We need three things to minimize the gap between upper and lower class. Between rich and poor. We need: Good Leadership, A Functioning Middle Class And Investments.
The gap between rich and poor is what makes us greedy, selfish and unreliable but it also affects the overall quality. And I'm not only talking about the quality of the articles. I'm talking about the overall experience among us.
It's easy for someone rich to tell to the poor: "Buy more Steem Power" whenever they ask for advice on how to grow their accounts. It's easy to tell others to invest, because it's easy to give directions, recommendations and orders whenever you have nothing to lose. Whales and dolphins doesn't have much to lose when they tell the poor to invest, meanwhile the poor could practically lose everything. It depends on how you see things I guess.
However, investments usually involves a certain amount of risk, but what if we would minimize the risk? We already have three outstanding "tools" for it:
- Manual curation, Delegations And Resteems.
When I first joined Steemit, I felt what all the newcomers feels. I didn't earn and I had no idea what I was supposed to do. All I wanted, was to have a piece of the pie. I did literally everything I could think of. I tried to publish my articles at different times, I wrote about a wide-range of different topics and I crossed my fingers.
Fortunately, for me, I joined two years ago. Things were different around here. It was easier to earn, because it was less competition. More people equals more competition, but that's not necessairly a bad thing. It's actually the opposite, but only for those who are thinking long term. I'm far from being rich or someone wealthy. My wallet seems to be standing still pretty much, even though I'm active on Steemit. But, there are two reasons for that.
One of the reasons, is the fact that I publish 5-7 articles per week or so in general, but I don't spend hundreds of dollars to buy votes. This article has nothing to do with vote selling, vote buying or the right- or wrong dilemma, I just mention this because it's basically from the same perspective as for the newcomers.
The second reason is that I turn down curation rewards because I delegate my Steem Power to others. With ~1000 Steem power in my account, I wouldn't make a fortune in curation rewards nevertheless, but I would have the opportunity to make a little bit more if I kept my steem power for myself instead.
This is my attempt to minimize the gap between the upper and lower class. The @asapers, the manual curation project I'm the benefactor of, does not only upvote and resteem articles. We also share the rewards with the featured authors. This makes any featured author earn a little bit extra, and the gap between the different classes can ultimately be minimized, one step at the time. It's a slow progress as we don't generate that much of rewards, but it's definitely something that can be seen as a stepping stone in the right direction.
This is also what we can call an investment, on my behalf. I delegate my steem power to others, in an attempt to help them grow. I turn down curation rewards so others can benefit from my steem power instead.
The most important thing about my delegations, is the fact that I don't just delegate to whatever user I could find. I did some research before I finally decided on a few people. I am certain of the fact that these people will pay it forward, in one way or another, whenever they are able too. - And that's the whole point of this.
And to tell you the truth, these people already pays it forward with the involvement in the @asapers and in every other aspect they are involved and dedicated to this fine blockchain we have... But at one point, sooner or later, I truly believe that these people will delegate to the next in line, just like I did after the opportunity I had to be involved in the SOG initiative by @fulltimegeek.
We have several good leaders and users who are in some sort of leadership position. Even if they are aware of it or not. We have a bunch of great role models here. The size of their wallets shouldn't be what classifies them as good or not. As leaders or not. As role models or not. Their actions should determine that.
Thanks to @preparedwombat and his generosity, I'm able to earn some curation rewards even though I delegate all my own Steem power. He saw my intentions and he decided to delegate me 500 steem power. I've had that delegation ever since I started my delegation project and I'm truly thankful for his kindness. He is definitely someone I would recommend and call a role model here on Steemit.
The entire userbase on Steemit can't launch different curation projects or other cool initiatives. But we have a bunch of really good ones out there. However, everyone can participate and do something good for the entire community, with or without being the front-guy for a project. And that's what community building is all about.
- To help each other.
Image Source
You Can Make A Difference.
Like I mentioned in a previous article. You can make a difference on Steemit. You don't have to delegate all your steem power and you don't have to give away all your rewards. That's not what I'm asking for...
Take Resteems for instance.
They are free, you help others to get more visibility and you'll ultimately help the entire community to grow. We live in different time zones and resteems can help you to cover more ground. You can help the authors to get more traction and exposure.
If I can have a tiny impact on the lives of well-more than 200 people with my ~1000 steem power and my intentions... Imagine the impact you can have. And imagine the impact the whales could have.
The numbers are based on the amount of people the @asapers have shared the rewards with and the amount of people we have on our Discord channel.
Imagine the image above having more arrows from each of the individuals that my arrows are pointing at. That's game changing. It's on a completely different level than what you're familiar with... And it's also something that could potentially become life changing, but not only that... It's also something that ultimately will become a solution to minimize the gap between upper and lower class. - It's a solid solution to build a working middle class.
I'm just starting out doing resteems, i think it's a great tool to spread awareness to different communities, because let's face it, the trending page sucks balls!
There should be a way to delegate SP and still get the curation rewards! but maybe this is a bad idea, why would someone delegate SP then? Only for the auto upvotes i guess...
The trending page is awful indeed. There's literally no logic at all behind the trending pages anymore.
This was a good read so I'll give it a resteem.
Thank you very much, I appreciate it. :)
I think we can be very short about this. It doesn't matter what and how many things we need. The gap will never be closed.
I'm not talking about closing the gap between these two classes. I'm talking about minimizing the gap by creating a functioning third class. The middle class.
I'd rather have the gap between me and the middle class if I were in the lower class, instead of lower to upper. I'd also rather see the gap between the middle class and the upper class, instead of the lower class to upper class if I were in the middle class myself.
A solid middle class would make people more motivated and encourage people to work hard, rather than to see the gap between lower and upper class as an obstacle that ultimately makes people leave the platform.
But that is neither going to happen. Just because I believe there is a really big change that the upper class will remain as rich as they are. Which makes it impossible to let part of the lower class grow into a middle class.
I can totally understand your point, but I'm not ready to give up. There are so many dead accounts out there, due to all the people who leave Steemit, and even if we will never reach the same levels as whales or dolphins, we should be able to close the gap between red fish and dolphins at least. With better distribution and more support from whales and dolphins, we could definitely create a sturdy foundation to stand on for all of us.
And I truly believe that it's something doable, even if it seems impossible... But it will require tons of time.
That's very noble of you, I can only say thank you!!!
Thank you and you're welcome. :)
Good post! Re-steeming.