The Virtue of Selfishness on Steem

This is a separate post response to this post by @steevc on the question of HODL SP v. Power Down.

The original post was about leeches who are abusing the system / or otherwise gaming the vote system in order to extract value without providing anything in exchange.

In essence, I agree, but I feel like more attention ought to be focused on the nature of the culture of mutually beneficial exchange, and less on the punitive / shame / guilt concepts associated with taking profit / accepting rewards from the Steem Pool.

Original Post Here:
https://steempeak.com/steem/@steevc/dealing-with-the-steem-leeches

I think there ought to be some kind of cultural awareness and balance of the fact that people are actually attracted to Steem because they can be rewarded for sharing the content that they create.

You acknowledge this with your "give and take" comment -- but at the end of your article, you sort of extole the virtues of being a good steemian and just HODLing and growing SP to the point where you're able to continue to offer more to others.

I've also seen posts where people are presenting themselves as 'shamed' because they are powering down.

It seems like there's a pretentious culture within steemit that claims that the reason that people are actually attracted to steemit, ought to be put off indefinately. And then people brag about how long they lasted before powering down. I just don't see any reason why this ought to be a point of shame -- like, you earned those rewards. Use them well.

Wouldn't it be healthier just to ackgnowledge that the rewards are a central component of the system here, and that rewards are only useful if you actually take profit, and buy groceries, or pay bills, or invest in your business?

I realize that people who are gaming the system, or at least trying to game the system -- and I understand why the downvotes and public shaming are being directed toward these people.

I just think that in addition to these sorts of punitive measures, there ought to be some more honesty and integrity in the discussion about the reality of the self-interest of each person who is involved on the platform.

Maybe if there was a healthy balance of celebrating income gained by Steem -- Income that was actually used to improve the lives of Steemians, a sort of principle of reciprocity would take place, and then there would be more of a deeper sense of community?

What's more, is that each person's financial state is different, which means that some people are going to need steemit as a source of more immediate support [I think a poor decision], but it just seems like there's a posturing culture here about how good steemians deny the impulses that motivate people to join steem.

It just seems like there ought to be more of a healthy discussion / culture about "Steem helped me get crticial hardware updates for my business," or "Steem helped me pay groceries," or "Steem helped me save up for a marketing budget for my major project release, which I then leveraged into more income via a crowdfunding campaign."

I've only been on the platform for like 2 months now, and we're pretty much at the end of a bear market, it seems -- so it would make sense that this is not discussed -- but I would hope to see posts like that being valued as well as the HODL your SP posts. -- if only for the honesty.

I guess I wished that this dimension was more fully explored in your article.
I wish people validated healthy acceptance of rewards, rather than trying to shame and guilt people into HODLing so the price of Steem goes up.

The issue really ought not be that thorny -- It's the basis of the whole platform, but all I've seen are posts about shame about powering down, and guilt comments about not choosing to stake rewards,

It's kind of obvious that you get more 'friends' if you give out more steem, and you get to be leaders and build communities / hives and you get to make people's day by being a whale or building out a curation trail or whatever.

I guess I'd be curious to overlay the Maslows Hierarchy on top of the SP type of Fish / Marine Mammal club, and then hear more stories about productive / responsible uses of steem rewards, and less posturing or dismissal about one of the core principals of the platform.