredibly depressing to work your way up to a point where it feels like you no longer have friends.
I've powered everything up. Cashed out about two percent of my total earnings since I started, and only because I wanted to try my hand at trading and building up another investment on the side, which I did.
Just the other day I received a comment from a curation group, they said my post was passed around and manually curated, so I got a few extra votes on a post they liked. Something like that hasn't happened to me in months. I was thrilled.
So I sit and wonder why? Do people have something against supporting a healthy middle class? I'm certainly not complaining, but we do hit a wall. I'm sitting here picking away at it, hoping to gain support rather than lose more. So many used to vote for my work, then stopped, without a word; just gone, and I know it's happened to quite a few of us who've been around for awhile. Many left, I stayed, kept working, grinding away. No chance for a curie vote, many other groups rarely approach me, and I certainly won't go around begging for support, so I stay quiet and work. No chance to ever be able to produce a hit trending post, like I had in the past.
Maybe people see this happening, so they just take the money and run before it happens to them? I dunno... Just rambling.
That is a question that I ask myself at times that after getting curie what is next? Because it gets harder and harder to get a curie vote especially if you do one thing which to me is just writing my thoughts.
The higher your reputation and longer you have been it gets harder to get those curie votes. I don't have a knack for Utopian submission nor am I a video content producer so Dlive and Dtube does not really have me as a priority content creator that they need to upvote.
In a platform that encourages people to join but once they are here the support dries up when you hit a certain milestone like reputation or Steem power.
Once you are part of the 1% some of the focus and attention that you receive is gone as they go to the next minnow project that they want to support. The cycle continues and the people wh are minnows or near minnows suddently feel abandoned and if they did not spend that time building connections nor communities that they really care and engage in then there is a high chance that they would quit.
Paulag's post on retention of minnows shows that most people would quit on their 3rd to 8th month in the platform because at this point they have hit their wall.
Now I have heard some people creating Dolphin Initiatives and I have not been approached or been able to join one lol.
So I try to do my best to continue steeming, creating content and hoping for the best but always not expecting huge upvotes.
When I get votes from redes or alexis555 it is always with gratitude. I do get some votes from surpassinggoogle but not to the point that I can trend nor that it is very big. I mostly get small votes from him but I am always thankful.
Do I believe in the platform, yes I do, and that is why I am still producing at least one post a day, two if I can. power up and engage with the communities I am in. I have to be honest though with the past 4 weeks my engagement energy has dropped and my commenting lowered so much that I am no longer in the top 10 engagers in abh12345's engagement league,
I do try to come back but at times I just can't sustain the pace. Hopefully I will someday but at least I am still here Steeming.
This comment was made from https://ulogs.org
I remember reading this as well, that being said, Steemit Inc has been clear about their position on user retention. Remember the convo with luke? - Anyways, if we are to find a solution, it has to be us.
Yes and that cemented my dislike to a certain person in Steemit Inc.
I agree Meno we need to be the solution. Woe is the nation that needs heroes.
This comment was made from https://ulogs.org
If you stick around I will pick you up when I launch my next level in September or October.
That is a mighty nice gesture from you :)
This comment was made from https://ulogs.org
No, you are right. I remember back in the day getting Curie'd in my first few weeks. It was something like 15 dollars back then and after that, I no longer qualified as my Rep was too high. Rep too high to get support? So, don't support people who the community thinks (before bidbots) have decent content? I had been here weeks and hardly knew anyone, wasn't in a chat and had no idea how the system functioned yet found myself quite alone for a very long time.
I can only speak from my experience but once past a certain point, you are on your own and the real work starts. New and small accounts like to think it is all luck and timing but for those who have built from nothing, continually powered up and have foregone a lot of the luxuries to do so (I speak from my perspective), a mass of work has been done.
The sad truth is that part of the one percent problem is that few people are willing to do the work to build up enough, and the middle class problem is one where it can't be built because a great deal of the available SP gets used to retain people who are unproven, unwilling and likely extractors.
If a healthy middle-class is the goal, the big fish need to find healthy members of the community and support them heavily. In time, it will support itself and feed many, many more.
But hey, I speak from a position on my Golden throne of entitlement granted me through pure chance.
It wasn't long ago I was dropping $10 votes on minnows. There was a window of opportunity for many of them to convert 1 SBD into 3-4 STEEM as well. During that spike, people could have been building up accounts, then helping each other earn more down the road.
Instead of choosing strength in numbers, they cashed out then, and quit recently. Self-inflicted.
Many of us tried to help and got burned for our efforts. I learned a lot from that experience and I'm far more careful now with who I decide to support.
Pure chance. I took a chance and got to work. Still fairly happy with how far I've come. Still see a future here as well. Hoping things change for the better. Some days it feels like we're in a war zone though. Soldiers are dropping like flies all around me. Some can't take the pressure and put the gun up to their own heads. It's hard to watch. Want to help, but can't, or it's not enough.
Me also. If I had been selfish, I estimated I would have powered 15000 more SP up during those times. There are people who should be one percenters based just on that month or two yet, where are they?
This is what I missed during most of my life. I have never been lazy but, I have also often limited what I was willing to do and in which areas. Now, I work when and where there is work to be done. Here and in the real world. One day, one day, I hope it is enough.
It is a war of attrition and instant gratification loses every battle.
Monetarily speaking on individual levels they did well with their earnings if they cashed out at price levels many times higher than what they are now.
Most people come to steemit to earn income, the problem is not that people at the bottom are cashing out, it is that the shadow mine was used improperly from the start in various ways and failed to find its way into the hands of a large enough group of people who were actually willing to distribute it and incentivize social activity.
I was drinking coffee when I read that... its almost 4am and I just made a mess.. hahahahahhahahahah
You know, I'm very much aware of this particular phenomenon. As a matter of fact, Curie has not shown up on this side of steemland in so long, I can't remember the last time it did. But, just like you I'm not really complaining, its more an observation.
That being said, its also our fault. I'm not specifically saying you per say, or even me... its all of our faults. We tend to not empathize with those who in our eyes "are doing better than us" but our opinion is always subjective. That detail escapes us.
Because, I'm not one to simply point out the flaws and not swim against the natural tendencies I've begun to make it a point to support some fellow dolphins and I do.
So please, reach out to me on discord, I want to show you something.
:)
I'll support those above and below. If I'm a fan of their work, I try to be consistent with my votes, regardless of how much they're earning. I'll see $70 beside a post, I know I won't get curation rewards, but I'll still vote. I'm looking at their post anyway, might as well support it. I'll also see a few $2 posts out there and it breaks my heart knowing when I finally get a chance to drop a vote down, that might be the final vote they see that day. This 22000 SP used to go a long way back when the value was high. These days I'm spread thin. There were even a few weeks where I was earning more SP curating than I was through posting. I could have said to heck with it all, stopped posting, and started self voting 10 sleazy comments per day at 100%. Would have earned more, but I came here to do this "the right way."
I'm still rambling...
I've been invited over to discord countless times. I do have an account there and I've been meaning to check it out, so I just might, but no promises.
I think you will be happily surprised. I was no doubt. Overwhelmed at first, then surprised and then the lightbulb turned on.
One of the big rep/small vote users should start a downvoting service. Bring us all back to 40 and make us eligible for Curie again.
Anti Rep Bot...
Gets to programming
lol
Lool. This one cracked me up. When i first entered this platform i made more. But by each day my reputation increases it becomes more difficult. I have had a curie twice, via my singing abilities, if not for dsound i would have been roasted in frustration by now.
Im starting to feel what youre feeling and i have yet to break 500SP.
A few days ago had a convo with one of the large stake holders thats been supporting me from day one, on the exact same thing you mentioned.
Its kind of harsh but its understandable to a degree. It all depends on the role a stake holder or a curation team wanta to take.
The current philosophy is focused on "new recruits" more then it is on the "battle proven"..
Now... I think the issue is that most of the on chain projects tend to limit themselves with restrictions im not sure do much good for anyone.
You mentioned Curie. Consider how much good they could do for the trending page if they didnt have the payout restriction and the rating bias.
But they decided to focus on newcomers.
Now thats fine... If they want to do that super.. But does everyone have to?
Everyone trying to do what curie is doing is actually making it harder to keep newcomers here.
Once a Curie drops.... And a few curation teams find it as well.. The whaleshares, the ocds, etc...
What comes after that? Whos there to pick up the newbie after that initial rush?
We need support spread out more evenly across the board. Curie has newcomers covered. We need another across the board curie.
..... Hard to do when such a huge amount of SP is.. Well you know where.
Yes, I do know where. A few I used to support are now totally fine with pushing my work aside with their paid votes, and that's another heart breaker after going this long. That was probably more devastating than having to start from scratch again after getting dropped from the initial curation strategies. I'm still doing alright though, even if the odds are stacked heavily against me.
Some days are rough though. I'll do an art post, after a half hour I'll check the hot list under the art tag, I'm nowhere to be seen. One promoted art advertisement after another with their fake rewards, no engagement, back when we had a view counter, there were ten views or less; I'm sitting there with a jammed comment section, having fun, many views, organic; I have an awesome following and I'd like to continue building that but it's incredibly difficult when folks are hellbent on taking away the visibility from their colleagues. I even openly asked why they don't just flag everyone so people can see their posts. It's cheaper.
It's frustrating, but whatever, I'll just keep doing what I do. I still have a lot of fun.
I for one started muting the trending stealers. I know that wont do good much for the platform but it gives me a peace of mind.
There is one Turkish guy that takes 3-4 trending spots every day with bots. The current top trending at 800 had a 1300 post few days ago.
All fake interactions. Any convo on the post is about bot abuse.
Steemlol memes at 300$. Ever since steem fell the nonsense increased.
If i wasnt taking complete advantage of dtube, openmic platforms i dont think i could get any visibility. Which is why i always push hardest where i see the most engagement can be found.
More often then not, the big account support comes to high engagement posts.
Best example is Meno and his Jerry post.
I think the middle class cant exist when its so damn difficult to break the "bot barrier". Getting that utopian, big dtube, big dlive upvote is extremely difficult. With so many having to depend on those platforms it feels like they are like that cat with so many kittens crying under her, not being able to feed them all.
If more people could break that bot barrier to trending i think things would change.
The trending page is not only a listing of posts. Its a diagnostic tool for the whole steem platform.
Call me a heathen but I find less fault with people who have been buying recently and buying votes in whatever misguided attempts they have to earn money, than the hardest circle-jerkers who should know better, and what I am kidding of course they've always known better but just refuse to expand their circle of compassion.
People who actually enjoy using steemit are far and few between. That is the main issue. Most people just use it as a personal piggy bank, or view it as potential one, and personal circumstance and faith in the system varies so they're apt to crack it open at different times.
Scale also plays a large role in this, when a few accounts have power orders of magnitude above everyone else then people justifiably tell themselves it's pointless to invest in or try to influence a system that is so stacked against anyone with less than hundreds of thousands or millions of SP. Also, just like corporations and economies of scale, you reduce friction when you have so much of a resource to expend and reinvest or sell off, whereas many are not in a position to do so and do not have a stake to begin with and accumulating SP is a trying task if income is so intermittent and disconnected from the levels of effort they put in, especially when so much of the latent VP goes to bots or circles.
Basically, until you can prove otherwise, most will smell that the platform reeks of a scam, and will have no interest in truly participating in full, even if they temporarily give it a shot to see if they too can profit from it.
Also, the way that voting works on steemit is very anti-social to begin with.
I want to be part of the change, that's a drive of mine. You know? - naive... idk, maybe. but I'm also not throwing in the towel.
Yeah, that's what's kept me on steemit so far, we might be retards but at least we can feel better about being retards.
i often wonder if your comedy is planned! hahahah
Hehehe.
Yes, I remember reading Taraz's post, and I remember it being somewhat sobering in the sense of understanding some of the fundamentals of Steemit. At the time, I also thought about the "equation" that even if we took all the Steem that exists and divided it perfectly evenly among the platform's million+ accounts, we'd only end with with 200+ ish Steem per person.
Which made me think about Facebook and the way people often are complaining that the giant site "rapes" people because they make BILLIONS of dollars every year from using your content and creating advertising revenue and the users never see a dime! SUCH an outrage! But when you break down the numbers, each account on Facebook is actually just worth about $20 a year. "Rape?" Hardly...
So, of course, the "reality" is that so many people arrive here with the (false) perception that they can "make a living" or "make a lot of money" blogging on Steemit.
No. No you can't. Or — at least — it's very unlikely that you will.
Most likely, this is a social venue that happens to give you a little pocket money. The whole notion of "making thousands a month" is mostly pie in the sky...
Which, in turn, leaves us with the next question: Are these "illusions," nonetheless, required in order to market the platform for continued growth?
Yes, you speak some sharp truths there my friend. I like it...
Regarding this...
Actually, yes, its intentional.
White Paper
The economic effect of this is similar to a lottery where people over-estimate their probability of getting votes and thus do more work than the expected value of their reward and thereby maximize the total amount of work performed in the service of the community. The fact that everyone "wins something" plays on the same psychology that casinos use to keep people gambling in other words, small rewards help reinforce the idea that its possible to earn bigger rewards.
But!
My point or I guess you could say my target audience are those with the potential to be the middle class. I know that makes me sound like an elitist and I hope I'm forgiven for transacting in truths. But, there are plenty of people who have the potential to be Dolphins yet constantly power down.
As far as percentages go, maybe it could be closer to the global average 13% , I don't really know. I've seen models of 20% saying that's the sweet spot. But what I do know is that 1% is just way too low.
That's basically the model other social media websites have, just create content on this platform we made, we'll make money off of your hard work and sell you out, they're just more upfront about it. Can anyone blame any dolphin who powers down if one were to take a look at the historical price before all cryptos exploded to the upside thanks to bitfinex?
Basically, a lot of whales made a lot of money dumping on some clueless Koreans.
And yes, anything that promises that every single participant can make money, and no one has to put money in, is a complete and utter scam.
I think about this all the time actually and I totally agree with ya. Not so much in regards to economics, but personal knowledge and investment in the platform.
Now, I love Steemit and spend time here every day, but there are so many folks that have a deeper knowledge, understanding, and commitment than I do. So why did I end up in this '1%'? Because I got in a little early. That's basically it.
Point being, I think you're right about the absent middle class. You would think after watching three, four, five months go by, we'd start seeing an exponential amount of accounts on the come-up where we may have been a while back, but the divide seems to be so large. I'm not doing anything incredibly special on the platform (other than my music, I'd kind of like to hope). But the consistent growth seems to continue to fall to few veterans, rather than distributing among new blood.
Yes, no doubt this is an issue. Now, here is a simplified argument for the need for a middle class.
What is more likely to distribute more wealth. 10 Dolphins with 10K SP Accounts or one Whale with 100K SP?
Dolphins all day every day.
What else is interesting is just the social disconnect of the wealthy that exists in our regular lives as well. I don't see the full picture so maybe it does exist far more often than I'm lead to believe, but how often do you see whales following humble content creators and throwing them a 5-10% upvote just for doing so, without any regard for status or personal gain?
It becomes the chess game. Not existing because you enjoy the content or what the platform is meant to do, but more so because of your stake and status. Which I mean, I can't say I don't get it; even I myself have to remind myself to aimlessly browse for new content every so often. It's easy to get lost in the to-do.
Well put, I have to say I try my best, but I'm not the best curator myself. Hence why the job is delegated to those who know what to do with my SP (@helpie) - But, this also makes a case for the need of SP to do the job.
Regarding curating whales, I can name them with one hand, and I got two fingers to spare. But, it's not like I don't understand them, I do. Their head is on a different game, and honestly, I can't say that I would be any different either.
I mean, I could say I would... but then again, words are just words.
Definitely dude. I suppose if there was an easy solution, we'd have implemented it, right? ...Right??
lol Thanks for the great read, as always.
To be blunt, and this is random, I wanted to get some SBI shares for helpie but on soliciting power I saw the vote uniqueness is only 49%, is there any reason for this?
Taskmaster often has a post every week reporting how the divide has been moving towards having a middle class.
To be honest I was there believing it is true and he had some nifty data but as time goes by you realize that for each step we gain we often take two backwards and reaching that healthy middle class is not a possibility yet.
There has to be fundamental mind changes people have and one of the things we need to change is the sense of entitlement mindset we have that if we are here we deserve the upvote from whales. That if they are not upvoting us then the system is broken. News flash to a lot of people, they do not owe you anything. You have to work and network and engage people. Why would someone upvote you if they don't know you.
another thing is that bid bots are evil and will cause the platform to destroy itself. A bit controversial because of the abuse but done in the right way it provides supply, demand and liquidity. If people think that if they bot up that they would be making mad money even if they have crappy content then they are deluding themselves. People can flag their posts that would entail losses on their end. Bid bot owners have also been criticized a lot maybe yes if they do not have blacklists but the way I see it bid bots is also a way to spread out the votes.
I often tell this to new folks that Steem is not a sprint but a marathon that you would need to work for and train.If you have a short term thinking then you are bound to fail.
Some people get votes because they have built their network, made their names and continued steeming when most people quit. Not everyone that has been here long gets the support but you will have a higher chance of attracting support if you also focused on the community asepect of Steem and not just thought of yourself. Well Haejin of course an anomaly lol.
Well, even haejin and relaxo have been voting (sparingly) outside of themselves recently, which is actually more than I can say about some other similar-sized entities.
I did notice that...
In my non-technical view, there simply needs to be some sort of measurable economic incentive beyond philanthropy or charity for Whales, Witnesses, and Dolphin’s to support the middle and lower classes in a meaningful and sustainable way.
My first questions to ask would be:
1. How does this dynamic manifest in the real world?
2. How might this dynamic manifest in a voluntary, fair, and libertarian fashion?
Answering these questions might be a good place to start…
Poly put on the thinking cap last night and I think came up with a possible solution.
https://steemit.com/steem/@tcpolymath/a-simple-radical-change-to-steem-that-could-fix-most-of-our-problems
I saw that, brother... I think it's a brilliant idea!
Let's hope it gets some traction... I know you're doing your best to see that it gets in front of the right eye's...
Blockchain-level UBI, identity verification to receive UBI, and flat taxation on all interest earned. Enforce it for everyone.
IMO, Universal Basic Income is WELFARE - and it don't work - just take a look around...
It is merely a temporary bandage that will be and is already necessary, it is not like modern welfare programs, it works and has proven to be effective and more countries are testing it, I will not continue further because I can see your mindset is fixed on this issue, but I will be glad to see how things turn out for you in a UBI-less world when AI is capable of exceeding human performance for less cost in every field imaginable.
They said the same thing when "buggy-whips" went obsolete with the advent of the motor car. Nonetheless, quite nice of you, truly. We cordially agree to disagree! That's cool! :-)
Nice edit. Technology has been displacing labor at a rapid pace historically, permanent underemployment and unemployment is already seeping into many areas even in developed economies, fortunately technology such as blockchain will render even more paper-pushers obsolete (which is why the corporate-eth alliance exists in the first place, they are not doing so to benefit we humans) so we will see more of the effects within a generation when the cost of implementing AI solutions is driven lower and lower.
Ha-ha... Thanks! At least we can edit! :-)
No doubt that a disparity problem can/will rise to an unsustainable point of no return. In my view, in contrast to redistributing "unearned money," a voluntary free-market solution would be best (whatever that may happen to be). Until such time as a voluntary free market solution is adopted, it may be such that UBI could bridge the gap so that the tipping point of the disenfranchised masses do not decide to overturn the entire game board to unrecoverable rubble. That much I will grant you, however, in my view, UBI should be an emergency short-term solution only.
Really good question, bro. I think it's a blend of both...
Reading the comments here has already helped clarify a few things for me.
If we're hitting a wall, then maybe we're asking the wrong questions...
@tarazkp brought me here, Wanted to take a look at the post he was referencing.
I've heard of him... i think we had a flag war once... ;p
I do not know about that. He seems to have had a good opinion of you in his post though.
I'm only kidding of course... hahahah
Oh really? Well that is sad. You actually having had that flag war would have been a nice touch to your common history with him.
Few months ago I could feed the whole family with steemit, and now I had to readjust what can possibly be done . I am still grinding daily, several times a day, but my attention has shifted a little bit, on other platforms, on blockchain oriented trading websites, and even live performance in the real world.
I think we all got trapped in this bubble, and maybe that's one of the main problem. The interaction between the real world and the blockchain world seem to still be very limited, as if artificially controlled by people that have no interest in seeing us thrive.
Maybe I am simplifying a bit too much, maybe this phase that we are in, is a necessary evil, maybe that middle class that we are talking about will start emerging after another year of grinding and powering up.
I am still waiting for the big next wave that was supposed to happen beginning of July.
How far down the rabbit hole can we all go before we say "enough is enough" ?
Oh man, I hear you... I paid my house payment one month with Steem, it was a special moment for me. But that is so far from happening it's not even funny.
Maybe this is just an endurance test... the victors are those who stick around, maybe it's that simple.
Steemit is now also marked with the word "beta". Is it also taking the path of this curve?
Thank you for this post very thought-provoking. With regards to Steem, the platform itself is still very early, therefore I think the "equality" in the system is likely to improve over time.. I hope.
It's my hope as well, but mind you the experiment is 2 years old. I would love to know if its moving in the right direction, now that would be valuable information. A comparison of wealth distribution 1 year in vs. 2 years.