There will always be a wealth gap. The 80/20 rule plays a huge role even when there is no political plunder involved. However, there is still room to discuss things like HIVE payout percentages.
I was a relatively early adopter of STEEM, but I missed out on the first big boom. I don't begrudge those who have more, so long as they don't stomp on actual content creators.
My post is against the politics of wealth envy.
The seizure of assets on SteemIt is precisely what many loud voices have advocated through the decades.
Loud voices promote wealth envy. A strong armed leader like Justin Sun steps in and seizes the assets of the middle class.
The wealth seizure reduces the wealth of the community at large and the gap between the people and the strong arm leader is even larger than before the seizure.
The politics of wealth envy leads societies to ruin.
A society needs to watch for things that lead to excessive concentrations of wealth. The Federal Reserve, Wall Street and the insurance industry routinely engage in actions that undermine society.
Justin Sun's seizure of assets is an example of a negative action.
Calling out negative behavior is different from wealth envy.
Agreed entirely. @berniesanders and the old STEEM witness roster was trying to build a better community despite the roadblock of Steemit Inc. We can debate how effective their efforts were, and point out mistakes they made, but they weren't generally abusive. It wasn't the quantity of STEEM held that created the problem, it was centralization. Justin Sun doubled down on centralization and used his stake purely for coercion.
There will always be a "1%." The quantity they hold may vary over time, but the only key question is how their wealth was acquired. Was it productivity, or plunder? Sun is clearly on the side of theft and censorship. He favors the political means, not community and productivity. And that, not just the size of his holdings, made him the threat.
That is a great way to describe the divide. Was the wealth created by productivity or plunder?
The one percent is not the only group that engages in plunder. There are people at all levels who seek plunder. There are thousands of plankton accounts with a single focus of getting free money from Hive without giving thought on how to benefit the community.
Quite frankly, I think people motivated by wealth envy are engaged in the politics of plunder.
The hope is that strong armed leaders will redistribute some of the plunder in their direction.
Yes. Politics is promising some crumbs from the plundering process to different people in order to buy their support and compliance.