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Im definitely the cynical type so that could go south quickly but may be fun anyways....anthropology was always my strong suit.

Personally, I'm very much for more cynicism around here. Particularly of the studied variety. I encourage civility, but people don't get called out for clear BS often enough.

Anthropology is an excellent subject though, if you're willing to put the effort in. As with anywhere, science based articles can be pretty heavily scrutinized if not thorough, They make for some of the best articles though.

Duly noted. I find the internet to be more of strange, incoherent, behavioral phnemenon than just about anything else. Especially with the advent of social media. I'll be 27 years old in roughly 3 weeks and the only thing i have learned definitively is that people only get stranger and everyone is certain that their flavor of strange is the best one lol. Steemit throws economic inscentives into the mix and i can only imagine that devine chaos of the highest order shortly follows.

Ha ha, I hear ya. 29 in December myself, and I've seen much of the same. I try not to get caught up in what "the best" kind of strange is. I learned awhile ago that worrying about who you think you should be or how good or bad you are just distracts from enjoying life.

Not that I don't have my closely held beliefs that I will get into fisticuffs over.

SteemIt really throws a wrench into the whole dynamic though. It's a chunk of the internet that reintroduces us to the consequences of what we do or say, yet it's a unique microcosm of culture. What I could say here to gain recognition is far different than what I would say around the office or friends. Yet that same drive to improve our personal well-being through social acceptance exists here.

Would you consider yourself an anarchist?

Nope, as common as the philosophy is here, I believe in educating a populace to vote in representatives that actually act in accordance to the majority's wishes. Something I don't feel exists now due to, I feel, a population that doesn't fully understand or care about their own political system or what their representatives actually represent.

Beyond that, I'm a democratic socialist (I guess?). I believe in the individual freedom to make your own choices where those choices don't impede the freedom of others, but tight regulations on businesses to ensure they do not take advantage of their customers or employees in a way that I feel restricts freedom.

I think that " theoretically " the same things you hope to accomplish with restrictions, could be accomplished by the free market, voluntarily. The only problem is that the government created and partially subsidized corperations have a massively disproportionate amount of wealth and resources to compete with currently (walmart,amazon). I think decentralized eccommerce and people leaving the usd, could eventually correct that. I definitely don't see it happening overnight though. As far as representatives, i think block chain is the exact science of representation and could replace those people if properly implemented. Structure is definitely a necissary part of civilization. No doubt.

Interesting, so if I'm reading between the lines here, using a blockchain to implement secure verification and transactions to institute a direct democracy? That is actually something I could really get behind. If I'm off-base, please elaborate.

As far as the free market, I feel it's a solution that would ultimately result in a greater shift of power to existing corporations. Without minimum wage, why should I believe that the largest hiring companies won't continually hire cheaper labor as they eliminate the competition that might hire at better rates?

That said, I think this stems from the human desire to make purchases for as cheap as possible. If you could curb the penny-pinching aspect of our culture, perhaps not impossible, then I could see the free market working. As it stands, people are too short-sighted to see the harm that can be brought by buying the cheapest option they can find, empowering corporations to cut corners and underpay workers and suppliers.