Even at these low prices, I still feel incredibly reluctant to invest in what I perceive as ongoing capital embezzlement and ficticious jobs.

Exactly. Inside jerk circle waiting for victims to step in. The distribution based on work done is ridiculous. Everyday it looks more and more like a bitshare bailout project. The new witnesses are just dust in people's eyes.

Not much difference with the current system in the outside world where close favouritism runs things, not competency. I guess this is why TDV and other celebrities are shilled. Tinfoil-tier followers are essential for Steemit. It requires a certain kind of blind sheeple to support the current path as it is currently layed out and they seem to be perfect for the task.

I guess the game in cryptos is still much like the outside world. You just need to lay out a scheme to take advantage of the ignorant masses. Not many people read white papers and they shouldn't have to considering how steemit aspires to become similar to other social media sites where it attacts "common folk".

We will see how it goes. So far no whale or witness seems to have faith in the project but the common folk are required to support their masters. Now where have I seen this before?