Today, I have 4119.76 STEEM Power. This has been accumulated over the course of a year <em>and a little bit</em> of actively posting, commenting, and curating. There are many youtubers that I enjoy watching that constantly plug their Patreon as a funding model. 

Patreon works by the content consumer paying Patreon, who take their fee, and who; in turn, pay the content producer. There are various "tiers" of membership to many of these structures, but for the purposes of this thought experiment, we'll imagine I'm upvoting 10 people once a day, every day of a thirty day month. 

Some facts about my Steem Power: 

| 4119.76 | Total STEEM Power             |
|---------|-------------------------------|
| 502.68  | Delegated by @mattclarke      |
| -50.72  | Delegated to @kaylinart       |
| -650    | Delegated to @steemsilvergold |
| 3921.72 | Effective Steem Power         |

My effective STEEM Power is currently worth USD$6,510

Some facts about my current voting "power":

<center>![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmcZM6GFKjcYXd9uDGhGzRRVsLZeGUhtjcBS2ZeKGHM1eY/image.png)<br/><em>Screenshot taken from Steemworld, created by @steemchiller</em></center>

I get ten full strength upvotes a day, before voting power starts to decline, and reduce my influence on post payouts. I'll use 75% voting power as a baseline. Up voting 10 posts per day, at 75% voting power, would distribute a total "upvote" of $105 per 30 day month, as represented on steemit.com 

With the fluctuating price of STEEM, SBD, and some payouts now being given in liquid Steem, lets assume this $105 equals USD$105. This means, that in <em>nearly four years</em>, for an investment today of $6,510, my "Patronage" of the content I consume starts to make a return on investment, whereby I am <em>ahead</em>, and no longer spending money to support, if my patronage via Patreon was at an equivalent level.  

That's before you take into account curation rewards. That's before you take into account the growth (or potential decline) in the price of STEEM. Now, USD$105 per month to various Patreon campaigns seems a bit too generous for my lifestyle, it isn't something that I would be able to sustain. 

<em>People buy solar panels that tend to have a minimum three year return on investment.</em> That's extending to in-home battery packs like the Tesla power-wall, which has a longer ROI. 

If you're spending money on Patreon today, you should tell the person you're supporting that you'd rather support them on the STEEM blockchain. Not only will this help you, by reducing your costs, and earning you a ROI, but it helps the Steemit, Dtube, Dlive, Steepshot, Busy, and Zappl apps to gain more talented, well known content producers. 

It increases the credibility of the platform, and gives us all new content to enjoy. 

<h2>In Australia, there was a famous advertising campaign to sell houses with the slogan "rent money is dead money." </h2>

<h1>Patreon is dead money</h1>

You're locked into supporting someone, and you literally watch your money disappear down an abyss (when the fees aren't being manipulated); and, just like that advertising campaign, its dead money. 

The advantages of holding STEEM are too many to list in this context, but I'll brainstorm some - other people can add their own reasons in the comments. 

1) You own your stake
2) From a "rewarding others perspective" - you will get a Return on Investment
3) You have the potential to earn through your own creativity, unlike platforms that require 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of watched content
4) You're not at the mercy of algorithms that decide if your content is visible or not (perhaps, you are, however, at the mercy of a certain berniesanders ... )  

<h1>Do you support anyone on Patreon? What would your STEEM Powered votes be worth when compared to what you spend on Patreon, and how long would it take you to get a return on investment?</h1> 

STEEM in the long run is superior to the content consumer, but is still the wild west for the content producer.