Maybe you are looking at idiotic posts on the trending tab receiving hundreds of dollars in rewards and you are thinking that those people are making a royal income off Steemit.
In reality, those people are taking huge, irrational risks to rip off Steemit. Let me explain.
In order to make a huge profit from the Steemit reward pool, you have to invest big in Steem Power.
Steem Power is an illiquid asset. It takes three months to liquidate it completely. That means your investment is partially stuck for three months in an asset.
By abusing Steemit, you are diminishing the value of your Steem Power investment consistently.
On the one hand, you seem to be making money via your rewards. On the other hand, you're losing money on your Steem Power investment.
Moreover, you're diminishing the value of a system, which you're an investor of, with a three month commitment.
The Light at the End of the Tunnel Is ...
This type of abuse seems to be profitable for now, but it's a matter of time, moral Steem Power investors realize that they are getting ripped off and start to sell off their Steem Power and the word gets out and potential investors decide not to invest in Steem Power.
When that happens, the whole system is going to collapse, and not only moral authors, curators, and investors are going to lose, but the abusers who have their Steem Powers stuck in the system will lose as well.
What We Need To Do
In order to avoid that disaster, the abusers need to stop abusing the reward pool.
Regular users should vote at least ten times a day on quality posts or consider delegating their Steem Power to someone who can vote ten times a day.
And we all should discuss ways of preventing the reward pool abuse. Here's my contribution to that discussion: A Solution Proposal to the Reward Pool Abuse Problem on Steemit [Updated Version].