I have a confession to make; and with it an apology, I have not been honest and I need to make amends. OK, here goes;
I originally joined Steemit, in the hope of making money!
There that's it; I said it, it's true, when I joined I didn't care about growing a community, I didn't care about being part of a cryptorevolution, I was just looking out for my own selfish needs. I was thinking of my family's financial future, and to hell with community.
Are you sensing a but coming? Some kind of redeeming statement that nullify's or at least quantify's my ghastly confession, a "but", is surely in order here; isn't it?
Sorry, can't seem to find it, nothing's changed, I still want to make money and I still love the stuff. I'm a filthy, money grubbing, capitalist pig...But (yes, here it comes!), I don't believe in the current capitalist paradigm, never have, never will; and therein lies the whole delicious point, I am rather labouring to make.
Help For Profit? You Capitalist Scum!
OK, seeing as I've already climbed into the self-flagellating pit of apology and confession; I will confess yet again, and bare my soul; lest thou shoudst judge me.
Confession No. 2: I once learned of an evil capitalist tactic of giving value for free in order to recieve financial rewards in the future.
Shh, don't tell anyone, it's a secret!
When I ran my video production business, I thought it prudent to buy books, and visit blogs giving business advice. One such blog, advised that it would perhaps be wise to give out as much free value, at any and every opportunity you get, by performing this ancient ritual; the blog said, financial rewards will be yours abound.
Hmm, OK, let's give this a try, I thought, and immediately put the plan into action, I sprayed free advice bullets from my value Uzi; then one day, I came across a posting on a freelance job site I used to find work.
The posting was from a guy who had hooked up with a golf pro, and wanted to film a set of instructional videos. He wanted to make the clips different from the standard golf instructional videos, and so in order to give them something extra, he wanted to film from three different angles, including a slow-mo camera.
The poster was a tennis coach in his own right, and so wanted to film some tennis videos in the same style; both sets of clips would form the first videos in his online coaching academy. So the job was set out pretty clearly, explaining each component of what he wanted to achieve. At the end of the post, he stated that he had no experience in making videos and so was looking to the community for guidance on execution and price.
Naturally, when someone posts a juicy job on a site like that, it attracts dozens of bids in the first ten or so minutes. Anyway, by the time I saw it, it probably had over 50 bids and at least a dozen replies, so I put my dastardly plan into action.
To what must have been the fury of the other freelancers, I basically broke the entire job down for him, I told him that I had looked at the bids he had received and that there were many good ones in there to consider.
I then gave him the whole lowdown, the pitfalls to be aware of when conducting a multi-camera shoot, the hidden expense of editing that type of shoot. The expense of a slow-mo camera, the type of shooting techniques to employ, how many crew, and what cameras to use.
I then gave him a template to use to work out his cash and time budget, with suggested costings for each element, along with more cost effective alternatives, for each element. By the end of it, I had laid out a dummy project, complete with total cost breakdown of every element and stage, along with a time estimation.
In other words an entire two-tiered budget, with contingency and fail safes written in, the kind of thing a halfway descent production company would charge a heavy consultancy fee for.
I gave my knowledge for free, and what I didn't know, I researched, the whole process took me almost an hour...
...guess what?
My evil plan worked, by helping someone without asking for anything in return, obviously struck a chord, because he ignored all of the bids (which by now had reached over 75) and messaged me back and asked; "Would you like to do the job?".
"Yeah, sure, why not?" :-)
That job was worth almost £5000 to me...
...he ended up happy, I ended up with job satisfaction and a fatter bank account.
So now I'm sure you can guess where this one's going; can't you? I have been using the same dastardly tactic on Steemit, and even making alliances with other people who understand the dark arts of giving value for free.
Hmm the plot thickens...
You Say Anarcho-Communist I Say Anarcho-Capitalist - Let's Call The Whole Thing Off!
OK, I'm going to remove my tongue from my cheek for just a moment, and make a serious point; I have seen a growing pseudo-Communist movement on Steemit.com. I have seen suggestions in blog posts, and in comment sections, that all have a similar flavour.
They are along the lines of: "Cap all payments!" "Share the weight of whale votes equally!" "Remove support from Orca writers and spread it equally among minnows!" "Orcas and Whales vote for every comment on your blogs!" "Share all Steempower equally!"
I might have made that last one up...
...but the point is, these comments and posts, and ones like them, are decidedly, well, Communist in nature. And whilst I stated above that I don't believe in the current Capitalist paradigm, I sure is hell don't believe in the outmoded, oppressive, philosophies of Communism.
Whilst Capitalism errs, by placing too high a reward on activities fulled by self interest; the forced socialism of Communism fails by ignoring those activities all together.
In both society value is skewed; in Capitalism, value/reward systems that are meant to benefit society as a whole by rewarding self interest, are in turn, done in by the self interests of the gatekeepers of the very same systems.
Communism on the other hand denegrates self interest via an, evening out value, and declaring the input of every member of society to have equal worth. There can be no self interest if there is no self worth, just as we have seen in many systems, if you give everyone the same result, it hides brilliance and incompetence in one fell swoop.
A Social Capitalism - Doing Socialism Better Than Socialism
Right so I've bashed Capitalism and have sneered at Communism; what's my answer?
Well I guess before Steemit, I best identified with anarcho-capitalism, however of late, identifying myself (and therefore limiting myself) to any kind of ideology has been something I've wanted to get away from. I would still say that I have Anarchist leanings; simply because true Anarchy is not just about flexibility in societal rules. It's about flexibility of thinking, if I feel that I want to add a particular train of thinking to personal ideologies, then anarchy allows me do that.
Therefore since Steemit, I have just been doing what I have been doing, and at the same time observing; as I've said before, by creating Steem Power as a tangible, vested interest; Steemit appears to have addressed the Prisoners' Dilema, and dealt with the potential destructive side of self-interest.
So when I bring my, formerly mentioned, evil plan, of providing value for free where I can on Steemit, I am still behaving in a Capitalistic way; however I am now in an economic system that nutures my self-interest for the good of the crowd. Which as I write these words; makes me realise that's probably a huge reason why I love this platform so much, it simply allows me to help others, while helping myself.
I like that, I like that a lot; and don't get me wrong, I still find immense pleasure in simply helping people, I am not calculating how much each person can be worth to me if I help them. I simply do it; because the point of the evil plan, is that it is hit and miss; you might help 100 people for no reward, so if you're only helping them for reward, you will be left deeply unsatisfied.
I get a buzz out of helping people, I also get a buzz out of making money; why can't I combine the two?
Anarchy and decentralisation, let us set our own rules; your account, is like your house, and in your house you have rules, if I accept them, I am welcome in your home, if I reject them I am not.
So you might want to feature a writer and give 100% of the SBD and Steem Power to that person; I on the other hand may want to feature them and give them nothing.
Before either of us carry out our preferred method of helping, there is no guarantee which one will work better for the writer, but that's not the point, the point is, I have played by my rules, and you have played by yours and in a decentralised system like ours, that's just fine and dandy.
I will not call anyone out personally, however I have had a couple of direct messages on Steemit Chat, and they are what I can only describe as thinly disguised, aggressive demands for me to feature their work. It seems that some Steemians seem to think that just because somebody else is doing something, that others should follow.
I read a post the other day from a Steemian saying that he had been told he was rude, for not voting on every single comment on all of his posts.
Again I thought, if he wants to do that, he can, subsquently if the accuser wants to do that, he can too! That's kinda the point of a free society; bar the basic rules of the game, both spoken and unspoken, we're free to post and curate in any way we see fit.
For the last couple of weeks I have been part of the amazing Curie Project, the brainchild of our very own @donkeypong, I have also been involved in Spotlight for the last few issues, I have also helped a few people with advice, promotion and encouragement in Steemit Chat, and will continue to do so.
I am of the very firm belief that these vehicles will benefit the individuals and the system of which we are a part of. I also believe, that Steemit provides the best way to reward self interest on all sides; and it redresses the imbalance in the value/reward system that is so badly skewed in the 2 paradigms that are presented before us.
However, and this is a big however; I cannot and will not attempt to impose these ideologies in any kind of attempt at an unofficial, system-wide, philosophical implementation.
More to the point, if you disagree with me, and believe you can do it a better way; and you want to go ahead and do that, and write about it to prove it to me; excellent! Go for it, because what we need is diversity and live debate; we are part of an amazing organic system, that is growing and finding its path everyday. Without either of our ideals, it is a poorer place, so let's keep them, together side by side, conflicting, yet coexisting.
DISCLAIMER TIME!!!
I am not personally attacking anyone; if you recognise all or part of one of your statements quoted above, or you feel I may have referenced a comment, or a post you've made; I probably have, but it's in no way a personal attack.
I used your points merely to illustrate my own; if anything I have gathered up in my mind, posts, comments and Steemit chats and have amalgamated them into what I see as the, (or a) current zeitgeist on Steemit.
As always I delight in starting lively, well informed, intelligently discussed, debate; and to that end, I am aware that some of you may read some of my above comments, in particularly about Communism, and feel that I am saying these words with a cruel sneer on my lips, and disdain in my voice.
If you imagine me thusly, please don't, more so, imagine I am delivering the words with a faint smile, a cocked eyebrow and at times with my tongue resting firmly on the inside of my cheek.
So whilst I am saying my gloriously Capitalist attitude, is waaaayyy better than your impoverished Socialist ideals, please accept my views in the spirit they are being offered.
Either that or f**k off and die!
[JOKE! JOKE!]
DISCLAIMER 2
That really was a joke, I was going to take it out, but I didn't, coz I'm silly like that :-D
DISCLAIMER 3
Yeah, yeah I know, but... some new Steemit changes have come out just as I have finished this article; there are many changes, however the ones I am speaking about, revolve specifically around voting, you can read about them here.
These are just the type of cryptocommunist changes that I believe are missing the point; and I believe these changes have been inspired by listening to the wrong voices. Changes such as this, jeopordise cryptocapitalist initiatives such as Project Curie, and ignore the fact that there has been better curation occurring, as a direct result of self interest and groups of self interest.
So that said, the new fork, is the only thing I am directly referencing in this post; hey-ho!
Cryptogee
If people are honest, hardworking, responsible and solidary, socialism is good.
But if people are honest, hard-working, responsible and solidary than capitalism is even better
Socialism is an evil idea because it advocates that government take over private businesses and eliminating private property. Stealing values from the productive. It undermines any reason to work hard. Socialism is the reason why people turn lazy, criminal and dishonest. Capitalism sets people free and is a significant reason why people choose to be hardworking and responsible.
love that
Sounds a bit like you lean towards Cooperative Agorism. =) We can have capitalism and take care of each other, we just can't keep it if we don't care about the health of the society in which we live.
You don't have to be a dick to be a capitalist.... or even to be selfish. "Profit" is not necessarily paid in dollars and in spite of what altruists and witchdoctors tell us, human pleasure doesn't usually come at the expense of other people and it certainly doesn't need to.
' ' In spiritual issues—(by “spiritual” I mean: “pertaining to man’s consciousness”)—the currency or medium of exchange is different, but the principle is the same. Love, friendship, respect, admiration are the emotional response of one man to the virtues of another, the spiritual payment given in exchange for the personal, selfish pleasure which one man derives from the virtues of another man’s character. ' '
--- Ayn Rand
I must confess to be completely ignorant of Cooperative Agorism, however it sounds like you're right, and that is my feeling.
Ultimately we need the group, and we need individuals within the group to shine, for the betterment of said group.
Cg
Thank you for answering.
Yes; for the betterment of the individual. That's egoism and the foundation of individualism. It's not just that others enjoy and benefit from me, but I personally enjoy and benefit from the company of others.
It's not that we should dogmatically always think or care "for" all other individuals --- no one should be expected or forced to "love" or support everyone --- , but to a certain extent it becomes necessary to think and care "about" the conditions that even the mostly uknown masses are actually in.
As long as this world is full of human beings, which hopefully it will always be, we're both going to need and actually want to look out for the bigger picture; Society --- and I mean a real society of freely interacting entities of course, not state enforced assimilation.
"Cooperative Agorism" is a radical strategy for implementing Anarcho-Capitalism and then maintaining it.
It is a strategy based on regular Agorism, but specifically emphazises the creation of volountary and volountarily interconnected (consciously->) Pro-Capitalist Cooperatives working (innovating &/ producing &/ investing) to outbuild the state from within --- utilizing any available white, grey or black markets as it best suits them -- and aiming both to profit monetarily and in other values from this, as well as to be capable of helping its members out in cases where life unexpectedly forces someone into a tough spot.
The entire bitcoin/blockchain community and many of it's project very much relate to Cooperative Agorism and regular Agorism in particular.
---This should come as no surprise, considering that a large portion of this community is made up of Anarcho-Capitalists and also that they enviroment naturally attracts tech savvy entrepreneurs with a desire to make some money, by contributing time and computing power to a paradigm changing experiment in decentralization.
I'd definitely suggest Investing in the book 'Influence Science and Practice' If you haven't already, It has some great sales techniques in it, Including your 'evil plan'.
It's quite an old book, But I still found it to be quite enlightening.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51IOhEJZvoL..jpg
OK, this book keeps coming into my sphere, you have just tipped me over the edge, ordering on Amazon now!
Thanks :-)
Cg
You're welcome. Judging by the content on this post I'm sure you'll like it :)
I'm sure I will :-D
Cg
Really great post @cryptogee.
Over the last couple of months Steemit has been making me think a lot about where I fit into all of this. I'm coming to realize I don't want to know or probably never will. Im just going to do what I do. Just give the value to everyone the way I know best.
What I know I really dont want to do is tell other people how to think or behave. Again great post.
Cheers Mick
PS: I put this picture here of myself cause I like pictures, and I want my reply to get seen over other replies and hopefully make a couple bucks ;D
Also...this song I found interesting. Peace!
Funny you should reply, because I used my evil plan on you and put you in the last issue of the Spotlight, hee, hee, hee. Please keep posting your stuff, especially any interesting facts about your modern antiques; hopefully the Curie Project will start picking it up.
:-)
Cg
Holy ssshit Cg! I missed that little write up you did on me in #7. Thanks very much, so awesome!
I've tried to read most your stuff but somehow missed that one. To be honest I was getting disheartened and thought my little daily contributions were going unnoticed. I have much more to offer..thanks for the boost.
I've always found your quirky style refreshing too and would like to see more Steemers let there hair down a bit. Cheers and keep spreading the love.
Mick
No worries dude :-)
You have been noticed, just keep going; as he says in Field Of Dreams, if you build it; they will come!
Cg
Thanx Cg
Woof Woof!
Good doggie! :-)
Cg
you're arguing against a straw man. I don't think anyone (at least not many people) are looking for a capped reward system or one-man-one-vote or any other way to share the vote or the reward pool equally.
What many people do believe is needed (and the big reason for the exodus away from steem) is more parity between whales who got their SP mostly from a closed premine (call it what you want... ninja mine, premine, awesome thing X, whatever, the effect is still the same, that very few people got most of the initial SP) the intention of which was to circumvent the legal requirements for a crypto release.
That isnt communism, thats an open market. That is to say, one where the level of influence accurately reflects the level of investment. One, where people can actually buy enough SP to make a difference. WHat we have now is a command economy, much like what they had in the soviet sattelite states prior to the fall of the berlin wall.
Yes, small-ball commerce is possible to an extent, but for the most part real economic control rests with the party elite.
Its a game that the soviets found that most people didn't want to play. Absent a significant change, i suspect that its also a game that the creators of steem will have a lot of trouble finding players for.
It may not be your preferred argument, but I have seen people make precisely these arguments (capped rewards and one vote per user).
As a capitalist I am wondering who is supposed to pay for this. It not you group of whales upvoting each other, that's for sure.
I love your brutal honesty @cryptogee.
I hope you haven't forgotten our agreement?
Capitalism, communism are the two opposite faces of the same coin to handle limited ressources. We will reach a fair distribution of wealth when money itself will be meaningless. When it will be displace in the background of our activities, our life.
Like the air you breath each second to stay alive. Oxygen is distributed fairly amongst every users of the planet Earth. Nobody try to hoard it, to trade it, to steal it from someone. One cannot be jealous, greedy, or feel injustice about oxygen distribution. Oxygen Distribution is neither good, nor bad. It simply is. Nobody feels the need to debate about it. There is no rich, poor or middle class, there is no GDP. Money should be consider the same way. True economic disruption will occur when we will go beyond the capitalism/communism paradigm.
When future generations will switch to an economy of abundance (zero marginal cost) I believe they will look back in history and find our passionate debates around capitalism vs communism quite funny to listen too.
What you describe can only happen if we are in a technological nirvana, whereby all tasks, menial and otherwise are looked after. Until then, you will always have "jobs" that nobody wants to do without incentive.
A fair distribution of wealth doesn't necessarily mean, everyone has an equal amount, like oxygen, it means everyone is fairly compensated for the effort and value they put into a system.
Cg
That is right, we are not yet to this point, but still, we are on the path toward it. Innovation follows a simple path: produce more and reduce the costs. Zero marginal cost society is when we will be able to produce an infinite amount of goods with no additional cost. It is already the case with media, and it starts to be the same in every industry. Cost of production of goods and services keep dropping significantly with automation. Freemium model that was considered 5/7 years ago as a communist heresy is the norm in the silicon valley.
You are right, fair != equal. Here is a precision about my idea of fair distribution: if we take the metaphor of oxygen, in an economy based on abundance, nobody has to prove anything to anybody to get oxygen (or even water and sun light). There is no need to justify, there is no effort to make to deserve anything. Just take what you need when you need it. No more reason to fight or to compete.
Fair does not = equal, in my opinion; well not equal like most people think and definitely not equal in the spread of oxygen.
Fair is properly compensated for input and value; so for instance a heart surgeon who saves dozens of lives a year earning /$500,000 and a person who cuts grass earning $15,000 per year is fair.
A system which tries to get them both on $50,000 per year, is not fair; and more to the point, it is dangerous and stupid.
You can only say this, because we happen to be living at this point in human history, if you lived a couple of hundred thousand years ago, there was plenty of competition for the things you mention.
There is nothing wrong with competition, nurtured in the right way, it can help the group as well as the individuals involved.
Cg
Well, that is exactly what I said above. The sign != means 'not equal'. Sorry if I use a geeky/computerscienced way to mean it.
For some people, Fair is about equal (not me obviously, if you read me well) For other, Fair is about what you deserve (capitalists).... But even communists! The similarity of these 2 systems? It still implies a lot of subjectivity. A communist will still agree with a capitalist that a surgeon 'deserves' to earn more and get more recognition (look at Cuba) than someone who cut grass.
People tends to misunderstand communism and think it is about equality, while it has more to do with planification and control of the market supply and demand, while capitalism (in fact I should say liberalism) is about free market. But in the end a monopolistic capitalist organisation can have the same impact over its customers than a communist state with its citizen. Zuck played by the rules of capitalism and now he has earned the right to tweak Facebook overnight whether its billion daily users like it or not. It seems a bit communist to me. But hey, he works hard for it and deserves this right, right?
For me, fair should be about what one's need (not about meritocracy or about equality). Take what you need to live (you may breath more than me, or need more oxygen because you do sport, well help yourself, I won't feel annoyed, or jealous by that). This concept favour individuals even more than capitalism without creating friction between economic agents. Hence there is no more relationships based on coercion, power, clientelism, corruption.
But once again this concept cannot exist when as a society we create scarcity on purpose to maintain the rat race, and the government in place. When Fair == individual needs, I don't care how much you consume, just take what you want, it won't reduce my stake in an abundante economy.
Yes, happily we evolve, nothing lasts forever, civilisations appear and fall. No matter how hard they are ingrained in our tradition and culture, ideologies and economic dogma (whether it is capitalism or communism) will follow the same path. But still I don't remember an age where mankind competed to breath :-p
Last thing, I definitly agree with your last point. But the global situation (economic warfare, looting of african and middle east ressources, corporatocracy) shows that the game is rigged and favour those who already have power. Ideal capitalism is like ideal communism, it never existed.
My ultimate point is that we have to think beyond this paradigm of capitalism/communism. Trying to maintain an artificial opposition between those two is a mistake. China is the living example that both do pretty well together.
(By the way, thanks for your post, your replies and the discussion ;-) )
Anyone who thinks that automation will lead to nothing to do, has obviously never had enough of a good thing in their life. For what reason, I cannot imagine. But people will not want to do nothing, they just always would prefer to do less of the things that are unpleasant and more that are pleasant. Automation has a built-in capitalist incentive: one can, with some advance expenditure, dramatically amplify the amount of current product at a lower cost. In other words, bigger profit. Then, over time, everyone automates, to compete, and the profit margin gets a lot thinner. But so does the automation equipment.
In other words, whether you like it or not, once the genie of automation is out of the bottle, and sometimes in response to impossible prices for human labor like minimum wages, or just because it is cheaper, sooner or later the job can be done by less people.
The irony for me is that then the very same socialist RBE types jump up and down about technological unemployment. Yet they want full automation. Why are you so confused?
I didn't say that, I said that until automation gets rid of jobs people would rather not do, like cleaning toilets, or picking cherries (very difficult apparently), then we will always have some sort of money.
Cg
"Technological Nirvana", haven't heard that one before.
Where'd you come up with that?
:-)
I think about it all the time, I'm obsessed with it; my favourite author (sci-fi) is the late great Iain M. Banks, and I want the world to be as he describes.
Cg
Try Robert Heinlein, think you will like it.
Exactly. Natural Law/Resource-Based Economy is the next step in social evolution
How about they both stop fighting and start thinking out of the box of obsolete social systems :-)
https://steemit.com/anarchism/@logic/the-meaning-of-true-anarchism-part-2-into-the-future-sustainable-and-cybernated-social-systems
Great post, really enjoyed reading it!
I really admire your willingness to volunteer your efforts, if I understand correctly, not just as a means to receive income in the future but as a means to improve the quality of the community that we belong to. While some may consider selfishness as good as we shouldn't encourage the dependence of others, this ignores the fact that all individuals aren't created equally and each have their own limitations. It is through cooperative effort that will enable those who are not currently productive to get the boost needed to become productive in the future.
I also like how you endorse each house playing by their own rules. We are each our own individual laboratories, experimenting with what we believe will increase our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Without the freedom to experiment, and make mistakes, we will be limited in what we learn to increase our prosperity.
It is completely circular, I help to improve the community, because that will boost my income, which in turn will encourage me to help more, which will improve the community, and on, and on, and on...
:-)
Cg
That's fine, post capitalism can handle free market ideologies. Your not really a capitalist. This is different. The blockchain can and will handle free marketism and keynesiam. Let the system dictate the outcome.
I say help the dogs, and eat carefully.
To simply have everything completely fair and equal would eventual turn steemit into a community where everybody could sign up, make four posts a day, each post would be paid out at a quarter dollar, we'd each make $1.00 STEEM per day for whatever junk we posted, and then we could all wait for tomorrow.
Is is equal? Yes... but it is equally LAME.
Too often, nobody seems to care about equality, unless they are at the bottom and feel entitled. Then, when they get to the top, they forget all about it.
I say, do your best, and if it pays off, help others do their best.
Beautifully put. :-D
Cg
Great post, my friend. This is an epic ramble-rant and as usual, you're right on point. The one additional thought I would add is that I hate worrying about money. We all do. To have a system that incentivizes so much good behavior is wonderful, because I spend most of my time mentoring and working with others now, and I'm able to forget the money part for a while. But when I turn around, it just so happens that those cryptocapitalist motives are aligned with the work of building Steemit and making it function more effectively for everyone.
Finally, you're right that curation is rapidly improving Steemit. None of us is getting rich on it; I've paid out more than I've taken in to help create Project Curie. It's about making something better and hopefully we all profit from that in the long run. Let's hope they don't make some dumb decisions and turn back the clock to about 1917. Communism wasn't much of a success and it would hurt us here, too.
Exactly, self interest isn't just about making a quick buck; that's where Capitalism has failed us, by promoting the short term over the long. Quarterly reports and looking at new ventures for 3 years, are just two capitalist traits that promote short term thinking over long term.
When we give our children good advice, sometimes we know they aren't going to need that advice for years; we still give it to them though, this is how we should treat Steemit.
Cg
Isn't the quarterly stuff due to some US (tax) laws or something? In Germany "capitalists" are criticising that and being short-sighted is not inherently capitalist, it's just being short-sighted.
To me, true "long term capitalism" is always having win-win-situations in mind when doing business, because you simply can't fool people indefinitively. And as an anarchocapitalist in the "austrian" tradition, I blame the government for destroying the time-preference structure. People tend to try to get as much as they can as quick as they can, because people feel the ship is sinking soon anyway, so why care for the long term?
My impression is, that this phenomenon is worse in the US, but I don't know why. The "worst" (as in short-sighted and ruthless and dishonest) salespeople I've met in my life where Americans. On the other hand, the brightest and most visionary entrepreneurs I met are Americans as well. So maybe the US is just more extreme on both sides?
Social interaction is human nature and most people do it for an ephemeral-emotional reward (i.e. Facebook). Now, Steemit shows up and starts offering monetary , albeit crypto-currency with a learning curve, rewards. It does not matter to me where my 'Crypto-Reward' comes from, I would just like to see a little return. Emotions are great for longevity, but ISPs and Electricity companies don't accept "warm fuzzies" at this time. So I would say you owe us no apologies.
By the way, the "Coke" font is cool. I've offered it as a custom design.
http://www.redbubble.com/people/tmpsg/works/12713105-your-cola-name
Lol, you just gave me a great mental image...
ring, ring
"Good morning General Electric payment center, can I help you?"
"Yeah hi, I have a really big warm fuzzy feeling inside, that I've acquired via 400 facebook likes; I'd like to pay my electricity bill please..."
"Hello....hello...are you still there?"
LOL :-D
Cg
LOL!!!
@cryptogee
Fantastic Post! This is exactly what i often try to convey to people.
Great post CG... reminds me of the words of my old Politics teacher,
Hahahaha! That is absolutely priceless! :-D Love it!
Cg
I like the way you described Steem as "social capitalism." Ive had similar thoughts myself, since Steem is a highly planned economy that micromanages everything from the top down. Users only function within the stringent rules of the Steem network. But, we can all leave at any time. Just start powering down, stop posting and sell your Steem. Its a really interesting concept and goes to show what amazing things blockchain technology can accomplish.
Exactly, there are obvious rulemakers, seeing as Steem didn't pop out of thin air, that's only to be expected, in my opinion, it's always worth being in the game.
Cg
I believe that the whales here are favoring every post that pushes people into investing in the platform, while at the same time the whales are dumping huge amounts of steem on the market for short term profit. This is what I saw in someone's post lately. Let the dumb people put money in steemit so its creators can steal their wealth fast and easy. I am not a real fan anymore of steemit. The greed you have, is the same greed the whales are having and they are literally fucking over people that invested in this platform with good intentions.
There is not a single post on the trending page that is "pushing people to invest" any money into this platform. Why don't you think for yourself, instead of reading a post and agreeing with it before fact checking the article?
That's fine if you're not a fan, and that's also fine if you see my ambition as greed; I'm sure you are very noble and divide all your income equally around everyone you know, and that's just fine.
Cg
Dude, seriously. What a bunch of nonsense are you talking about ? I am more than 2 months on steemit and have seen how posts were getting rewarded. You could post something interesting and you got a few cents. Then you could make a stupid post just saying "Steem goes to the moon" and then tell in your post that it got passed 2 $ and suddenly you got paid some good money for such a shit post. Did I also mention how friends of the whales were getting hugely rewarded for their posts ?
What post are you actually talking about ? Are you saying that the whales aren't dumping Steem ? Go look for yourself. They are all powering down huge amount of Steem Power. They upvote posts that motivate people to not power down. I saw such a post last week. And in the meanwhile they are powering down huge amounts of Steem themselves. How 2 faced can you be ?
You are saying yourself that you are greedy. And your reply shows that you are because you are protecting the weird things of Steemit just because you want to get more money out of it. I am not blaming you for it. I didn't say I was holy. I used to do the same. But I am a bit tired of behaving like a Steemit prostitute and spread nonsense on Steemit just to get money.
The truth is that at this moment the platform has nothing to offer but free money. I am not saying this can change in the future. I hope it does because I am still an early adopter that would be rewarded if this happens. But I don't like the whole whale structure here. You can get 50 upvotes from minnows and you end up with 3 cents. But then you can write a shitty post and only get upvoted by 1 whale and you make 400 $. This is insane. This completely against the spirit of cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies are in the spirit of decentralization, no central control and free markets. Steemit is completely the opposite. Steemit is like a central banking authoritarian platform and this will kill steemit. Synereo will release their social medium this month. Bitcoin will soon release yoursnetwork. If they do provide this with a decentralized character, Steemit will be forgotten very soon. Nobody is waiting to be on a platform that is controlled communist style by a small group of 10 whales.
Amen to this post... A decentralized system is in its essence freedom on steroids!
This is only partly a decentralized system. The content is stored decentralized on the blockchain if I am not mistaken. But a horrible centralized layer is created on top of it ... the whale structure that has given the whales a communist style power on Steemit. This will kill steemit very soon when other true decentralized platforms come into existence. Synereo will release their version this month. If their platform doesn't suffer from this centralized power abuse, Steemit will be history very soon.
I was saying this from the first week I entered here but it looks like not much has changed.
Sometimes I am glad of being european as the american are busy throwing labels at each other and navel gazing and leading there own Mc Carthy with burning trials no wonder the establishment always wins.
Ahhh! americansss. Such a helthy people. The only thing taint them with sinful remorse is the word "COMUNISM"
should people that do a half assed job and make bullshit make as much as someone with hard work and dedication who makes a superior product? That has always been my gripe with communism.
A lot of commentators are trying to define what this new ecosystem is. Honestly we are living under a post-capitalist society. Sharing is the new norm. For the minnows out there, don't give up. Build your audience base by sharing your knowledge, the reward will come after.
Great blog post. What you say is realistic and practical; Something that reflects the same aspects of the earth we live in. It's a good teacher for all of us to focus on what we want to create, rather than complaining about other peoples actions and trying to create laws to prevent those actions that each one of us feel is wrong in our perspective. People live by there own moral code, that is and should be the deciding factor of what each one of us do. This moral code that we create will be the rules set of how our environment will interact with us. For those that seek instantaneous reward or to get as much as they can only for themselves without helping others, that is fine. For those that seek to help themselves, while helping other in a balanced fashion, that is fine too. Each of these actions will have a cause and effect response to them. The moral code creates that individuals environment and how people will treat and connect with them from then on; Only changing once the person decides to change there moral code.
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