As I write this I've already started the work to get my witness account established. It's not up and running yet, but it will be shortly. While having a witness is nice, and asking people to vote for my witness is neat, I think it's critical to talk about plans, what I stand for, where I want things to head, and provide a complete overview of why someone should actually upvote my witness.
I worked in a sustainable marketing role and worked out using the ethos of sustainability how I make sustainable decisions
So, I had a unique role in one of the companies that I worked for where I was running excel spreadsheets all day trying to calculate the life cycle cost of a product versus the environmental impact, and social benefit. This is often referred to as sustainability and the triple bottom line. You want a product that will cost less over time relative to competitors, will reduce negative impacts on the environment, and will help the social area in which the product is used and created. It was a wonderful role (other than the fact that the guy running the program was ironically an unstable racist and religiously intolerant ass wipe).
One of things that really struck me is that a business shouldn't have a business plan and a sustainability plan. The business should have 1 plan it's working off of that incorporates elements of sustainable development. While working through why some of the products and manufacturing facilities were able to achieve sustainability and others were not it often came down to leadership's ability to merge the two plans into one rather than have a business plan they followed and a sustainability plan they ignored.
So, I came up with the model up at the top there to figure out how to address problems.
- Mission Statement: Have a written document concisely expressing your goals to clearly outline what you value.
- Problem Statement: You have something that you're trying to fix. Describe the problem and talk about the impacts of the probelm
- Vision Statement: Provide a clear vision of what the future should look like and what the benefits of those changes will be on end users.
- Plan: (In this case a Witness Plan) Once you have a vision you have to figure out where you are now and then outline steps you'll take to move the dial towards the vision.
Mission statement
If you missed the post I've already written up a Mission statement. It boils down to help new people on the platform.
@aggroed/my-steemit-mission-statement
Problem Statement
World Issues- The world does not have too few governments and currencies, but quite the opposite. The world needs more. There are currently seven billion people organized by only ~170 governments. That equates to roughly 41M people/government. That sounds strikingly like a monopoly. Similarly, there aren't nearly enough currency creation centers. Back in the mid 1800s there were many institutions that were creating currency. It was called the "Era of Free Banking," which also suggests that they aren't free now, which implies we have enslaved banking.
Companies used to issue currencies. Hell people could issue currencies if they could back them. But that doesn't happen anymore. There's only 180 "major" currencies in the world right now. There are trillions of USD of trade, but only 180 ways that they are commonly traded. It doesn't make sense on the world stage. Especially when one realizes that basically all of it is going through organizations like the Bank of International Settlements.
It also doesn't make sense on the small stage. Regardless of which bank I work with at home they all get little numbers on their screens from the Federal Reserve. You might think you're only banking with your local credit union, but they get the fiat notes from the same place BoA does. You can't escape the FED with "normal" currencies.
So, to summarize there's too much power concentrated in the hands of too few currencies and governments.
Steemit Issues- My complaint since the mass inflation of this product and possibly before that was the distribution seems fairly unethical to me. On the one hand I'm furious in the real world that banksters have rigged a system to shove all the wealth to the top 1% of the world and then here I'm finding that while the platform seems to democracize wealth creation it has a worse concentration of wealth than the Federal Reserve does now. I think it's entirely likely that as the price rises steadily as it is incorporated into more exchanges (like the btcc poll going on right meow) that the distribution is only going to get worse.
Sadly, the way that voting happens on this platform also seems to concentrate wealth into the hands of relatively few people. Because of the reputation system posts by high reputation authors can make hundreds in seconds while posts written by newbs make nothing over weeks. While there are currently thousands of authors and only a handful of highly tracked accounts from what I can tell a very high portion of the author rewards are going to a very slim distribution of authors.
Lastly, this platform is a highly technical endeavor. Computer Science stuff doesn't come naturally to just about everyone on the planet. So, if you'd like to be a miner, a witness, or have other types of input than authoring and curating it isn't actually all that possible.
Vision Statement
I envision of capitalist world were goods and services are traded between people without third parties taking a slice, without currencies being de jure backed by floating armadas with WMDS, and where people have the ability to voluntarily contract with government services organization and companies to purchase the goods and services that improve their lives. I imagine homes will be purchased and traded with the occupant becoming the owner rather than a tenant. I imagine a world where competition thrives and is able to destroy government enabled monopolies that disadvantage consumers. I see a world where those born with a strong will and a smart mind will have the ability to advance far beyond their initial circumstances. I see a peaceful world, I see an abundant world, and I see a world where you can Be and Do as you please so long as it causes no harm.
The most important part of that is upon creation of currency it is done so without debt attached. Debts fine everywhere else, but not upon creation, because it's financial slavery.
Witness Plan
That's a lofty goal. It may seem a little out of reach at the moment, but we can as a community who see value in this plan can chip away it. Here are some immediate priorities.
Help newcomers to the site get up and running as quickly as possible. This should include helping them to author, to trade, to curate, to mine, and to witness. Small things like extending the viewable range of witness accounts beyond 50 so that newcomers have an easier chance to be seen and compete with more established witnesses can be implemented. This can also be accomplished by publishing guides written by competent programmers and translating them to a point where absolute beginners can start.
Help distribute wealth generated on the platform and held within the platform more equitably. This won't involve taking from one against their will to give to another, but will include fighting to maximize the value that each person brings to this community while being wary of bots that impersonate people and mostly benefit the technocrats at the exclusion of new steemers.
Expand the scope of the Minnow Support Project to help get authors not only more money in a post, but exposure to a larger audience to build sustainable growth.
Stakeholder Engagement and Feedback Loop
Now I'm not just talking to you, but asking you.
Do you like this plan?
Do you support this plan?
Do you feel enough is being done to address the concerns I've outlined?
Do you think this plan would help achieve the mission?
I would work for you. So, would you want to hire me?
Please comment if you have questions, upvote if you like it, resteem if you'd like to support it, and vote for me as a witness when the time comes
Thank you for your time an support. If you'd like to learn more about my economic policy you can find that here: @aggroed/witness-run-my-outline-of-the-economics-of-the-system-what-to-do-to-keep-the-sbd-peg-at-usd1usd-and-why-we-should.