Don't expect any help from M.

All things told, my RL is fairly comfortable in terms of income, but I am also prudent with my spending and adhere to a budget. This insures that if a sudden and unexpected expense arises (such as recent problem with my car), I can cover it with cash or at most a few months of installments to my credit card.

For over a year I paid $15/mo for my cable company's DVR service. Not a large amount of money, almost negligible compared to my other expenses, nonetheless I cancelled it last week because I reached a point where the infrequent convenience it provided was simply not worth $15 to me. I still would like to have the service; if a low-use plan were available for $5 I would probably have dropped down to that instead. But since that usage option was not available, I opted out entirely.

That budgeting approach extends to SL as well, which is my main entertainment expense. I have decided on an specific amount of money that I can spend each month and feel I'm getting fun value for my buck without compromising my financial prudence. The exact expense may fluctuate a bit month to month, but it averages out to that amount.

I'm just grateful that I didn't live on an OSS because although $75/mo would just barely fit within my limit, $125/mo would not. Yes, I can technically afford it, I won't be reduced to eating beans, but paying that much more money for the same entertainment is simply not something I'm willing to do. Like many people have done, I would simply have left the OSS.

Where to go from there? Well, I look at my current situation in which I'm renting part of a sim for a very reasonable amount. I'm getting very good value for my money, but I'm also getting spoiled. Where once I lived on the mainland on half the space I occupy now, going back to that situation -- for the same tier cost -- is strangely unappealing. It's a taste of flat soda in comparison.

And that's what LL have done. They've given thousands of residents a taste of the good life, and now they've taken it away. Staying costs more for the same enjoyment; leaving means losing value for the same cost.

So why, if I don't have an OSS, do I care? One reason might be that for every resident who stays on an OSS, they now have $50 less to spend on merchandise, which might include the items in my store. And for every person who becomes angry or discouraged and leaves SL, I have one fewer customer or potential customer. And when enough customers leave, my inworld income begins to drop and I find I dont' have as much discretionary income that closes the gap between my expenses and my budget allowance for SL. Which reduces my enjoyment a little bit too.

At some point, if sales across the grid were to continue to fall, I could lose my island berth and end up with the same situation as dispossesed OSS residents. Perhaps my enthusiasm for SL would weather that event... but perhaps not.

And my departure would ripple through the grid as all the others had before me.

That's a hell of a ripple M has set in motion, is all I can say.

This is an excellent point and one that has been largely overlooked. From a consumer point of view this is a big rise. Someone who is prepared to pay $75 a month will probabably spend a few dollars more buying items. However now they have to look at their budget again. If they can't afford items they're going to decide it's not worth having that home.

If they don't have a home there's no need for the building, the new furniture, the poseballs yadda yadda yadda. There is only so much money to go around.

As Desmond Shang had touched on in other threads, when the RL economy as a whole is not doing well and SL growth is flat, raising your prices is a risky move. With so many technological innovations -- computers, cell phones, VCRs, DVR -- the price drops over time. Early adopters are used to bleeding a little, but mainstream consumers are much warier; and both still expect that over time that if prices change, they will move downward due to increased usage.

If SL is not expanding, then discouraging your current consumer base with a very sharp increase in prices could kick off a contraction of the user base. That will eventually erode the short-term gain from the extra income, in a fundamental way that is not easily fixed. Once you lose a loyal customer, they are unlikely to be wooed back. They have run through a cycle of interest and will have moved on to something else. News of improvements will not reach them, or will be met with a shrug of indifference. Been there, done that.

The above are great points, the current economic situtation has forced me to do with less in a lot of RL aspects. They same is no happening in SL, moe freebie clothes, making more things my self, etc. LL squeezing more money out of me for tier payments will only worsen this situation until I break and leave my OSS (Homestead). At that point I might now have the money to buy things again but probably would be too unhappy to bother. Sure wouldn't need things for a house and landscaping. Wouldn't need 300L$ scripted ducks and such...

That's the issue I'm facing. If I have to pay so much more for the sim, then buying fun stuff is going to have to be sacrificed. No more expensive critters, plants, textures for things I build for fun, etc. I have play money, but not so much that I can absorb this huge increase and still play as much. It's going to be a sacrifice not just to me, but to the shops I would go to. If I give up the sim, then I don't need the pretty toys any more. If I keep the sim, I can't afford the play pretties.

Rock. Hard place.