Plastic diamonds, old gold and future mining booms

I would like to move up to Steem Orca level sometime before 2020 and I have just over 7000 to go. I was having a quick look at some of my crypto holdings to see if there is anything I am willing to let go of at the current prices to move me closer. Unfortunately not. I guess I will have to keep doing it the hard way :D

I used to be embarrassed earning Steem here but I have come to terms with it as even though I have no expectations on my earnings, I do work hard to get them and I also have passed a fair bit of that value onto others too who have, passed it onto others again.

I was thinking about what would happen if everyone's earnings were made public and from the richest to the poorest, bank accounts or salary could be seen. Do you think it would change anything? I would predict there would be a great deal of jealousy for a few but I would also think that it would be interesting to see the various reactions.

What about seeing all the people living off various support incomes?

It is funny that we can't seem to get enough of "Rich Lists" but what would the reaction be if there were lists of poor who were singled out because they are the ones that took the most from support services? Wouldn't be a pleasant experience to be that person would it? Would it be deserved? Fair's fair, right? Why focus on the rich? Oh, hat is because everyone wants to be rich of course so want to see if a little bit of information can be gleaned to help the quest - becoming poor is not the goal.

Wouldn't it be one of those "learn from other's mistakes" situations though?

Essentially, if we look at our own past eperiences and think that we could have done different, we are trying to learn from other's mistakes too, that other is actually just us in a different point in time but, serves the same purpose. To you learn from other's mistakes, even if they are your own? This is a bit of a weird question isn't it?

The thing is that wen it comes to our own mistakes we are generally much more prone to making excuses as to why we failed or didn't get to where we were aiming because we experienced it. When we look at the failures of others however, we are less forgiving and offer far fewer excuses as to why the other person failed.

They should have done better, while we did all we could.

While an open wallet on Steem tells about someone's holdings, it gives very little indication how that amount got into that wallet nor the effort or lack thereof associated. It doesn't tell of the history of the person, their work ethic, their skillset or how much time or risk they have entered into adding that Steem. But, that is where people focus and then, blame the 1%.

On Steem, I am definitely a one percenter and pretty much anyone over the 500 SP mark is joining me in that title. In real life, I am at the other end of the scale most probably in Finland but - able to survive and thrive on Steem. I don't know if people really get the massiveness of that on Steem. There are people holding Steem here that if they had to earn the same value in the real world, they would struggle and - that value is going up.

This is likely the same for the majority of large crypto holders who got in early as they likely would have never earned the same amount - and definitely not in the time frame they have. Ten years to become a Bitcoin multi-millionaire? Crazy. No wonder so many of them don't have a grip on reality and squander the opportunities they have.

However, now there are the new wave of people coming in that see more than an opportunity to get rich alone, but also the possibility to actually do something in the real world with it, help their local community, invest into something value adding. While there are still a hell of a lot of Lambo! desires out there, it is a dying breed and will largely be killed off with mainstreaming as when that really happens, those who hold will get their Lambos if they choose and those coming in will enter into a stabilizing economy that will quickly mature. The spread of it all will become much wider and lower.

This is the same thing that wil slowly happen on Steem also as adoption takes place as there will be a lot more people vying for the pool and getting some of it. This will stabilize in many ways and while the high-end holders get their cars and houses, they will sell their Steem to the lower-end. Slowly, some kind of smoother balance line will form and, the masses will support those that can grab their attention and that generally isn't going to be the wealthy.

If Steem does well I am likely going to be wealthy, at least in the Steem sense of the word because I have been working and rolling my gains back into the platform rather than cashing out. There is nothing wrong with cashing out but in my view if I had, I would be in a better but not significantly better situation than today and, if anything major happened I would still be suffering.

I am personally tired of economic hardship affecting my life so, I am risking my stake on the new economies to come benefiting me more than the old. I have played the old economies my entire life and haven't managed to get myself into a position where I don't have to struggle. Sure, I fucked up enough in my choices along the way but, at some point, when am I going to learn from other's mistakes, including my own.

As I see it, anyone suffering economic hardship long-term should be pushing as much effort into the possibilities of the future as it is likely that their knowledge, skillset or willingness to work is not adequate to be successful in the status quo. I am in that category and on the way out of it, even while I work one job, run my own business for another and do all I can to make ends meet in the 'old world.'

At what point do we have a look at our own positions over time and see if what we have been doing is actually leading us to where we want to be? This doesn't just cover the economic domain of course, it covers all of the places we might want to be and I am quite sure, there are also some conflicts between points. For most of us alive today, we have been sold a promise that if we work hard and play that game, we will have a chance of a good life - even though the numbers don't point that way at all for as they say, the rich are getting richer.

I have never really understood people complaining about the world situation but not putting their all into Steem as in my opinion, Steem is one of the opportunities to change the future, not just for an individual but for many, many individuals and if you haven't noticed, most of the people here are battling life in one way or another. What this means is that the people here now have a chance to not only help themselves but, push their gains into their local communities and improve the lives of other people in multiple ways.

Most want a Lambo though, right?

Old world habits die hard and that is what the old world wants - us to invest into their plastic diamonds and believe we hold gold. Most no longer have access to the gold reserves, they do however have access to digital assets. Once upon a time gold lay in the earth unmined and unvalued - times changed.

Mines changed.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]