It's pretty simple to me. We have to be the change we want to see in the world. I've been heavily influenced by singer songwriter Utah Phillips. He's a Vietnam vet turned peace advocate and anarchist. He talks about about some of that experience in this song written with Ani DeFranco.
The line that gets me is "The world has to change, and that change has to start with me." So, when I look at what's wrong I see violence, I see artificial boarders, I see theft, I see control, and I see poverty. People seem to think the world is broken, but I've come to believe it's working exactly as designed.
There are 8 people that have the same net worth as 3-4 billion people. That's not because they are inherently worth more. It's because the financial system today is a giant blood sucking squid absorbing wealth from the weakest of us and engorging the richest. I see the world today as violent, destitute, and controlled and I can't stomach the thought of my kids having to live through this.
So, I have a different vision for the world. One that is peaceful, one where there is enough wealth to go around, and one where I'm free to go about my life without intrusion, without losing a portion of my income to support things I don't like, and towards a world that is worthy of the beauty inherent in my kids and yours.
So, I've adopted three main values that I use to set my course: Peace, Abundance, and Liberty. It conveniently spells PAL and hopefully all those who share those beliefs can think of themselves as being PALs to one another.
Steemit's role
I think the world is run by immoral banksters, and they get their power from the ability to print money out of thin air and have the rest of us use it. They have a monopoly on this printing press. In the 2008 financial crisis alone the private Federal Reserve Board printed over $16T. That was the size of the US GDP. They decided to print as much money as the US's entire economy, and they handed it out to the banks, mostly foreign, that acted recklessly. Socialized gains and privitized losses isn't capitalism, and having a private bank run this system from behind the curtain isn't a constitutional republic.
So, I want to hit them where it hurts. If their power comes from printing money and they use that power for violence, destitution, and control I want to take away that power. Steemit gives us that opportunity. It's not enough to simply protest the 1% and their systems. We have to find something to replace what they are doing with something better.
I think Steemit's it, and every day I can satisfy my needs through Steemit instead of FED notes I'll be happy.
Growth Hack Steemit
So, the first thing to do is take my 10 years of sales and marketing experience and use that to help grow this platform. I've been in ed tech sales travelling from school to school to promote digital learning. I've altered the course of over 100,000 students. I can do that here, and by doing that I think we can set a different course for ourselves and our future.
Here's my starting pitch. And I'll get this refined and on the road.
But it's not enough!
Once folks get here we have to keep them here. We need to grow this economy and the trade here. So, we have to help people grow their accounts. That's why I've started the Minnow Support Project and adding a new series called Minnow School. The aim is to help those we get to transition here to be successful. In business terms I'm working in Client Success helping new customers who come on board find success and stick around. The learning curve here is steep, and I'm doing my best to flatten it so our community can expand.
Here's what that looks like in 5 seconds
Once again I've called in the support of @juanmiguelsalas. He's a talented artist and has made gifs for Steemit, a gif for the Minnow Support Project, and now this Witness campaign. You'll note services were paid in SBD!
If you can support this vision then please support me
I fight a crappy distribution outside of Steemit, and I fight a crappy distribution on Steemit. Right now 1% of the steem holders own 90% of the steem. This makes for some awkward discussions because all the votes are stake weighted. I need whale votes to rise, but I'm uncompromising that the biggest problem internally for Steemit is that the rich hold too much stake. It leads to a disempowered user base, crappy content on the trending page, and too few people having too much say.
So, in order to counter act the fact that I'm bringing with me parts of a message that may be difficult to hear I need your support. Minnows and Dolphins I need your help to vote for this campaign to show that this is a message and a plan that the authors, curators, and shoppers want... it's not just what I want. And whales, to be clear. I don't want to take anything away from you! This isn't a redistribution plan, but what I do want is to give better incentives to the richest members to make it worth their time to find and upvote minnow/dolphin content. That way we can all be aligned, see this place Moon, and see the world change by our actions.
Thank you for your time and consideration. If you think this is a good plan than please vote for me for witness.
Yours Truly,
You can find me hanging out on steemspeak, a discord channel that many steemers use to text and talk to each other- https://discord.gg/qjpRj7w
You can find me in Whaleshares- https://discord.gg/GykFB6S
or my new channel PALnet- https://discord.gg/HYj4yvw
I can also be found on steemchat as @aggroed. If you have a post to share give me a good sentence or two of why you think I’ll like it.
To vote for me click the link underneath my profile, scroll under the list of 50 names and type aggroed into the box. If you can see my name you have voted for me (don't click the little blue upvote next to my name as you'll cancel your vote for me).