No, I am not an advocate for these things because they inherently fail to achieve their real aims in the end. Inequitable systems are based upon design problems and you don't ultimately solve them by taking away others' wealth and then using a bureaucracy to hand it to others. You need to fundamentally change the deeper economic system issues instead. With such social fixes, you also end up with things like the UK system where it's not uncommon to have three generations of family on the dole and not producing anything.
If by chance you would like to infer that MinnowBooster is a type of social program, this is apples to oranges. It's not a Steemit social program that takes others wealth and hands it to the poor. It's a paid service to boost myself just as an advertiser would.
FYI, my mortal sin comment was hyperbole. My point was that using MinnowBooster is not ethical misconduct against the Steemit community as you seemed in imply.
I'm glad to hear that you and your husband are keenly aware of these things. There are far too few people that are. The reason I joined this platform is to publish more on these and other related topics that people need to be made aware of. My use of Steemit is because I am not censored here and all publishing stays in the blockchain. It's not to make money. I would however, like to get more traction with a higher rating so that my articles get more visibility and interest. This is why I've resorted to MinnowBooster.
I had to sit back and think about this for a little bit. In truth, though I absolutely believe that vote buying is terrible for the platform, I am not the type to jump in on an argument--unless someone I care about is involved. Which is the case here, @meesterboom is a close friend of mine, I tend to get defensive. The funny thing is, I've made two other really good friends in this exact fashion, initially an argument began mostly from my getting defensive of someone. Of course there are cases where I've done this and the individual turns out to be a complete moron or troll, but you are neither, that much I know. And while we disagree mightily on one point--man, there are too few of us who comprehend the dark underbelly of society to be at odds with one another.
I'll also admit that vote buying and welfare is not a perfect comparison. But I maintain that ever since a number of those initiatives came into play here, the number of unbelievably shitty posts making it to trending has risen exponentially, as has the number of those who do not spend any time trying to make real connections. Now you don't fit into the first part of that statement, your posts are in fact quality as you stated. As for the second--I was hasty in judging you, it could be that you feel a bit disenchanted with the platform, that tends to take the energy for making connections out of somebody.
I know that you read the post I put up today, but that's actually not at all representative of the things I write here. Actually, this is what I would ask you to read of mine- a short story series I label Reality in Fiction. I really feel there's an excellent possibility that once you read a couple of these we might end up being friends after all. I'm going to put the link to episode one, and then the last one I did which contains all of the other links if you're interested past the first one. Hopefully we become friends, because I now have this desire to help you get your content noticed, lol.
https://steemit.com/story/@dreemit/the-return-of-the-playground-series-reality-in-fiction-featuring-episode-one-seeking-truth
https://steemit.com/story/@dreemit/the-playground-series-reality-in-fiction-episode-8-recap-the-earth-vs-the-world
Thanks a lot for your comments and desire to build a friendship instead. I fully agree that there are far too few awake people out there and that we should be looking to support each other rather than arguing about how to fix things. I would very much like to do that as well.
I am very happy to have a read of your short story series. Thanks for the links.. and thanks for your offer to help. It's very much appreciated.
I read your series and I really liked how you built the story while bringing through really valuable messages along the way. It reminded me a lot of "The Way of the Peaceful Warrior" by Dan Millman. I assume you've read that one. If not, I can highly recommend it. I think you would really enjoy it.
Thanks for sharing the story. I look forward to reading more of your posts going forward.
Thank you. You are the second person to recommend that to me recently, seems like I should probably read it.
Are you on steemit.chat or discord? Since we've completely hijacked Marly's post. I've gotta go out of town tomorrow, and am getting up super early, so if you don't have chat you should make one, we can talk tomorrow evening ;)
I did join Steemit chat, so we can catch up there. I'll keep a lookout for you. Speak to you soon.