Note: This is not an attack on you, I like your comment.
"minnows like me don't have I just upvote whatever I like at 100%"
"You have a much bigger problem, ethically a person should vote for what he considers the best posts,"
Do you have any logically consistent reason for why Jerry (whales) are required to conform to your imposed, vague ethical standards (which, btw, you provided no evidence or citation for?), while minnows are allowed to "vote whatever they like"?
Is it just the dictatorship of the proletariat?
"more good can be done by giving a few cents to people in third world countries"
Why? Has anyone provided any evidence for why giving money to people whose content is not good enough to get noticed on its own, and will power down and sell, is good?
Is it just because they are "poor", and if so, why not sell everything you own and give it all to them?
"if someone in a country like Malaysia or Honduras gets 5 dollars per post it is a huge help to his economic condition"
...and also completely 100% irrelevant to their posting quality, and therefore, should be totally ignored by those with ethics. This isn't a victim-whining olympics website, it's a quality-content-creation-reward site.
"40 years ago before the neo liberal revolution"
It's been a rough half-century.
I don't think you really understood what I meant, maybe I didn't make myself clear, if I vote for what I like I am being ethical, if I vote because I like the person I am not, because Steemit is about the articles. And always it comes down to the argument of sell everything you own and give it away. Are you a Christian? These are the guys who are supposed to do that. And no you shouldn't vote for someone because he is from a poor country, you should vote for him because you like what he wrote. Maybe the problem is that English is my second language so probably I'm not as good at it as you are.