I'm often reading posts complaining about how the whales have too much power and need to be nerfed. They put forth various ideas on how to limit the voting power of whales and make the system more "fair".
There are other social platforms that are more fair. Reddit is fair. Everyone gets one vote, up or down, so why aren't you there instead of here?
Oh that's right, you're here for the money.
Well, where does the money come from? Does it come from money heaven? Raining down like manna? No, the value of the payouts is derived from the large sums of money that whales have pumped into the system.
Every time the network pays out 25 cents to a poster, that value is siphoned from the accounts of all the Steem holders, whether they voted on that post or not, via the magic of the inflation tax. Those who hold the most Steem Power (i.e, the whales) get the most power to decide who gets to extract this wealth indirectly from their coffers.
Those who are risking the most get the most power to decide how the system is used..
And this is perfectly fair!
Fortunately, I'm pretty sure the devs totally get this, and are unlikely to implement any limits to Steem Power. If they did, then everyone would power down and money would flee the system, and there would be no money to grant to posts.