Taxes

Taxes are a good idea. Yes, they are a huge PITA, but they have a very good purpose, controlling the allocation of resources in a sim. There is now a possibility of 8k+ users, if everyone could build as much as they wanted, then we ultimately end up in an unbuildable state because all of the sims would be maxed out.

Taxes make it so that we can continue to build. They benefit the more 'productive' residents. The idea being that the people with the most money are the most productive because they had to get their money somehow, so they should be able to build more. If we didn't have taxes, we would need to move to a more socialist system, where every person received a fixed allotment of server resources (land and objects). That isn't to say that we are running on a totally capitalist system, if we were we wouldn't receive stipends, or bonuses. But those are in place to promote new content on the grid, you like someone's stuff, then rate them so they can handle more taxes, and build more, you don't then rate them negatively.

Life isn't fair, neither is this your SecondLife. That is a good thing though, because if it were fair, then you would be stuck with whatever is given to you. Since it isn't, you can do something about it... so get out there and do something!

I don't recall ever inviting taxes to join the group... <scratching head>

Sure wish I'd read your post before I responded to Neo and company in the other thread =)

#!

In a way, the SL economy is not like contemporary capitalism, it's more like Nineteenth Century capitalism. The only taxes are Property Taxes. To move into Twentieth Century capitalism you should recognize other forms of value like services, and impose a sales tax and an income tax.

And the stipends and bonuses are also basic to Nineteenth Century capitalism. Far from being welfare payments, they are the equivalent of the homestead laws in nineteenth century North and South America--encouraging settlers to come to the SL continent, and rewarding maximum participation in the capitalist economy.

LL should think seriously about moving from a Nineteenth Century capitalist system to a Twentieth Century capitalist system. This would mean taxing sales and services, which otherwise would become a lopsided oligarchy of wealth, in which a few early settlers seize control over production and property, and later settlers are condemned to cycles of poverty. With Twentieth Century capitalism, everyone plays the game on level playing field. And in SL terms, there is higher level of development and prosperity, because the Lindens have a larger pool of money to distribute as stipends and bonuses.