I gotcha.  I appreciate your view and know what you mean. This person here may be a minnow, but they rented 17,000 SP and were doing this a few times today.  The comments are similar to the "lol" level.  It's more of good manners vs abuse from my view in this case.  Anyone can vote on whatever, but writing one liners to just self-upvote, while not rewarding the post they're using to do so, makes me roll my eyes and feel inclined to say something.

does anyone know where i can find info on how much $ your steem power translates into? for instance, if someone has 10,000 sp and they upvote, how much $ would that blog receive?

First of all...what a nice ICO...it changes the world of traveling tourism and advertisement...

secondly, I do really believe that such a system (Steemit) should do some changes in its incentive based economy to prevent whales or above minnows, do self-feeding instead of really contributing with this society and supporting good contents...
there are some possible methods to do so..but right now ...what I see..is not that healthy..many accounts are fake and are just for self upvote...
that's not what we registered for...

Of course, you've got every right to do with your investment as you would.

But, the point is, this is Social Media. Not a business platform. The money that you earn here is not yours. It originates from the Rewards Pool which is currently owned by Steemit Inc. but is actually a part of the people since it has been created by the collective effort of all users on the platform.

It may be their money but is surely not their investment. What you're getting out of the system is not returns on your investment, but rather rewards from the community based on how people appreciate your words. Self-upvoting is a method of cheating around that system by looking to drain the rewards pool, which includes taking rewards for others for your own personal gain. STEEM isn't being grown on trees here. There is a limited amount of it remaining on the platform, and the only way to replenish it is to interact more and bring in new people to the platform.

The rewards pool is there because of the people. The rewards pool is there for the people. The rewards are gained by those who are worthy of it as deemed by all on Steemit. The rewards pool is not for people looking to make money and treating this platform as an investment.

?

Thanks for your thoughts.  It's not in the white paper, but I feel that Steemit will probably do better in the long run if it's a give and take scenario, not promoted to be a sponge to justly squeeze ROI from. To each their own of course, but Steemit and Steem price appreciation probably will be aided more by sharing the wealth so authors and curators keep promoting the site with content and word of mouth. Earning rewards is part of the selling point and what drives growth best (for example upvoting your comment).  Getting deep here, but Steemit is supposed to be a community. I personally prefer not to have those type of investors you mention.