Poor economic decisions within LL

From the "Banking Forum Followup" transcript, pertaining to what IMO is the most obvious issue is:



"INTLIBBER BRAUTIGAN: Right. Under the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, only the Federal Reserve can create fiat current money in the United States of America. And Second Life servers are in the United States of America, so if Linden Lab is saying the Linden dollar is real money, then they’re breaking federal law. Plain and simple. And the penalties for that range from $250,000 to $500,000 for each instance of issuing the funds, and 5 to 10 years in prison for every act of issuing those Linden dollars. So I don’t think that that’s someplace that Linden Lab wants to go.


Now, pertaining to my statements in a prior show about my attitude towards the Linden dollar is I have to treat Linden dollars as if it’s real money because that’s my fiduciary responsibility to my depositors and to the people that are either borrowing money or that are investing money in stocks on my exchange. This is a matter of taking things seriously. And I will point to, for example, the Congressional testimony a couple years ago by Alan Greenspan when Congressman Ron Paul asked him why he holds to a belief in the need for a gold standard, but is governing over a fiat money system in the Federal Reserve and how he can reconcile those.


And Greenspan replied, saying that while, yes, the Federal Reserve System is a complete fiat money system, there’s absolutely nothing backing the U.S. dollar. It’s a complete fiction. He managed the Federal Reserve system as if the U.S. was on a gold standard. And it was by operating in that manner that he was able to keep the economy stable and growing at much better than it was under prior Fed chairmen.


And as someone who takes his business responsibly here in SL, I have to take the same attitude. I have to take my depositors’ money seriously. And Travis has to do the same thing. We’re serious business people. We’re definitely not here to defraud anybody and we bust our butts day in and day out for many hours. I work 12 to 16 hours a day in SL because I take my investors’ and depositors’ money extremely seriously.


Whether or not the Linden dollar is actual, real money, the fact is neither the Linden dollar, nor the U.S. dollar, are real money. Real money is gold and silver under the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. dollar is only considered money because of legal tender laws that say, hey, it’s as good as real money. Okay? There is no law saying the Linden dollar is as good as real money, which is gold and silver. That’s the legal situation and that’s why I take the attitude that I do."

Funny in my above post an "angry" smiley appeared at the top??....A gremlim must have put that there. EDIT: there ...removed it. Really was a Gremlin from the FIC.

This all makes interesting reading but as someone has said before me.

The reason buying land in RL makes sense is that they aren't making any more of it.(If you discount the odd airport in Asia or hotel in the middle east)

Unfortunately SL land can be made at the drop of a linden so unless the Firm is uber careful it
might well end in tears.The economy is too recent and flimsy to be able to predict longterm growth.

footnote:It must also track the worldwide economic situation which is not looking hunky dory.


Just an opinion

One perspective missing from this discussion is that of the SL landowner that does NOT look at purchasing land from the investment standpoint.

There are many many residents who buy thier plot of land (whatever size) simply to enjoy thier Second Lives on. Be that playing house or spending time with friends or tossing prims around for the sheer heck of it. Thier tier payment is simply entertainment money. If they get anything when they sell the land its gravy.

Now many would say these folks dont belong in an economic discussion. I contend they do. They are pure consumers. They pay LL for thier tier (or a landlord who pays LL). They pay content creators for the things they want to play with. They in many ways are a fair size chunk of the economy.

/me charges Darkness a L$5 royalty for talking about her.

SL economy down in the last year ? , i dont think so ?

i do believe LL dropped their prices because of server efficiency, and to attract more people to go premium & buy mainland hence pay tier.

*although i hate losing land-value, i do think its good for the economy in the long run

*i also expect a atleast slightly lower tier price...just a gut-feeling.

I would love to see my tier fees drop (so would my renters), but I don't see how it will happen. The energy costs to run servers isn't dropping. People who maintain servers aren't going to their bosses and demanding less money. As servers age they need more maintenance and not less. A drop in hardware prices can result in a drop in the initial sim cost, but I don't see anything to suggest that LL can or will drop tier fees.

this really depends on the total profit, running SL is less expensive when there are more paying customers, certain costs can be spread out over more premiums, attracting more premiums and more profit

Who is Metanomics?

Are their credentials listed where we can have a look see?

True server running costs don't drop, but I supect server running costs are only a fraction of SL expenditure compared to it's development and other costs.
Companies just supplying server space run rings around what we are charged in tier. I see LL farminging server farms out eventually. then they would rely on payment by residents accounts to fund development. When the opposition start undercutting them by a mile, they will have little choice. The opposition don't have gobs of wasted revnue from bad decisions or being strangled by trying to keep 2003 items still functioning either.

Robert Bloomfield works out of Cornell University, Johnson Graduate School of Management and a group in SL. Pertinent guests are invited.




"Bloomfield is also active in the nascent field of Metanomics, which studies business and policy issues arising in the "metaverse" of virtual worlds, and hosts the weekly Metanomics event series in Second Life. He is an active author on Terra Nova, an academic site devoted to the metaverse, and has proposed using virtual worlds for policy research in his article, "Worlds For Study." Bloomfield"s work on metanomics has been covered by BusinessWeek, The New York Times, CFO Magazine, Technology Review, and numerous other outlets."

[url=http://metanomics.net[/url] -metanomics website

Their channel on SLCN.TV Video broadcasts in SL with a free receiver.

[url=http://www.slcn.tv/programs/metanomics[/url]


Bloomfield's, profile-Vita

[url=http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/faculty/profiles/vitas/Bloomfield_vita.pdf[/url]

Well, Zee is the service provider CFO and Ziggy is the Information Week guy.

As far as credentials of the hosts - Joe Average Resident could have asked the same questions and it would be just as valid. Maybe more valid.

a long addy.. i know.. but still worth a read..

http://www.stratmark.fi/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/Tuomas%20Henttonen%20-%20Exploring%20Virtual%20Worlds%20-%20Key%20Success%20Factors%20in%20Virtual%20World%20Marketing.pdf

(ok ive posted this link elsewhere, but the thread has sunk... the topic is pertinent)

You have a space towards end of link just before the " 20marketing" that was breaking the link. Maybe edit out that space.

It doesn't look like he has spent enough of his life in the real world . Just another ivory tower resident with no clue about much of anything but where his next handout is coming from.

He he, they said "Metaverse"

Totally agree dudeler...

Those educated, hard working, dedicated soap dodgers, coming on here and explaining things to us. I don't know about you, but I don't need people to explain things to me... if I wanted to think, I wouldn't spend so much time in a comatose state of self deception within SL would I?

Don't get me wrong, some ivory tower geeks are worth our taxes.. engineers, physicists and the like.. I mean how are we going to maintain our moral superiority over those 3rd world spongers without the reasurrance we can use new technology to zap them from our comfy chairs.. while sitting on our pale lardy asses.. munching KFC from a bargain bucket ....and surfing for porn on our other screen?

Makes me sick......

If they were worth the money they were being paid, they would be in the private sector.

As for the rest of your post, I guess you were speaking of your own life.

yes.. thank you.. ive no idea how that happened... since i would have highlighted the link in internet explorer.. copied and pasted...

hey, who cares anyway...

Especially that awful "Bowl" concoction they've come up with, the whole mess just thrown together. Yuck.

Did Cornell become a State University? Who would have thunk it?

Does "Private sector" now have some new meaning?

They don't live off of government research grants? He has never done anything but be in "education". I have known the type, they have no clue about the real world.

Sorry off post but we in the UK have a Prime Minister just like that!!!!!!!!!

I believe Cornell is hybrid - some of its colleges are state funded, some are privately funded.

Don't you think that the sl economy is going to be affected by rl economy, the less money ppl have in rl to spend on luxury items and the USA and now GB are good example, declining housing market , downturn in retail sales, it must have an affect on sl economy as well