Drops for a better distribution

in OCD4 years ago

It is funny, whenever I mention better or more even distribution, the comments look at the extremes, as if I am saying equal distribution. More even doesn't mean equal. We are all born equal however and by this I mean, we all have the opportunity to use what resources we have available to us the best we can - but even at this stage, inequality steps in, as some people are better at using what they've got than others. The fact of life is that while we are all human and there is a great deal of overlap, we are also all unique and some of the ways we differentiate, matter.

For example, I had no choice of the attributes of my parents which means that the chances of me being a professional basketballer are slim to none. While it isn't impossible, the amount of work I would have to do to differentiate myself enough with a skill that is valuable to a basketball for them to overlook the fact that I am short, would be much greater than someone who could do the same as me and was born with tall genetics. How unfair.

However, due to the diverse nature of our preferences and needs as humans, it means that I do not have to write-off my entire life as valueless because I can't play professional basketball. The marketplace has a high degree of variation and allows for a great many skills to be regarded as valuable. I can't dunk a ball, but I can deliver a technical coach training to key users and I can write 1000 words without breaking a sweat. Someone interested in watching the basketball isn't going to value my skills highly, but if they are sitting in that coaching session or reading an article, they might.

This skill difference means that we are able to have access to the marketplace and compete for resources against each other, even though not performing in the same discipline or domain. Essentially, skills are our personal token that we can trade for the tokens of others directly in a barter system, or indirectly through currency conversion.

There are of course other factors that come into play than just the skill and level of skill, like personality, work ethic, direct and indirect social network availability, location, intelligence, looks, health and other points that get applied to varying degrees across the spectrum of attributes to create a personalized matrix of values. Then there is the willingness to provide that skill, market oneself, resilience to rejection and a host of other factors again. We are essentially SMTs with an endless array of configurations that are also subject to the conditions of others in the marketplace.

While we like to think of ourselves as individuals, the fact is that even who we are as an individual has been shaped by our past, our parents and the culture they and where they have come from also. We can romanticize being self-made, but it is never the truth - there is a network of people who led to us across time and space, and each point has an influence on who we are as well as who we will become. We are products of the marketplaces of our past, genetic, environmental and social.

When I talk about improved distribution through Hive, I am not saying that everyone should get an equal share of the rewards pool, I am talking about that more people can compete for it by contributing their skills and having the marketplace decide. The more participants the better.

One of the core problems with the current economy and why it is doomed, is that the distribution is very poor and there are very few players in the marketplace, out of the population of 7 billion. Because of this, less than a handful of people are worth as much as the poorest 3.5 billion and massive multinational conglomerates can get creative with their accounting practices and pay next to know tax, while the rest, the consumes, carry the costs. Money attracts money and past a certain point, money can generate more value than sweat can - which means that not only will the gap widen between those who work and those who can generate from their holdings, the ones who generate can become increasingly passive in the marketplace while simultaneously increasing their share of the holdings.

Eventually, this system eats itself as with more power in the hands of less, the economy can lose its dynamic and organic attributes and get engineered to widen the gap by gaming the system to increase wealth generation on money, not work. Eventually, all the value is in the hands of the few and the consumers don't have anything to consume with anymore. Generally, this is the point of a revolution.

This time I think that the revolution is likely to work at two levels, one on the traditional where there is social turmoil while economies collapse and people suffer, the other through blockchain and tokenization, which is the infrastructure that will replace what we have known so far. This isn't a fast revolution, it is a replacement process that requires the failure of what was and then the technology will have to evolve to satisfy demands.

Going back to the start, this affects wealth distribution by bringing more participants into the marketplace in more functions than just as consumers. Individuals can use their unique set of skills to add multiple revenue streams and become more competitive as employees also, because more people will have more options to act and move. More players in the game means greater competition and this means that there will be less opportunity to have some with extreme earnings, meaning more spread. There will always be differences however, as there should be.

Currently, most people are no more than consumers in the marketplace as what they generate goes into the pipeline that feeds that very top. The answer isn't taking from the top and giving to the those below, it is redeveloping the economic model to generate a system that is self-sufficient rather than eating itself. The only way to do this is for participants to opt-into a system where they are consumer, creator and investor. The more that do this, the wider the spread of the generative value of "money", but also the more responsibility there is on the individual to create something of value, something the community values.

Part of this is through the way we ourselves consume, as it becomes up to us as to who gets more than another, rather than a centralized point of control that decides this person gets special treatment by the system of that of another. What a lot of people don't seem to consider is that the consumer is the one who actually has the majority of economic power, but we are generally lazy to be creators ourselves and lazy in seeking for what is valuable to is, instead we eat what we are fed out of convenience.

It is easy to reduce a company, just stop demanding what the produce. Once this happens, there is more space in the marketplace for the startups to move in and compete and create alternatives that have some marketplace space to breathe, rather than having to try and go head to head with the conglomerates who are so large, they can affect the policies of the economic system itself. This creates inefficiencies and as such, more participants are required.

From my perspective, one of the largest issues we face in the economy is that we are trying to reduce our participation in order to increase our leisure time, but we are doing it too early, as the system is broken and what this does it remove competitive participants and drives all the value to the narrow few. Change the economic infrastructure and that can change, but it will take time, potentially longer than I will be alive. However, just because I won't necessarily see it, it doesn't mean it isn't worth working toward.

In my opinion, billionaires "shouldn't exist", but it isn't because they have done something wrong, but rather, that there is so much competition and consumers choose so broadly, that it is impossible for one individual to generate that kind of wealth. The problem is, that the economic model we have doesn't create the environment that rewards spread, it rewards retraction and consolidation, automation and control of consumers for passive wealth generation.

Now, this is a very high-level view of many factors and I don't even know what all the details might be at this point, or what the solution will eventually be. But, I do obviously think that whatever it is going to be is going to have to be us as owners and investors, creators and consumers who all participate at multiple levels to create a very dynamic and organic growth and retraction model - birth and death. No one has to think the same as me, which in itself is part of the beauty of the system and indicative of why, equality of result is untenable. Thinking the same is the death of innovation - it supports consolidation and monopolization.

As said, we all have the same opportunity to use what we have the best we can. Two people with the same resources can act very differently, one looks to generate value with what they have, some stay passive and let their potential drain away.

I will never dunk a basketball, but I am not useless. Are any of us?

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]

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The problem is, that the economic model we have doesn't create the environment that rewards spread, it rewards retraction and consolidation, automation and control of consumers for passive wealth generation.

Billionaires can pay politicians to pass anti-competitive legislation, effectively hiring policemen to harass and shut down competitors.
Whenever you hear "The senate committee is meeting with industry groups."
That's what's actually happening.
Taxi company A, B and C are meeting with the transport minister to try and shut down Uber.

Yep. Once high enough on the ladder, it is possible to break the rungs below and keep climbing.

I'm going to be publishing a post soon (when I think more about it) in similar vein to everything you've said here - particularly about the distribution going to a larger number of users.

In particular, I also want to focus on content - not content about the platform, or that feeling you get when you've had an enormously satisfying meal.

I tire of seeing posts consistently rewarded most when they're about the platform, or a service on the platform, or part of the eco system. Yes, this stuff is important as an advertisement of what people do to keep the place running, but I'm fairly sure I wouldn't enjoy reddit if the only content on reddit was about how many posts each community got, how many lines of code got written into its database, etc.

I'm fairly sure that sort of stuff would make me leave, as a content creator and also as a content consumer. This is why I like your posts and ramblings - they're about the nature of life, and not just the current craze of "look at me, ma, no steemit inc!"

What I wonder is what percentage of the reward pool goes to platform posts, and what goes to other content. The reason is, platform content is something that ties us all together, so it kind of makes sense it gets rewarded, as we are all interested in it in some way. I suspect though that while some users and posts get highly rewarded for that content, most of the value of the pool goes to other types and is spread much wider.

I do know what you mean though and it annoys me that I exacerbate the problem as that is where my interests lay. I do try to connect it to all of the other areas I am interested in too though as I see that Steem and now Hive is a good way to reflect upon life. :)

With the system we have here, the only solution seems to be that larger accounts want to change this and vote less for friends who tend to go trending. I suppose there is something that can be done to the algorithm but changes to the algorithm always seem to lead to people at the top making more money. This is not to say the people at the top are bad people. I think it's a really easy trap to fall into and it can be a little scary to stop supporting other whales who can make or break you. It's also easy to feel like you are doing good by the community when upvoting 30% to smaller users, but then a majority still goes to large accounts which ads to wealth inequality. Also people just get busy with things and it's easier to vote for names you know or autovote. I am sure I will struggle with it to when I am in that position. I can already see myself struggling with it to some extent.

In the end I think a change of culture is the answer and that will lead to better behavior and better algorithms so I try to work on that because it's what I can work on now

Yeah, issues like these are why I was drawn to steemit, and it was also why I ended up leaving. Very poor distribution is what I encountered there.

To take what you said a step further, most people are born into this world and there just isnt enough for them. Not jobs or cash. So they internalize this and take is as their fault when it's the failure of the system which is fueled by greed.

This causes lots of the sickness you see out there. The depression..The depravity..

BTC was made in the wake of the 2008 crash. It was made in response to the bailouts that always have been for the elite and on our backs. That's why I got into btc. Because I never agreed with the system even though I find myself okay at the moment. As long as we have people who aren't free we will never be free. Scarcity is the illusion that makes all this work. When we ask them for help, they ask how we will pay for it. when big corporations ask, they print 14 trillion... not asking anyone how itll be paid for. BTC doesnt do that shit. Lol I love btc.

There is plenty of scarcity, but it isn't in the money, it is in the land. The thing is, we are willing to trade our land for money, and then wonder why we end up renters.

That's so true that's a big part of it is the ever increasing cost of housing. You see it especially bad when you see a major industry move in like oil. The price increases you see are downright CRIMINAL.

The cost of living will continue to increase until we start taking responsibility and ownership for ourselves. Making choices out of convenience and minimal effort will always lead to monopolization by those who can manage to organize and sell it.

I couldn't agree more! I believe we are waking up but I am unimpressed with the progress we're making to be frank.

the world is very disjointed with a lot of difference between locations and populations, as well as values and incentives. It takes a lot longer than it really needs to because most people don't actually want to be the ones to change.

Very wise. The mirror is the hardest thing for some to to look into.

Great discussion here. Hopefully this event and the lockdowns give some people time to rethink the status quo.

This is what I am hoping too. Pain and suffering generally makes people reflect on their experience. Some react and look for someone to blame and attack, some start working on a solution. Back in 2009, the Bitcoin genesis block dropped and started a chain reaction. I feel that this coming economy is going to fire up more shifts toward where we are already headed.

time will tell; people have short memories

It is like we are goldfish.

on another note has the PeakD conversion to HBD been working for you?

yes it has. login using peakd lock and use active key if you are having issues. I couldn't do it with keychain when i tried.

just did that and it worked then deleted the login account again. I don't like leaving my active key in the browser cache and prefer keychain.

The destroyer of all and or any economic systems is always wealth inequality. When the majority of humans participating in an economic system do not have enough currency to spend within that economic system to give them a comfortable lifestyle, because a small minority are holding most of the currency that was created in that economic system, that system will eventually fail. Sometimes it fails because of inflation ( if more new currency keeps being created instead of the currency leaving the wealthy minority and going to the poor majority) and sometimes it fails because of revolution, simply because the majority get tired of being poor...

Yep. It is an interesting process, as pretty much everyone has the ability to do something to improve the situation, yet we tend to keep participating because it is easier than changing. Both revolution and dilution cause uncomfortable situations.

What will bee will bee...
Follow the bouncing ball ;)

Where I get stuck is why such an emphasis on competition?
Some people really don’t have many “marketable skills”, especiacially some with severe learning disabilities etc... is it not valuable to be a good friend or make someone smile or just spend a life in quiet contemplation?

If resources are scarce and a population has no self regulation mechanism to limit it’s size then something needs to fill that gap, and nature will, though maybe not in a way we find appealing, but I don’t think that is even relevent here. Wealth and propogation seam to be inversely related if anything and we as a species have the ability, if we use these big brains, to provide the basic necessities for everyone alive pretty easily. If anything competition is causing the destruction of those resources.

How much harder has industry and competion made it to get truly clean water (not chemically treated or polluted) or food that has the nutritional value it did 100 years ago and without the added poison or clean air... we don’t really need much more than that and it seems that competition can be blamed in large part for their scarcity. That or our reptilian overlords (they hate our freedom as good old george bush might say). (What?)

Some dont have marketable skills, but some spend so much time doing simple tasks like taking orders or whatever to make ends meet that the opportunity cost is mastering something they always wanted.

I've seen it work more times than not when a person takes a chance on themselves doing what they love it tends to become marketable if they can find an avenue. You'll only ever excel at that which you find interesting.

Some people sit around playing Xbox too - some are raised to have low skill levels. People want wealth without putting in the hard yards to get it, including skill development. No one gets paid a a top singer - then buys singing lessons.

Well yeah I'm not arguing with you there at all. but there is 160m jobs according to the president. there are 300 million people here. that math sucks you know. All I'm saying

Perhaps you need a new president ;)

That isn't quite the way it goes though, as there are those in the working age, say 18-65 and those not. If you open up the paper or a recruitment site, there are job openings in most places, but people have standards as to what kind of job they are willing to take. At the moment with Corona, things change, but a few weeks ago (my wife is in recruiting for a large retailer) she was struggling to find people to work.

I find it interesting when for example, people talk about Steem/hive earning not being adequate, but there are jobs they can take stacking shelves at the supermarket where they can earn a helluva lot more. People gaming 10 hours a day saying "there are no jobs". There is generally work for the willing.

Do you play a sport?

I played soccer, baseball and basketball as a kid, mostly because my dad wanted me to. now i prefer lone sports like running althought my absolute favorite is ultimate frisebee.

I found that with competitive sports, whether competing alone or on a team, there is always a winner and a loser. And there is almost always anger, resentment, frustration etc... that may just be because of conditioning.

When I play ultimate frisbee, (or used to anyway) I would play harder than anyone, and I often felt like a super hero. But it wasn’t competition that fueled that intensity unless you count competition against myself. We never kept score and I always felt really gratified whenever anyone on either team made an awesome play or reached past their comfort zone and excelled. The only times I felt frustration were when either someone did something shitty to someone else just to get ahead or when I got caught up in the “competitive spirit” of those around me and then either was on the “losing team” (sometimes in college i played with that kind of crowd) or was on the “winning team” and Saw how many on the other team felt.

Even with table tennis (another passion) i can lose 100 games in a row and have a blast (usually its better that way because i learn/grow more and the other person doesnt get sore with me).

I know that is perhaps an uncommon ability/characteristic, as I don’t see it often in others, but I world based on that spirit is one I would be really excited to live in.

And there is almost always anger, resentment, frustration etc... that may just be because of conditioning.

Most likely conditioning, fear of failure and giving weight to an imaginary ego.

Like many, I think you see competition as a win and lose. That is not actually what the term means though.

It means to strive together. Two people can train together for example to run the fastest. they can work together and help each other improve. If they really want to see who is the fastest, they will do all they can to not only be their best, but help the other be their best too. They will experiment together and use the best practices to improve and then innovate to see if the can improve again.

But then, most people like yourself seem to think that competition is to win at the expense of another. That is conditioning.

Perhaps so.

In my experience highly competetive environments breed emotions that i find counterproductive to self growth and inner peace except insofar as to experience them, see them for what they are and move past them.

Perhaps for others this is not the case, however that is not my only problem with competiton for resources being the method of resource allocation. If we base “who gets what” on who is better on getting it, we are essentially saying that those of us who don’t excell at business deserve a lower standard of living than those that do. Put another way, those that are willing to do anything, no matter the impact on those around them, are more deserving of the necessities of life.

If capitalism is our main method of assigning value then we are assigning the most value not to those who are doing the most good, but those who are extracting the most from those around them. This not only creates a pretty terrible worldview, it creates a pretty terrible world. What wealth hasn’t been created by the sweat of another’s brow or by exploiting resources that come from a planet that is the birthright of every earthling for one’s own profit? What giant corporation (the “winning team”) doesn’t seek to externalize as many costs as possible to be paid by the losers? (Every kind of pollution, lost biodiversity, destruction of every virgin forest, the almost complete sterilization of the oceans)

That is the extreme i suppose and that doesnt mean that everyone who has a comfortable income acts that way, though certainly the very wealthy do, who as you have said also benefit from the law of increasing returns which makes the problem much worse.

It is pretty frustrating how much life seems to be wasted today pretending to kill other people in a virtual world, I havent owned a television in almost 20 years let alone a video game console so i totally get where you’re coming from. But I sort of suspect that that habit may be, like drug and alchohol addiction or any other escape mechanism, A way of dealing with a world that doesnt seem to make sense. Then again I also find it difficult to put myself in the shoes of someone who spends all their time in that way. There is certainly plenty of competition taking place there though, I’ve found myself amongst people caught in that trap before and they are definitely competitive about their video games.

If we base “who gets what” on who is better on getting it, we are essentially saying that those of us who don’t excell at business deserve a lower standard of living than those that do. Put another way, those that are willing to do anything, no matter the impact on those around them, are more deserving of the necessities of life.

You have narrowed it to the domain of business, which is the point of the article. open up much wider than that.

There is certainly plenty of competition taking place there though, I’ve found myself amongst people caught in that trap before and they are definitely competitive about their video games.

There is competition in every domain, including who can be the most pious.

I find that in retirement I really have no marketable skills, and I really do not want any, yet I can still compete and still earn, and still have fun, just being a consumer on Hive or steem. I like to read, to look, to vote and to comment. Block chain tecj is great for a person like me, I see myself falling in that: "The only way to do this is for participants to opt-into a system where they are consumer, creator and investor." line. I sometimes post, I sometimes invest, but I am mostly a consumer. To grow, a person needs to do at least two of those things I think.

To grow, a person needs to do at least two of those things I think.

I have the sense that the majority of youth today are being raised as only the first of the three.

great content!

Cheers :)

Sharing out and bringing in

Currently, most people are no more than consumers in the marketplace as what they generate goes into the pipeline that feeds that very top. The answer isn't taking from the top and giving to the those below, it is redeveloping the economic model to generate a system that is self-sufficient rather than eating itself. The only way to do this is for participants to opt-into a system where they are consumer, creator and investor. The more that do this, the wider the spread of the generative value of "money", but also the more responsibility there is on the individual to create something of value, something the community values.

Part of this is through the way we ourselves consume, as it becomes up to us as to who gets more than another, rather than a centralized point of control that decides this person gets special treatment by the system of that of another. What a lot of people don't seem to consider is that the consumer is the one who actually has the majority of economic power, but we are generally lazy to be creators ourselves and lazy in seeking for what is valuable to is, instead we eat what we are fed out of convenience.

Is this the point you claim? Does it mean the social structure in which individuals produce and consume? I am curious about how it can be done through decentralization of blockchain.