Hi @ausbitbank - I've actually talked this over with @kyle and @smooth in the witness and price channels and I support what they are doing. Raising the interest rate of SBD can be done in addition to what I was proposing in my post. (I suggested doing this in my post as well actually.)
There are actually multiple problems all trying to be solved at once. There are things that people can do which are better than others. For example, if you have STEEM, buying SBD is better than selling it on the exchange. Technically powering it up is even better than that, but it is relative :)
[Edit] To provide a better example, buying SBD, converting to STEEM and powering up is probably one of the best things that can be done. Buying SBD and holding is not as good, but it is better than selling on the exchange :)
Aah okay good to know, with so many variables its getting hard to understand what we're supposed to do to help..
Yeah, I know. I actually started by proposing that we make the interest rate negative (to encourage users to burn it like a hot potato) but @smooth talked me out of it in that it could create too much burning / downward pressure all at once.