I'm not sure if I understand your contention. Personally, I never offer a dime to anyone on the street begging for change unless they impress me somehow. Even then, I don't give much because I don't have much. I do, however, go out of my way to give fruit from the store away to obvious homeless when I have the time.
Still, you and the others who upvoted this post give motivation to both the genuinely desperate and the fraudsters that make such posts, just as people without a second thought will donate their change to any random individual who asks them.
I see the use in charity like this as wealth redistribution. That's epic. That's a problem solving act on the part of those who donate. Do you think that if we successfully accomplished that, we would have a dirty mark against us as a community? It sounds a bit counter-intuitive to the intentions of Steemit if that's what you are saying.
I'm a US Air Force Veteran. I grew up with a lot of financial and social struggles, had an adult life where I was financially taken advantage of by the Air Force AND by every education institution that I've tried to get a bachelors degree in since. 4 years ago I was in a homeless program for veterans. Today, I'm living with a fiance and her mother and only this summer started paying my fair share of the bills because my father died and I received a surprising inheritance as a result. Surprising, because he was never supportive nor capable of holding a career for himself aside from being a part-time repo man.
I'm 35, still trapped in school without a 4 year degree, have plenty of skills that I can't be hired for because of that fact, and I am constantly paranoid that I will die in the same poverty that I was born into, just like my father. Thing is, I know there's thousands with a similar story who are here, just like me, trying to correct that by creating content.
I think, if anything, we need a verification process for those who are actually begging or panhandling on Steemit, as well as to offer some sort of marker to beg silently when we make content. I could post a click-baity headline letting people know that I'm desperate for my blog to work out here, but that would be unfair to the thousands of others who worked just as hard on their own blogs and are just as desperate.
...I might have an idea worth trying. Would you be interested in helping to build a beggars verification and support community?
It's complex. That's really the best way I can put it. I'd love to upvote and help out everyone that's truly in need. I think that's magical.
However, what won't be magical, is if Steemit continues down this path much further and the demand for staking and purchasing STEEM diminishes.
Oh, I think I have an idea of what you are driving at. Do you mean to say that as more people dole out upvotes as charity, the lower the community payout for each member of the community is?
No, I don't mean that at all. I actually could care less about that.
Check out my reply to @joeparys. I think I laid it out fairly well there.
Truth