Taking a picture, writing, painting and other creative work are all things that create new value.  We can really see that directly on Steemit when our posts return a payout.  I’ve been feeling very supported in my efforts here and can see much future potential.

I’ve been thinking about how this new creation of value is helping with the economy personally and collectively.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37106315/orchid.gif

## Environmental Benefits
If you can create something from your own personal experience without using many resources this is creating new value.  If what your create inspires people, stirs the soul, makes great entertainment or just plain goes viral in an Internet meme kind of way then it brings many benefits to a great deal of people.

This doesn’t always come back to the original creator of the material but more and more we are seeing a chance for us to make some value for ourselves through our creative work.

Not all things have to function in a profit oriented way to bring great value, even smiling at people and giving a kind word can be of help to many lives.

So much of what “sells” and makes profit for people is not necessarily what is best for the environment or the health of our society.  For example the sale of ivory from endangered species or the constant inundation of negative stories and news that brings fear to many people.

We use so many resources in the creation of material objects that just end up in the landfill and employ people almost needlessly doing work creating these things.  Using our own creativity fills a need for entertainment and work without using up these type of resources.

## Reduction of Money Supply

There are many issues around the money supply with the government printing money and putting it out into circulation through such policies as quantitative easing.  Interest rates and central banks all function to adjust things so that the economy doesn’t slow to a halt or go into double digit inflation rates.  I don’t pretend to fully understand these things but I’ve been thinking about how this all works in the Steem system.

Right now we are experiencing a lot of new money creation mostly going into the hands of people already vested in the system.  (Both in Steemit and world wide monetary systems) This is about to change and I would expect that the price of steem might go up because the supply goes down.  (Things are never this simple however)

Whenever we create something new it has the potential to become something of value that people pay for.  In the case of the steem economy people vote for these new posts and reward them with value.  That value has to come from somewhere and in this case it mostly is coming from investors purchasing the steem coins.  As posts are rewarded with value the steem from the collective pool is distributed to individual authors and other support people.  This kind of pulls it out of circulation in a way.

## Money Needs to Flow

If the investors and people holding the coins have enough confidence that new value is constantly being created then the system tends to grow.  For some reason, if not enough growth is happening people start to panic and things can really retract.  I think we saw a bit of this in the 1920’s when the stock market crashed.  Things can feed on this momentum and lead to everyone selling at once.

In the case of the great depression the money could not flow properly and even though there were factories and fields waiting to be used no one was hiring and many people were suffering both from a lack of goods and work.

So there needs to be a good flow of the money supply and it can’t get locked up too much or it leads to problems.  On the flip side if people dump a coin too much it drives the price down and everyone starts complaining too.

As another example suppose a big corporation charges a lot of money for a product that everyone wants.  It sells really well and all those dollars start flowing out of the hands of individuals into the corporation.  This is fine if the corporation hires enough people to put value back into the economy so that those people can purchase what they need.  On the other hand if that value is locked up into a few top level executives and large dollar investors than those dollars are effectively removed from the money supply.  (There are only so many luxury goods that a small group of people can purchase)

In the case of Steemit it is pretty easy to keep tweaking with things to attempt to make the system function less like a top heavy corporation and more like a lean worker cooperative.  The new plans seem like a good step in the right direction and many people seem focused on making improvements imho.

## Steady Royalty Stream

It has been my personal goal recently to build some kind of steady royalty stream.  By that I don’t mean just making some great work and living the rest of life from the proceeds.  It would be nice but somehow I don’t think that is a realistic idea for me based on my abilities.

What I would like to have going it the ability to have reasonable confidence in being able to do an action and have a result of income from it.  I think I’m getting close to my goals - maybe soon with any luck…

For me to be happy it doesn’t need to be one big payout followed by a lifelong struggle to get back into popularity (or roll of the dice) for a chance for more.  This doesn’t appeal to me too much, but I’d like the chance at feeling like if I put my effort into something it would allow me to live with some degree of comfort.

I think a lot of us would like that, after all what’s the point of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars going to school or investing in your business if you can’t get any kind of job or steady income in return?  At least with a royalty stream you can count on you can feel more free to spend a bit on things.

Anyhow, here’s the strange gif of the day.  Where else but Steemit would you see something like this?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37106315/hair.gif

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Thanks for your support and reading!  All gifs are original.