I traded my SBD for Steem a few weeks ago because SBD was at $2 and Steem was at 52 cents and I am expecting Steem to go over $1000 someday and then I will sell all my steem and eliminate all my debt. So you could say I bought Steem. I didn't buy steem based on the content someone is putting out, I bought steem because the platform is growing rapidly and the value of the crypto is going to go thru the roof like bitcoin has.
You do not have to be an active member on steemit to trade in steem though. that was my point. you dont have to "buy" anything.
From videos ive seen there is the giant pool of SBD/SP that we all get "paid" from. If i upvote your comment, i turn the valve and 2 cents comes out of that pool and goes to you. Now based on this post, if you upvote my comment, you turn the valve and i get $4 and some change.
While you don't have to pay anything to take part and get paid for posts. In order for you to make anything someone has to want to buy STEEM & SBD. You could post and claim thousands of STEEM & SBD and get paid $0.00 if no one is willing to buy it because the site and currency is seen as nothing more than a scam or 'get paid to spam' scheme.
And you think the creators of Steem will allow that to happen? Besides that is it not the responsibility of the community to govern ourselves by the use of flagging (down voting) those who are taking actions that we perceive will harm this platfrom. Instead of writing this post and upvoting most of the comments $3-4 don't you think the OP's resources would have been better spent flagging the bad behaviour? Thats just the thoughts of a redfish with a 2 Cent upvote.
I think that the creators of STEEM will cash out and move onto another project if steemit.com and steem.io become known as nothing but a scam and the value of STEEM/SBD drops to nothing. Do I think those that have money invested will let that happen? ¯(ツ)/¯ I doubt it unless they are asleep at the wheel.
@transisto spends plenty of VP flagging bad behavior.
http://www.steemreports.com/outgoing-flags-info/?account=transisto&days=14
Why should he spend 100% of his VP flagging? Flagging has a cost that cannot be recovered where as upvoting gives someone curation rewards. There are accounts out there with a lot of VP that will not flag bad behavior. They expect everyone else to deal with it.
I'm grateful (most of the time) that @transisto is willing to flag posts that drain rewards from the pool.