You make some fine practical & philosophical points here, Kevin @kevinwong -- where to begin?

Voting, like democracy, like justice are the approximations of an ideal. As flawed humans in pursuit of such lofty aims, we're bound to fail. Some attempts, of course, are better than others.

Living in Egypt, voting was a sad farce. Our president would win the 'so-called' elections with 99.99% vote results, every year! Clearly, it was rigged--there was no opposition and Egyptians would joke that the dead must have been brought back to vote (to account for such high figures).

Living in the Divided States of America, at this historical moment is not much better, either. I voted for Obama the first time, but not the second. And, I could not get myself to vote for either Hillary or the Unspeakable One, now, in office. The 2 party system seems outdated; we need more choices.

Which brings us to this Utopian experiment, or social media revolution taking place on Steemit. Yes, there is corruption, here, too, with a pay to play mentality (bots, etc...) But, past that, I believe it aspires to a meritocracy.

There is curation, there are people with power and good taste, who rescue voices like mine from complete obscurity :) If one continues to work hard and produce quality content, they will be seen and endorsed. I really appreciate, for example, the auto-vote feature which allows artists like myself to feel like there are patrons of their work out there who appreciate/trust what they are doing enough to vote on it in advance.

Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, Shelley famously claimed -- which may seem outrageous considering how little money they make, online, and off. But, ideas and words, as you know, have another level of influence, past monetary. They change minds, even lives. And, I'm idealistic enough to believe that, with time, talent rises to the top :)

I believe in Steemit there is room for improvement, how to grant more security/incentives for thinkers and artists to stay on the platform and continue contributing. They needn't make the trending lists, but gaining the support of influential members of the community makes a difference.

How will the voting system be improved? Maybe quality content providers might be given a special badge, that rewards their efforts over time, and gives others contributors something to aspire to?