Every so often I send a zero-fee transaction into the system to see how long it takes to confirm; it was for a legit purpose to move some idle Bitcoin from one wallet I didn't want to use anymore into another.  Last time I tried it in April it took *only* 11 days.

Clearly the fees, e.g. https://bitcoinfees.21.co/ & https://blockchain.info/charts/transaction-fees, don't come down as fast as they went up.  If more users would try lower fees and see they do get their transactions confirmed in reasonable amounts of time then the meme would counteract the one driving the fees higher.  What's needed is a chart comparing transactions waiting to be confirmed vs. fees waiting over time.

It's a little like those gas price websites.  If more people checked them before blindly paying a higher price at the conveniently located station then that would create consumer pressure to drive prices down.

Our wallet software is offering default fee calculations that are too high.  Moreover, perhaps unintentionally, they drive the fee calculation up in a reverse auction effect.  Even worse, our wallet software resists making it convenient to reduce the fee if we want to try for a lower one.