The red checkmark (cost) is in unsold books leading to the publisher taking losses.
If people had to "pay to post" then there would also be less abuse.
The cost to abusing STEEM is almost nothing compared to the profits. The profit margin in publishing is much smaller and riskier.
That makes sense. Thanks for the quick response. Back to thinking I go.
I'm not sure that analogy fits @dantheman. I see the example as an analogy of a system that only provides upvotes without (explicit) downvotes. To infer that not buying a book is a downvote is like saying not upvoting in steemit is a downvote. If that were true game theory balance would exist and there would be no need for Steemit's downvoting.
I thought this article and the majority of comments were very well articulated and this is one of the best threads I've read about the Steemit governance model. Also very glad to see your active participation and payment of attention given to it.
Namaste!