Stipend as Welfare

You mean your alts do. But that will change, when Ferret Slavery is at last ended and your downtrodden minions are freed to...er, nibble my socks? Hmmm...I should rethink this.

There are so many top quality freebies (read: gifts from designers) around. Barely need money in SL, really. But it comes in handy.

I think people just like that cha-ching sound, when they shop.

I prefer to keep the volume off while shopping so that I specifically do not hear that sound.

Because you like it or hate it?

I love it.

ELECTRIC FERRET!

(note the plug, upper right corner)

The stipend is L$ that are paid for by Premium users. Calling them "welfare" is absurd. It is not "welfare" to buy L$ on the Lindex, so why is it "welfare" to buy them as part of a package of account benefits?

I hate the ka-ching sound - reminds me of the sound I hear in Quicken every time I enter another transaction.

/me wonders if Jig was expecting so many posts to concentrate on the use of the word welfare and not on her question at all.

Didn't read it all, so someone else might have said this. But if it was welfare, premium accounts would get nothing and freebies would receive the stipend.

Do I depend on it not so much....

But I do have to admit that my alt keeps forgetting to pass me hers. Darn alt anyways going out partying when I am here stuck at work.

She was buying rounds of drinks the other day.

Dang Chris and you didnt tell me till now?!?! Thats it her allowance gets taken away.

stipend is a bought and paid for by the individual, so I don't see it as a "welfare" or "dole" payment (though I DO joke about it) even for old basic accounts (which had to pay in to get started... $10 a pop) for those of us that bought in oh so long ago, it takes ~1 year to get a recoup on that investment... and that's only if you are logging in consistently.... so it's more like a long term investment with required participation. and that of course allow LL to have a stable base of users that they can point to in sales offices, AND pretty long-term retention numbers... I'd say they more than get their money's worth there. (nevermind they just get it all back in group fees from me)

This is my position as well. When I first began SL, I didn't consider it a big deal to put in RL money. (Of course I also was employed and not trying to survive on disability then either.)

From playing EQ where I spent $15.00 USD monthly, I figured I could spend about the same in SL and live nicely. I didn't shop much and my biggest expenditures in the early days was an AKK horse and VKC dog. Then I got partnered and we had a house (his) and the decorating began. Since dancing was our main activity, if one tips very much, that can add up rapidly.

When I saw I was beginning to spend over $15.00/mo, then I began considering a Premium account, plus I wanted a bit of land.

Now between my stipend, meager sales at my shoppe (which is largely my fault as I have not advertised in a long time) and the money I made from selling off my land, SL is self-supportive and I won't put anymore RL funds into it.

I promised not to say anything about all the tips she gave those male strippers.

Sorry Jig, but once again I think you have created a poll and thread that comes from the wrong angle on a subject or is so loaded with your thinking that it is too inflexible to encompass a truly representative set of choices.

I mean for example how on earth do you even get the notion that stipend is welfare?
Also the whole idea of someone "depending" on stipend to "survive" in SL is silly, nobody needs anything to survive in SL, your available choices change to reflect your circumstances but you always get to be in SL when all is said and done.

I say this thread fails from the get go.

For myself my stipend comes in, goes out to pay for classifieds and parcel searches - end of story. Do I check my stipend periodically? You betcha, I am a person who expects to get what I have paid for at the least. Do I watch it like a hawk every week? Nope, that would be obsessive in my book.

Sometimes it helps me, sometimes it doesn't. I probably wouldn't miss it.

In order for anybody to have SL income to cash out US$, some (large) number of others have to be injecting US$ into the economy. If that influx were wholly dependent on people buying L$s, there would be less of it. The L$s that Premium accounts get as part of membership is one important source. Their monthly/quarterly/annual US$ membership payment, then, is partially injected into the SL economy because some of those US$ fees are automatically converted to L$s.

Of course, it's a little more complicated than that. The US$ fees don't directly buy L$s on the LindeX or anything, so they don't directly fund anybody cashing out. They're just one source of L$ liquidity.

Think of it this way: Even with stipends as an L$ source, Supply Linden regularly injects more L$s into the economy by selling on the LindeX in order to maintain a more or less constant L$/US$ exchange rate. If there were no stipend, assuming all else being equal, Supply would sell more L$s. But would all else be equal? Would people really increase the amount of US$s they spend to buy L$s if they didn't have that automatic stipend? Some would, but most?

I doubt it. Instead, the economy would just shrink some, and there would be some fewer people who could take US$s out. I don't think it would be catastrophic, just because Premium members make up such a tiny percentage of total Residents.

Another member of the "my lifestyle pays for itself" camp. The weekly stipend (NOT welfare- these are lindens that premium account owners pay for upfront, and calculate into their decision) is really useful. Mine is good for a weekly land search listing, with enough left over for an extra shop rental and a few uploads. Or I could fritter it quite happily on shiny-shiny-shoes if I so desired. Nothing to sniff at.

I though our welfare system was camping actually. Though mind you some people who have got time to do nothing for money seem to be better off than those who make finacial comittments to the running of LL

I do not think there is a parallel to welfare within SL. If there is I haven't heard about it.

Even camping requires showing up and performing a service. Welfare is sent out simply for existing.

Stipends are a financial exchange.

One small correction there. If we're talking Welfare as it exists in the U.S., it's a bit more than "simply existing."

I never in my entire life EVER thought I would be the type of person who received disability (ie. Welfare). I was an excellent student throughout school, a high achiever, mid-life returned to study for and received a Master's Degree with a straight-A average to pursue the career of my dreams.

During my life I have been involved in a multitude of careers ranging from outside sales with a major corporation (when companies were still permitted to ask archaic and now illegal questions such as "Are you married?" "Do you plan to have children?", etc.) - to Adjunct Professor in the Computer Training Institute of a Jr. College. I've modeled, done public speaking, worked as a Benefits Administrator for the Workers Compensation Division of large insurance corporation...and my favorite position, and the one for which I returned to school - Family Psychosocial worker for Hospice.

During all those years I was paying into the system in the form of taxes being deducted from my paychecks, as were my parents, grandparents, and entire extended family.

Then a chronic illness I have battled since my 20's flared up to the point that I literally could not continue working. I did not apply for disability for a year due to the embarrassment of me - an intelligent, highly educated woman who had held many skilled professional jobs - having to go on that dreaded word - "welfare."

But, when one's funds run out and there is nowhere else to turn, embarrassment comes in second. I HATE being on disability, but it is basically taking "early retirement" as I am now receiving the funds I would receive upon retirement age. Not nearly as much monthly as if I had been able to continue working, however, and pretty much putting me now at poverty level.

So I am not taking anything I did not pay into the system for. The main issue I have with "welfare" are those who know how to scam the system. I saw plenty of that when I worked during grad. school at a psychiatric crisis line at our local hospital. I witnessed first hand the entitlement mentality that people who probably never paid a cent into the system had.

There are two types of "welfare" - SSI and SSDI. SSI, as it was explained to me are for "indigents" or those who never paid anything or enough into the system to qualify for SSDI which again is receiving the money one paid into the system during their working lives.

Those who receive SSI can also receive Medicaid and Food Stamps. So for those who have never had what Americans would consider even a lower-middle-class existence, this can work out well and is part of what is fueling the current illegal immigrant debate receiving these benefits when they're not even US citizens. (Don't even get me started.)

During the time I was awaiting a decision on my disability claim (that took a year) I had a small amount of SSI funds, Medicaid and Food Stamps. I was very thankful for them. But here's the kicker, once I was approved for SSDI, the SSI funds were discontinued, I'm now on Medicare with co-pays I can't afford and I am now deemed to earn "too much money" (700/mo) to get food stamps.

I'm not railing at you, Clarissa, but I could not let this go without a bit of clarification since I am living through this and would give ANYTHING to be out there working with Hospice patients again. ANYTHING!!! And I would give anything to not be ill.

Czari - I in no way meant disability (to me it is not the same), and I in no way meant the post in a pejorative or judgmental manner. I have known and have people in my family, too, who either are, or have been, on some type of assistance. There is no shame in it at all and no one chooses to be on disability.

It was very poorly worded, not reflective of my feelings, and I deeply apologise.

Apology accepted, Clarissa, and again...I was not upset with you, per se. I have just seen this attitude from those who honestly don't understand that "welfare" and "disability" are two different entities and if I can do nothing else, I can at least try to bring enlightenment to this area.

I belong to a forum for people with disabilities and was reading just yesterday from some posters how even some of their family members don't understand and think they're "lazy" and "living large" off government checks. Many of those people live with disabilities far greater than what I deal with. My heart just went out to them.