Steemit, an Example of Capitalism working
When I explain Steemit to my friends they seem confused by the concept of getting something for nothing. This confusion seems to stem from their ignorance of what typically occurs when a website is in its early stages, and how much expenditure there is in setting up a social network. They believe that a website is created, it grows, and then all of a sudden it begins to be valuable and make money.
This ignores one of the most important parts of a new website... the early growing stage. Everybody is familiar with Facebook and YouTube and a number of other billion dollar companies that do similar stuff to Steemit. They also understand that these companies hire a lot of coders and web designers and random staff to insure that they grow. All of this costs money.
But since these are businesses paying employees nobody seems to wonder where that money comes from (Facebook has a movie outlining some of the ways they funded the company). As soon as a new idea is introduced that changes the way we think and operate, people start asking questions that they ignored with other companies. "If Steemit is going to pay me to blog, post, curate, and create a good website... where is the money coming from?"
The real question these people are asking isn't if Steemit can afford to pay them, or if it's generating an income, but rather if this is a scam. However, if Steemit were to post job openings for people to come work for the company, I believe these questions would stop being asked and everyone would be more satisfied with the model. This is due to how we have come to think about Capitalism.
We believe that the only model that works is one with a central organization controlling all the profits, and using those profits to pay its employees. But we never ask where these profits come from, if they are sustainable, or if there is value in the product they are developing. If we did, we would realize that Steemit is no different than thousands of other companies. The product is not new or original, only the compensation has changed.
The model is closer to true Capitalism in its essence. It is, those who use a product and build up the value in a product share equally in the spoils after the conquest. And that those rewards are directly linked to the risk a person takes. If one were to invest heavily in Steem and work hard at making Steemit all it can be, they should and are rewarded the most.
Everyone can enjoy the financial rewards associated with a large social media platform. Which Facebook investors can tell you has a large financial value in the long run. And it is this long run picture which permits Steemit to work. People are rewarded for not taking their rewards or gaming the system, but rather for thinking long term and doing what is best for the community.
It is this basic model of creating intensive to keep improving Steemit and keep your Steem invested that permits the model to work. And is also what makes Steemit a great concept.
The good news is, that there are enough forward thinking individuals willing to make it work. And that once this model has been shown to work (on a social media platform), it will be more easy to explain on other platforms. For this is a paradigm shift, and only the early stages of one. Imagine an Amazon that pays people for selling and buying on its platform, or a video game that pays you to play and make suggestions, or a cellphone carrier that pays you to answer one another's questions and to share data. The possibilities are endless and my limited imagination can only scratch the surface.
Dahlsom