Why earning 1USD a day on Steemit can mean a world of difference

The monetization factor of Steemit can mean widely different things for people around the world. Of course if you are not making any money, whatever amount of money might be enough of a pull. However what I'm really getting at is what is normally perceived as attainable for people in their environments.

For somebody that lives in Switzerland, the expectations of what they should be earning in their lives are incomparably higher than for a person in Somalia.

This image is here so something appears in the stream, not because I'm necessarily trying to prove some point with. It shows the Kibera slum in Kenya and probably the content of the post applies to it as well. Source: Wikimedia Commons

While a proposition of working for several hours to create content and earn 1USD might sound preposterous for the Western World at large, it might mean something completely else for the approximately 700 million people around the world that live on less than 1.9$ a day (weird number to use, but that's what the Worldbank uses, probably due to inflation factors from when it initially started using the "people living under 1$ a day" metric to highlight extreme poverty). Yeah, let that sink in for a moment...

So all they need to do to substantially change their lives is post some stuff on Steemit, right?? Well, no... many of them need to first learn how to read and write, then somehow get to an internet enabled device and figure a whole lot of stuff out. And they need to not be swindled on the way to getting there. And of course somehow they need to hear about Steemit in the first place.

Not that simple, but perhaps an NGO out there could empower them. Now of course all of this people could massively change their lives if they were be able to join. So that proposition of a dollar a day sounds a bit different now, doesn't it?

But it's not only the people in extreme poverty, I want to adress different real life scenarios for people from various corners of the world and what that dollar might mean.

So let's take a look at some of those:

India
Im going to start with the country I currently live in - India. Our first example is going to be a maid, who works 10h a day, 6 days a week. So, what can she expect (yes, she... not being sexist here, just reflecting reality) in terms of salary? Well according to WSJ, 5.3USD a day.

Naturally, if somebody was to suggest to this person that she can supplement her income by approximately 20% merely by saying some things or capturing an image, it would most likely be a strong incentive to do so.

Not to mention a chance to earn money in an environment that doesnt welcome her in the following way:

So let's mark this individual down as: Yes, that 1USD a day would be really, really good!

At the same time keep in mind this is not somehow the bottom of Indian society, the estimated 133 million families in rural India that lived on less than 77USD a month in 2007 are a more worrying image.

Spain
Let's say Miguel works in a bar somewhere in Spain, in a statistically most average place possible, due to problems with finding data. Miguel earns about 5.5$ an hour, a good chunk of which he parties away :D. Since he works 8h a day, he has 44$ a day coming in.

What does Miguel say to the dollar you offer him in exchange for content production? Probably that he doesn't really care much for it, unless it's just a picture, which is quick and easy. And besides, all that partying produced some cool material :)

So yeah, while it only represents 2% of his daily income, it couldn't hurt to get some additional booze or coffee money coming in, especially if it was easy.

And considering Miguel is 24 and over 40% of Spain's youth is unemployed, chances are he doesn't have the above mentioned job and he actually really could use that dollar to at least go for a cup of coffee every now and then. Providing him a brief respite from asking Mom and Dad for it constantly and feeling like a fucking normal human being for a change.

USA
Now let's take a look at Mary in the USA, who owns a successful boutique organic vegetable store in New York and swears on fixed gear bikes being the only way to move around, banking in 150,000$ a year. Well Mary don't care about that dollar. Murica, fuck yeah!! Haha, had to...

The enormous potential

Back to being serious, there are many even over there that could use that dollar a day as well. But Steemit's value proposition after spending an average first week on Steemit is not keeping Mary here only on the basis of the $$$.

Fact is, Mary and Miguel aside, Steemit actually has an enormous potential to dramatically improve a lot of people's lives. And the most important part is that applies to the people that most badly need that improvement.

But as with everything in their lives, they are hindered by so many factors that prevent them from entering the ecosystem. Now helping out individuals from these extreme poverty brackets and bringing them online to Steemit is what would be amazing. Reaching out to a reputable NGO, that could help individuals overcome the issues they face either by not having access to equipment, network connection, bank accounts, or the ability to read and write and urging them to join Steemit

And this is not just some sort of charity work, I would for example love to see a food blogger from an otherwise disadvantaged Ethiopian village preparing traditional dishes and knowing that the money is going to that individual and to the NGO, which works on enabling more individuals to supplement their income. I suspect I'm not the only one.

This post is prompted by my developing thoughts on the matter of Steemit's ability to retain new users: "Why Steemit needs to evolve as soon as possible"

I haven't changed my mind on surfacing quality and the technical nature of the platform, but I'm rethinking the financial incentives proposition, which is relative to what an individual is currently making.

This post is prompted by my developing thoughts on the matter of Steemit's long term viability as a popular social media platform:

#1 - Why Steemit needs to evolve as soon as possible
#2 - Why earning 1USD a day on Steemit can mean a world of difference
#3 - The future of marketing on Steemit is one hell of a prospect