STEEM IS GROWING BUT ARE WE FOLLOWING THE 2008 CRISIS OR WILL WE LEARN?
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Good day to you all
So this week I have put the altcoin research to one side and have been studying markdown techniques and more importantly just reading posts on Steem trying to get a proper feel for the whole community, where we are heading and what has happened in the past. I have made a few observations I would like to share with you without trying to be to controversial!
So let me start with the 2008 banking crisis if I may, whilst I do believe the banks have to take their fair share of responsibility for the downfall, I also believe strongly that we, as a society made the system and the banks the scapegoat for our own failings and because we have passed the blame and shifted responsibility we are unfortunately also heading back down the same path and onto another crisis.
I know sounds crazy but hear me out! Whilst I will not tarnish everyone with the same brush, we have become a society that wants to do as little as possible but still expects everything to be handed to us. I do not use the word expect lightly, I see so many cases of this happening its pretty much endless. I don't know how it all came about but I would not be far wrong by saying that the unlimited choices of nice things available to us in this day and age, coupled by social media where everyone likes to show off their nice things has created an " I want that one" society.
In the UK before the crisis people were happily borrowing money to fund the finer things in life with without thinking about the consequences and wether or not they could afford the repayments. Then whilst having this debt then proceed to still go out buy new things, go out for fancy nights out and nice holidays whilst at the same not working harder, saving or make any attempt to pay back the money that was borrowed. Forgive me for being cynical but how is that the banks fault, its quite simple you only borrow money which you can afford to pay back. No one seems to want to save money and wait to get their new phone, car or house. So like the UK government did, many many UK businesses and many UK households did we all borrowed too much money, the crash happened then the new government took responsibility of their inherited economic debt, banks debt and the peoples debt, the banks and the people took generally did not responsibility of their own debt, those who did got on with things, others wanted to blame the bankers because they got bailed out and hence the start of the bank hating decade began.
So what did we learn in that period?
Absolutely nothing by the looks of it because as far as I can see, there is much the same pattern reemerging with households still struggling with a lack of pay rises but still demanding all the nice things, refusing to work and save harder to get them and blaming other people instead of taking responsibility for their own actions and demanding that someone helps them out, be it the government with benefits or the people who work extremely hard for their money with more taxes. In fact its gets worse and moved into other walks of life. I can't tell you the amount of parents I have upset lately when they come to me and start moaning that their school is not doing enough to help their kids get better, that they should be doing more to help them with other subjects like finances and day to day life!!! Now while I do believe schools should bring in basic studies on how money works and how to manage your own finances, this wont happen for a while as schools are generally behind the times and struggle to keep up with the ever changing world that is in front of us. So my answer of "Well why don't you spend time with your children at home helping them learn about the world and how it works instead of posting yet another selfie of your $200 haircut you couldn't afford" doesn't go down to well. I could give you more sceanrios but this post is already long enough. So while I praise Jeremy Corbyn's team for the way they are playing the country by saying he will borrow loads of money to reinvest in the country, until we learn we have to pay it back and start saving and working harder for what we want this has bad news written all over it and a return to the same financial crisis, the difference this time is the banks have learnt so it will be the citizens who will lose out if they don't take responsibility and understand that it is them who is accountable for their own future and finances.
So what does this have to do with Steem?
New accounts to Steem are rising hugely and my observations point to a step to a much larger adoption and with it a fascinating time to watch and see what will happen. So with all the content I have been reading lately some old, some new and lots of new visions coming out of Steemfest, I have observed a lot of similarities to my rant above. Firstly there seems to be a lot of new account holders seemingly jealous of the fact that there are whales around, rather than embracing the fact that these guys and girls had the foresight to see the potential of Steem 18 months ago or less and who have worked tirelessly on their content, decide to hit out and demand more themselves instead of patting these visionaries on the back and saying well done. Sound familiar? I see lots of comments complaining that they are not making $100 dollars on a post yet they have 50 followers, don't curate other posts or contribute in any other way. Then there is the newcomers that have done their research before hand and realised that with the help of bots they can make significant money and attract new followers.
Now this is were it becomes even more interesting.
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There has been a lot of discussion and input from everyone on their views on bots, upvote buying and resteeming bots, especially from some of the biggest posters out there. I noticed that @jerrybanfield has even changed the way he sets his up votes now because of discussions held. So while I think its great that theses discussions are had from the whales it looks like opinion is definitely divided.
So for the sake of this post lets say these whales are the original government party, they govern and decide how best to hand out up votes and new Steem dollars to its citizens. Then we have the bots that have been created, lets call them the banks, they lend delegation or even hand out Steem dollars to their new citizens to help them on their way. Then we have the fish, lets call them the upstanding citizens who need to earn new Steem dollars to get by.
Now heres the outlook to think about.
The government is starting to disagree on the way new Steem is handed out, one side doesn't want bots anymore to hand out new Steem to new fish and wants to keep the new Steem being made as they know best how to distribute to the citizens. One side want all new fish to be equal and be given lots of new Steem regardless of how much they have contributed to society. While this is happening the banks are busy handing out Steem to new and old fish, lending their delegation or Steem but not really putting any clear payback methods in their terms and conditions. The bots know they should be teaching the fish how that they need to be using the new Steem to build a better society but are happy just to keep lending as everyone is happy. The new fish are busy creating new posts and are very happy to take the new Steem that is being offered by the bots and whales and think its great they are getting new Steem to buy new things without having to put in any hard work and become accustomed to this way of life, in doing so they become lazy in their posting and don't help curate or interact with other fish and whales. Now there is lots of bad Steem being created that doesnt get used properly and more and more fish come along for this free steem. Unfortunately they don't understand why the value of their Steem goes then starts going down and why the endless supply of Steem starts to dry up. The government split the country up due to a civil war and two new countries are built which have entirely different views on how they should be run, the bots face a backlash from the fish and become regulated in both countries but are now a needed but hated necessity and the fish carry on demanding more as always!!!
So will we see a new direction of Steem in the future, who knows, the one thing I do know is I will try my best to understand the platform and work hard and try and give back when and where I can. First stop is earn 55 Steem power so I can start that process and give back. Having looked into things I have decided to try and do this without bots until I understand them better and can decide which ones better help this platform, until then I will go back to doing what I know well, working hard, saving and giving back.
Have a good day
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