Second Life Needs Stable Currency - n I'm not Anshe Chung

Wow, 263 replies, and 3,743 views in a day. What a compliment to Ms. Chung, to draw that kind of attention from a concept that hasn't been implemented, and if it was, would impact no one that didn't participate in the trade for $A coin.

Let's equate the real value of that huge SL participation in this one forum. Assuming each reply takes only 30 seconds, that's about 130 minutes, or about two hours, at the minimum wage, that's what about, $15.00, or 4,500 lindens.

Now, the 3,743 views, even at 1/2 that time (i.e. 30 seconds assuming u all read much faster than I do), is about 31 hours, or what's that, $233.00 or $70,000 lindens. Some of us make more than minimum wage, right? Some, probably less.

Anshe kudos to you. A simple statement has created about $75,000 linden dollars in opportunity cost without any return to anyone, but great return on the infomercial.

Seems to me, that's pretty good advertising return for the time your two postings took.

Can I work for you too?

Marc Woebegone

Juat an FYI...


Federal minimum wage it still at $5.15 per hour. There are those states that do not have a mimimum wage in effect which means they have to abide by the federal minimum wage. I live in once such state.

http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/minwagebwP.pdf


The highest minimum wage is found in Alaska at $7.15 per hour and 39 out of 50 states fall under the federal minimum wage law.

http://www.media-services.com/states/minimum_wage.aspx



Kind of makes your $15.00 per hour minimum way over estimated.

Wrong if SL's largest business refused to accept $L's even if no one else followed suit that would sharply reduce demand for $L's I would expect a rapid drop in the value of the $L. The same amount of L's would be floating around out there but no one that had to pay Anshe would be buying them. And you can bet she'd dump most of her stockpile(possibly to help drive it across the threshhold of her threat). Her post is an unveiled threat to the economy and does matter to everyone.

Hostile takeover, nice! Does SL have a poison pill in place? Hopefully it's not of type "Gimmie my ball back, I'm going home," ergo- abandonment.

Anshe could possibly "poison" the L$ by selling it low (didn't Guni threaten something like this years back? The infamous "Linden money gods" post?)

But she couldn't accept rent/tier only in A$. The person paying would have no A$ and would therefore have to buy them from Anshe in US$, only to give them straight back for the rent, and then for Anshe to pay a part of those US$ to LL. Ie, this is exactly equivalent to paying Anshe in US$, and the A$ would never enter circulation (unless she enforced a minimum purchase of A$). The only way A$ could get into circulation would be if Anshe offered to pay them to people for land she bought.

If Anshe refused to take Lindens for the sale of her land on the continent, she would experience a great slow down in land sales. Most would buy other land rather than trade in their U.S. to buy Anshe$. There'd be no point to buyin Anshe land if it's trading only under a different currency.

Well there is some history here Marc. When it comes to AnsheCorp all I can say is "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."

You need to update your information sources. Washington States min wage is $7.63 and Oregons is $7.50.

Here is a nice page with current info. Just click a state: http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm

Makes no difference to Linden Labs or most residents. If she only will accept dollars then let her accept what happens.

As I say with a few exceptions, most land of second life is just about as UGLY as any other part of Second Life. If they dont buy their land with the lousy views from her they can from another!

I am not sure of that, Marc. On Dreamland it is custom for most to pay the monthly rent in USD or EUR anyway. If the price to pay for the land would be quoted in USD, EUR or A$ that would not make a huge difference.

Please take into consideration that very often, when people buy land, they have to buy the needed currency at the LindeX anyway. That was the reason, L$ buying was integrated into the land buying dialog. No, I don't think that refusal to accept L$ would be a big burden for Anshe's business.

And maybe a "Dreamland Currency" is the true goal behind this move.

I am not so sure of this. On Dreamland it would not be a big deal. But her mainland land sales it well might be. There are many others who sell land and sell it in L$. Many folks simply trust the L$ and the Lindens and are comfortable deal in this currency. I strongly suspect there are going to be many people who do not trust the A$ (particularly until it establishes a history). These people will simply purchase from someone else. This may well hurt this particular aspect of Anshe's Business.

On the flip side. If Anshe will only purchase land in A$ there will be many residents that simply will not sell to her. Lack of trust in the A$ being only one part of the reason. We have already seen in these forum a number of residents refusing to take A$ for their merchandise. If the numbers of residents who are willing to take A$ for products does not reach a critical mass then someone who sells their land for A$ has no place to use those A$ except dreamland thus limiting their choices. If this same land seller chose to cashout their A$ for USD or L$ they will likely be charged a fee for this service by Anshe (this has not been detailed as of yet in the forums so is just speculation). Seems to me under these circumstances it is to the advantage of a Land seller (unless truely desperate) not to accept A$ for their land thus hurting another aspect of Anshe's business.

The idea is to give buyers both options: buy in L$ or use one more stable currency to buy. The prices in the more stable currency however would need less markup for cover the risk, expected devaluation and all this kinda thing. Risk and uncertainty can be expensive, stable currencies can therefore save money.

I am sorry but will not accept A$ for any reason.

The problem still remains though that if you're selling land in A$ and I want to buy some, all I can do is to buy the A$ from you for US$ - and then immediately pay you back the A$ for the land. Which is basically the same as just paying you in US$.

Will I be able to get A$ from anywhere else?

Bit harsh.

Plus,thats Your opinion. Its not mine. I have been paying Anshe for about 7 or 8 months, and have nothing but praise for the company.

This strikes me as an even worse idea. For the following reasons. You are effectively saying here that you are going to mark up your prices if the deal is done in L$ to rates potentially higher than they are already to try to give incentive (force may be too strong a word and incentive to weak) buyers to deal in A$. Many are going to resent this. And left over A$ will still need to be converted to other currencies in many cases and the fees for this still have not been stated. Resentment in one aspect of a business has a nasty habit of carrying over to all other aspects.

I suspect what is really going on here with you initial announcement and followup posts is that you are studying the responses of the forum denizens. From these responses you will refine your plan of action on this issue. * shrugs* it's what I would do not rocket science.

Weather or not you are manipulating the Lindex to force the L$ to that critical point where your plan must come into action I can't say. There is no concrete proof. I will say it has crossed alot of minds but that does not mean you are doing it.

I will say I think this plan is very ill advised particularly at this point in SL history. The age play debacle has brought SL to public notice in a less than flattering way that may well bring authorities into the game. Also there has been some noise about getting the California gambling commission into SL in which case BECAUSE Lindex exists might well leave LL holding the bag of unregulated gambling (in game casinos). The last thing SL need at this point in time is a currency clearly backed by RL money. The L$'s RL value is still just grey enough LL might wiggle out of an unregulated gambling charge. The A$ Likely will not be.

I do have to give you kudos for guts though. It's an enormous risk. Gain is potentially fantastic but you might well lose your shirt and all of us might lose SL.

Thanks. Nice to know those have gone up a bit. My SO is from Oregon and the last we knew minimum wage in Oregon was still at $7.00 per hour. A 50 cent increase in the last 6 years is good to know about since we are considering moving there.

However, even in light of these new figures, it still does not change the fact that his estimate is over stated.

Wanted to find out what this age play debacle was and found out that search doesn't allow you to find any thing with "age play" in it. Try entering that search term and you just get an error page.

Censorship. ???

Those threads have been closed so they may not show up on a search. Try looking in Off Topic or General for the ones that are left.

It isn't that it doesn't find any threads... it goes to an error page but only when you enter those search terms... try it

If you go through the threads for the last week or so you will find multiple threads dealing with child AV sex. Many started by the same person and most locked. Someone did not like the responses they recieved from other forum denizens and proceded to post on CNET concerning Age Play in SL. Thats the nutshell of it. Please do look through general for the original posts and form your own opinion.

this is the URL for the post with the link to the article
/108/5c/96968/1.html

the search function may not be working correctly. Just browse through several pages of the general forum you will find them.

Pushes all the BS to the side. I'm not buying A$, they took a risk by buying so much land. They took a risk by buying L$. Their loss is now trying to be passed off as our problem. It's not. When you play big expect to lose big.

Cat

Land in SL is not "real property". It is a subscription to a service.

It is sad to lose so much money but that is life in the land of the fee.

Nope its not real. Nothing in SL is tangable as it is in rl.

Cat