Great article @denmarkguy. I don't upvote my own posts because it just doesn't feel right to me. If I do, it's most likely because I have committed to share the reward with someone else.
This is both a Steemit culture, and a system issue. Are we fostering a culture where it's fine to upvote yourself all the time, and reap the rewards which you may not deserve? Some will say "yes, because the system allows it." To me, that is where the problem lies. The system does allow it, but it was not intended to be used in that way.
I wrote a proposal a few days ago, with a system of diminishing rewards for self upvotes. In short, each self upvote you make results in a bigger and bigger reduction in voting power and weight, until after a certain number of votes, your voting power is zero. This system makes it more worthwhile to gain rewards from curation, rather than rewarding yourself first.
It's past its payout day, but would still like to see it get some consideration. It is here if you are interested:
P.S; It also deals with delegated Steem Power.
@bmj, thanks for the comment, and also for bringing the whole ethical/philosophical issue to the table.
Looking at the original White Paper and looking at old interviews with @dan & @ned there's little doubt there's a strong element of idealism underlying Steemit. Sure, people are here "to earn rewards" but there's also a strong element of being part of something potentially game changing. Now we are dealing with an influx of people who are far enough "removed" from the original Steemit vision that they are basically just "here for the money."
It's a strange "get out of jail free" card. It's like going to work at a place where you can have free sodas from the cafeteria, which is nice... but then some people take it upon themselves to make off with a case of soda everyday because "there's free soda" and no fixed rule that says you can't take a case of free soda.
So we end up at where many ideologies fall apart-- the assumption that people are moral, ethical and work towards a common good. Sadly... wrong. Many-- if not most-- people work only towards their own personal gain.
I'll go check out your other piece.