This is just my two cents folks but hear me out please. There is a lot of debate on this platform about how whales are not helping plankton's and minnows (@fulltimegeek and @maneki-neko exempt) and are voting for themselves or their friends but not their followers. Could this not be solved by those people who have more than say 500SP losing a cent off of any potential payout on a post or comment and having the money taken put into a pool or slush fund to then give each new Steemian 1 week or 1 month a Steem Power delegation of say 100 or 200SP? This would at least give new people to the platform a leg up, give them a start and not only that, it is encouraging and incentivising, but they cannot then complain that the platform is not fair and not for everyone. This would encourage more growth as those who have benefited financially from delegated SP would then have greater influence and voting power to be able to help friends and other plankton's and minnows, grateful for the help that they themselves were offered.
One other way to encourage growth would be to allow those people with under 100SP to become more visible should they refuse a payout on a post as I am doing with this one. Yes, they would earn nothing by way of monetary rewards but by having their post hang around longer, they have a greater chance of picking up followers and a resteem, which would improve their chances of earning author rewards at a later stage.
It's all about the long game right? Developing content creators is vital to the longevity of this platform. We all want it to succeed. Hell, it must succeed for the sake of humanity to progress and give others equal freedom to earn for themselves, instead of toiling for others for meagre rations. Yes, we also need whales and dolphins. They are the people who invested in the blockchain at its most raw stage and so they should reap the most rewards, but if Steemit is to become a social media success story it needs to help establish new content creators and innovators.
I'd be grateful if you could upvote and resteem this post. I'm refusing any payout and really just want the message to get out. Thank you and God bless you all.