Mod of /r/millionairemakers on reddit here. I have a few questions about Steemit

Hey Steemit,

I run /r/millionairemakers on reddit, a community of 90,000+ users where our goal is to crowdfund a millionaire. Someone suggested I take a look at Steemit, so here I am.

A few questions I have:

1. Where does value come from? There are currently many posts with $1,000+ -- how does this much money get generated?
2. Can users generate Steem with votes? If so, what's stopping abuse of this system?
3. Anything else I should know about Steemit?

Thanks.