why would anyone buy Steem and power up just to reward others?

Because it's far better than say buying coins like bitcoin and speculating on its value (I assume you're a crypto enthusiast and want to invest some of your fiat). Buying steem and powering up allows you to do the same thing and still reward yourself (which is what most people do far too much. Greed.) and other people. The latter is better. While your stake is been diluted, you're adding value to other people and hopefully if the value of the network improves everybody wins.

Unlike other coins, the steem blockchain is built in such a way other things can be built on it--other things that can add value to the lives of others. This is what I hope will improve the value of the network. Steemmonster/splinterland is a typical example.

Other build tools on the blockchain that allow others to express their creativity and generate revenue from that.

So yes there many incentives to buy steem. If I had a million dollars I will invest 1/4 of it in steem. The only drawback is that, although this is a great idea there are many bad actors as expecting and many people are just chasing ROI. Greed. The real ROI is the increased value of the network which increases the value of the coin held by stakeholders. That's their ROI. That's what they are investing to get; that's why people invest in coins like bitcoin. They are not hodling bitcoin to earn more bitcoin, that's silly. They are buying an asset they feel will be worth more in the future, so they willing to part with their fiat and wait for that said future. Most of the bigger players buy for better reasons like the idea behind cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. It is an idea worth investing in. If I had billions I would be putting some of it in crypto currency the same way Bill Gates is investing heavily in charity (because rich people have the luxury of doing things for the fun of it if they like). Well, not all of them.

Ordinarily the fact that the steem blockchain consists of both people who are hodling/investing and those willing to create should strike a balance, right? I think it should be, keeping every other factor constant. I'm not going into that because I know little about all these factors, even though some people claim to know. The point I just want to make here is that buying steem and powering up is a great idea but it is not the safest investment because honestly there are a lot of bad actors in this sphere.

the economy is not flawed. The people are.

My two cents.

©nonsowrites

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