I have been trying to build relationships with people who are actually active and engaged on Steemit, I only became active myself a few weeks ago even though I joined months ago. I would much rather vote for others who are producing interesting or informative content than on myself, but you're right, so far I see a lot of frustration from minnows hoping for some form of support from above.

I believe that a lot of minnows are going to have to invest a little into SP and then form schools of minnows who follow and interact with each other in order to have any great success. The Whales made theirs and they are giving back a little at a time, but we minnows are going to have to help each other just a little. After I got active I read that you didn't get a sliding scale on upvotes until you had over 500 SP, so I sold some other investments and turned it into SP to get above that amount. I loved the sliding scale but I was still very limited, so I invested another $1000 into Steemit and now I can actually make a difference. I just upvoted you 100% and it was nice to be able to see the difference that it made.

My wife and I are very poor, we are both disabled and have been for several years. But my investment of $20 a month into Bitcoin paid off big, and now I'm using most of the gain from that investment here on Steemit to try and improve our financial situation. A big part of our daily interaction with others is online on the various social media platforms, so now the advent of Steemit and all of the possibilities it creates is exciting to me because I can be social and not feel guilty about not being out trying to make a dollar here or there so that we can get by.

Not only does this have the potential to add extra income, but I can also help others along the way which is a great feeling. So I'm not disagreeing with you, but I've decided to just let Whales and Dolphins do what they do and try to work towards finding a large group of like minded people who want to school up and swim together. I say invest what you can and come swim with me and others who are on here posting and replying to posts every day, we may take smaller bites but if the numbers are large enough it will eventually add up! Then while we are happily swimming together not paying much attention some Whale might happen along and dump a big load of Steem on us and make our day ;)