World poverty is much worse than we think
In this clip, my fill-in today Farron Cousins outlines how poverty in the world is actually far worse than often accounted for.
My question: How could the Steem blockchain, either through its rewards or through offshoot projects, help deal with world poverty?
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David
A good place to start would be to use the blockchain to make micro-loans to entrepreneurs from third world countries
Yeah, super interesting idea
Great clip! I've seen this guy on TYT all the time, but never knew his name. I've liked a lot of the pieces that I've seen Farron present -- Hopefully the name sticks this time and I don't forget it.
I feel like there's definitely opportunity for STEEM to help deal with world poverty - but it likely still faces the same issue of:
You still need people to practice some form of empathy in how the rewards (in this case - votes) get distributed.
While there's certainly the ability for people to make a couple bucks from posting or commenting or curating -- it's still not really addressing the issue I think. There are, however, some really cool UBI themed coins that I've seen, which may have some potential. Circle and UBU come to mind -- where newly minted tokens are distribute evenly to everyone (or so I understand).
yeah Farron is very good
I just gave a follower of mine from Africa, 5 SBD because he is an amazing presence on my blog, and so upbeat and sweet, and because even though I am poor as shit in the US, 5 SBD was still like a drop in the bucket. He told me that my giving that to him changed his life. This is so hard to believe, but man it's actually happening!
I think in addition to all of these great points, people with a lot of SP/SBD may want to consider micro-loans. It's something a lot of 501c3's deal in, but man, think of the possibilities once crypto goes worldwide! People wouldn't even have nearly as much to lose if they were loaning out crypto rather than fiat. For that matter, we could do micro-loans even on Steemit. We already do this to a degree, when users get SP delegation from particular people, but imagine being able to delegate a user like 500-1000 SP to "borrow" until they started gaining enough traction to start making money on their own? Even a .10 upvote on their own posts every day can make for a serious monetary exchange in some parts of the world! As I see more stories about the life-altering nature of Steem, I am just flabbergasted! It all seems unreal.
You have just proved that good people with a heart of gold still exist. 5 SBD! It means alot.
As for your suggestions on micro loan on steemit, that would be a great idea, if we can have people like David champion this call. I have equally suggested a similar situation to my fellow steemians in Nigeria
Yeah it's amazing how much SBD can change your life. We are up to our necks in medical debt, and I have just been able to pay a little bit of it off! I want to help as many people as I can as well though, because I know I am in a position to be able to do so, even if we are struggling in our own right. It's not the same struggle that a lot of others have!
Bless you!
Hey David, I am glad to see someone else is thinking of this as well. I actually am already currently working on a project to do just this and have some volunteers to help as well. How can I reach out to you?
Great video! I think he really hits his stride at about 4:33 where he talks about giving money to people who don't need any more money!
I think the Steem blockchain could potentially be a way to help give people around the world - both in the US and elsewhere - a hand up.
But I also think it risks replicating the economic models and societal attitudes that have led to the existence of extreme poverty in places like the US.
If I had even a fraction of the Steem and/or SP that some whales here have, I could afford to not work. I could afford to teach for free instead of needing a university to pay me, meaning I could reach the people on the margins of Australian society who will never ever set foot on a university campus.
I'm not saying I necessarily want some massive grant from a uber-rich steemian (I'd be paranoid about the strings attached anyway), but you get the point, right? There's a lot of Steem sitting around making money for the small number of people holding it, when it's debatable as to whether or not they actually really need any more money. Until we deal with that attitude, not much is going to change.
Barring any massive change that I don't think could even happen, I don't think that's a risk, tbh.
The mechanics of steem haven't really kicked in yet, but when it's fully ramped up I honestly think that there may be so much money flying everywhere that everyone's getting what they need. The thing with Steem is that it's a positive feedback loop. Basically it's trickle down economics if they actually worked.
Also don't forget that a huge amount of that money sitting in whales accounts has been given to everyone around the account... fully 25% goes to curators. Could you imagine if the real world worked like that? If 25% of your bank's money went to people who used that bank?? Do the math; it get mindblowing real quick-like.
I'm still getting my head around the economics - but I'm not sure that the 25% thing is as you say. There's the reward pool created by inflation - it's not 25% of that going to curators, more like 18.5%. And remember - most of the curation goes to those with the highest SP.
As far as I can tell, 93% of all Steem is held by about 100 accounts. The top 1% of accounts ranked by Steem hold about 96% of all Steem. The top 1% of accounts ranked by SP hold about 75% of SP, and I think if you rank account by SBD, it's about 87% of held by the top 1%.
Unlike the wider economy, I'm not sure that the rich are getting richer. But the economic pyramid comes to an exceptionally sharp point in the Steem world. I don't think inequality is automatically a bad thing, but we should ask how much good it's actually achieving.
I genuinely hope you are right about the future of Steem, but I don't think that future is guaranteed.
Yeah a lot of what you said is true, but I gotta emphasise again: 25% GOES to curators. IRL that doesn't happen. Negative money goes to the poor IRL, because they use their gains to sabotage the system.
Numerically speaking a tiny kick in the opposite direction is all that's needed reverse IRL trends, and this isn't a tiny kick, it's a complete inversion.
Just my opinion, but I don't think there's anything wrong with classification. I think there should be poor, and should be rich. What I care about is whether or not being poor ruins your life, and if you being rich means you can ruin other people's lives. On a base level in steem having lots of money means 1. You have to create valuable content; 2. you have to give away a significant proportion of it through.
I might be crazy here, but I think that eventually a psychology shift may happen here where people stop identifying what they do for them and see only what they do for others, because you posts are valued based on how much value they provide. But that might be crazy...
Oh and another key point: IRL the rich make money by exploiting the poor. Obviously that's not good. Here the rich make money by working for the poor and providing content to them.
Like I said - I hope you turn out to be right.
Thanks Farron, it’s been great to have you sitting in. I’ve been following you on RoF from the beginning and as always, great honest work.
Taking Ben Carson’s advice to heart, in 2017, sick of being poor, I changed my State of Mind. Sadly my ”Boss” (estimated net worth +/- $100Billion) didn’t change his state of mind and continued taking for his own organizations four-time what they gave me for each of my books they sold. At the time that seemed to be the only real game in town and I’d freely signed-up for that deal, and so my point is as much an observation as it is a criticism.
In 2018, I changed my state of mind again, and here I am on Steemit. Still poor, but that’s ok, at least now there’s a real opportunity for that situation to change for the better. And that’s the thing about Steemit/Steem, it has democratized opportunity. Maybe that’s the wrong term to use, but that’s how it feels to me.
I’ll be following the comments here and see what ideas the community comes up with, but the fact that they’re actively creating ideas that might help, is restoring my faith in humanity.
Riding and smiling as always ….. Geoff
Sadly the world is wrong , we give money to the rich, as it goes money attracts money, I am glad I not am super rich , through the facade there are quite unhappy,
is many short of ways. by building minds, culture, value, ethics, politeness. all kind of short of things that prefer to choose what's good. praise worthy,..start from what inside not the other way around..
I'm loathe to agree on anything Bonehead Carson says, but he's right. Poverty IS a state of mind. Don't take this to mean it's the fault of the poor, or that some people don't have rotten luck, they do. Don't take this to mean either that everyone should have to stop thinking poor, but:
Being poor changes you. It changes how you think, on a chemical level, in your brain. It affects how you live, and how you think. And yes, you can change the way you think, and be rich in short order... but it takes a truly exceptional person to do this. I've known many rich people who become poor, and then bounce back again in crazy short periods. Part of this is connections; the elites are inbreeding nepotists that suck each other off constantly, but a big part of it is savant faire, and being able to take advantage of the constant opportunities life presents you.
Most of the people who achieve material wealth are average, if not fucking stupid. You think this is because they're smart or cunning? No, a meager intelligence that prevents you from seeing why you're too stupid or plain to succeed is a boon. It gets worse though: when they get to the top they think it's because they have merit, or that it's just as easy for everyone else, and that they should make other people suffer, because poverty's a moral weakness.
The thing is that not everyone wants to be rich though. Most people want to get by. Having money is a burden, and a moral dilema. People with wealth are obligated to look after those who don't have it. THey have to manage it too, which is stressful itself. Don't believe me? Look at how many lottery ticket winners end up happy. Look at how happy heirs are; usually they're self loathing piles of filth that whore for attention and project their daddy issues onto everyone around them. Like the president.
Trump's more like a mascot for America than he is a president...