Hi Scott, welcome to Steemit! Wow, what an introduction post. It took a while to read but it was certainly worth it.
Thank you so much for this fantastic idea of sharing the pool. I honestly believe that this would become the tipping point for Steemit to go viral. After starting about six weeks ago I quickly became a full time steemer and as you say my motivation was extrinsic at first. 100%. But that changed after the first few weeks because otherwise I wouldn't find the strenght to endure here since I haven't established a big followship yet.
I agree entirely on the idea of basic income since I heard about it the first time in 2007. In Germany it has been discussed by all major parties and was even program of the Pirate Party. I believe that Germany has a good potential to be among the first, when they see the concept working in the test areas. It must be on mankinds bucket list or we will surely create a dystopia. But I am very optimistic that there is a shift happening thanks to power of netizens.
Resteemed.
Thank you. There's indeed a lot of potential in Germany. The existing safety net is readily convertible to UBI, and there's even an entire new party there that's specifically about basic income, which is awesome to see will be on the ballots in all 16 federal states this year.
There's even a Basic Income cafe there now as well!
I think Germany is one of those nations that may just surprise people in the race for UBI... ;)