Linden dropping, a new idea... maybe

HI all-

I have been reading all the "Linden is Falling" threads and was wondering a few things...

have the Lindens at any point commented on this debate... I've been looking through the forums and have yet to see them saying anything about the value of the Linden$?

My new idea.
Wouldn't it make more sense, rather than to cut either stipend, to lower the Premium stipend to 50$L per week? Here's my reasoning.

Premium members need lindens more than basic members because they own land and need to buy things to put on that land (furniture etc...) I'm not saying that basics don't need to buy things, but at 50L/wk, they are going to have to get a job or buy some lindens on LindenX to afford anything, just that Premiums need MORE $L.

By lowering the Premium stipend, inflation would be lowered on two fronts...

Less Lindens being created out of thin air... (I read that roughly 25Million Lindens in Basics, and 25Million Lindens in Premium stipends are added each week, this would lower that to around 30Million total.)

Also if Premiums wouldn't get such a large stipend (we'll explore how large later on) they would be forced to purchase Lindens on the LindenX or create content (both good for the economy) in order to maintain their lifestyle. More buyers on LindenX create a higher demand and should drive up the value of the Linden.



FOR THOSE WHO SAY THEY ARE PAYING FOR THAT PREMIUM STIPEND

at 500/wk = 2000/month.

At the present exchange rate of 280$L/$US, that's about $7.14 per month just being given to you by Second Life... If like me you pay your fees yearly that's $1.14 PROFIT each month just farming out your stipend. You are getting paid to play. So why not make the only difference between the basic and premium membership be the ability to own land?

(NOTE: Please refrain from name calling in this thread, I'm just asking some questions and yes I do like my 500$L per week, but would prefer that the value of the linden not drop to the point of having to sell a boat for 12Million Lindens...)

How about cutting the premium stipend or making it flexible depending on the value on the Lindex? If the Lindex reaches 300, cut the stipend down to 250L. If it goes down to 260 or lower, raise it back up to 500L. This would be just like the Fed regulated the economy with the interest rate.
Then again, who's to say that it is being caused by too many stipends. It seems to me that someone keeps dumping a million lindens at a time or more daily the past week at a time at 278.
I also pay monthly, so at 280L I would not come out ahead in stipends. Just saying

That seems like a brilliant idea to me; make the stipend and maybe the $L sinks (classifieds and uploads) tied into the value of the Linden on the LindenX. So that your stipend isn't a constant.

Hm....good idea so far.

The flexible is good..I recommended that a bit back, with 7 us $ bought monthly (halfway between monthly and annual fees)

and in response:




Yes, I paid for it. its right on the membership benefits page. NO MATTER the lindex rating or exchange rate. its FULLY paid for as part of premium.

That's the thing, people signed up for it. Plus the rate seems to be steady now, but someone keeps adding millions at a time to the rate of 278L.

hmmmm? I wonder who? ^^

They do this to drive it down (other buyers and sellers) to make ppl who would normally sell to Lindex look elsewhere and the person/s who sold the millions at a low price have made their ' buy rate' slightly higher than Lindex now forced lower rate ( due to their bulk drop at a low rate )

If that makes sense.?

I agree with you on having paid for the state subsidy. I paid for all of my stipends too. I think that if LL is going to make any changes to the premium account welfare, they should implement it very carefully in order to avoid a messy debate playing out.

If they do adjust or take away the premium account welfare, (which may, or may not, but probably wouldn't be the best idea to fix the economic problems which plague the platform) they should do it on a per user basis at the end of each user's billing period. That way we can either choose to renew at the new state subsidy level, or choose not to. Either way, we would have received exactly what we paid for, so we'd have no right to whine on and on and on and on about getting what we paid for.

Personally I would definately renew my premium account even with no welfare attached, as I own and enjoy using land.

That doesn't make any sense at all, no.

Linden Labs isnt giving premium members welfare. They paid contractually for those lindens. Pay for = not hand out. Welfare = handout.

stipend = not welfare.

The Linden's have commented on it in a few threads and if you check the announcements forum you'll see they hired an ecomonist a month ago to monitor the situation. Previous to that, I believe it was Lawrence, had stated in a thread that they'd like to see the Linden back at 250 and are looking at ways to tweak the ecomony to get it back to that level.

Here is the announcement from Feb 11th:

"Welcome Vasudha Linden, who has joined Linden Lab to do economic analysis of transactions in Second Life.

Among the projects she'll be working are will be calculating the GDP of the economy, stipend policy analysis and establishing guidelines for a robust monetary policy.

Vasudha will be checking in on the Land and Economy forum, so please feel free to engage her in discussing your ideas for the Second Life economy."

Or how about this: LL could stop allowing Premium members to hold land without paying a L$ tax to LL. This would be a huge money sink! And if you combine it with cutting the Premium stipend to 50L$/week--why you could have almost no Premium members left!!!

LL doesn't need to touch the stipends, or tax anyone, or any of that. All they really need to do is declare that the L$ target value is now 361 per dollar rather than 250 per dollar. If they encourage people to trade in that area and base value on that area, in-world prices (from vendors who are concerned with value) will adjust and everything will be just fine.

The idea behind this is that rather than slashing the neumerical value of the stipend, which is what concerns most folks, you simply make it less useful. More specifically, you cultivate a situation in which money bought from other residents is exactly AS useful as money bought from LL.

LL should be ashamed to sell 361 lindens for a dollar, while at the same time telling you to value your items and currency as if a dollar is only worth 250 lindens. They should be encouraging RESIDENTS to provide the best rate on L$ so that residents can be in the best position to monetize their efforts.

Awesome, more Supporters calling for Stipend Cuts..


Where is Jonas and his alt Siggy to fuss?

The people they seem to hire have been "ineffective".
They need to hire me.. I'll fix the problem...

Ummm, yeah.. The millions being added are from
all those millions being added into the economy by
LL ever week...

The Money Supply Glut is spilling into LindenX...

You'll kill the economy, funny how almsot everyone agrees on that..hows that Alby?

I'd be proud to call Siggy an alt of mine..which he isn't. I don't have an alt..its all me, all open. Honest. Forward.

Mcgeeb, if they cut the stipend, they cut my premium fees too. Simply put, I won't pay for what I don't get. LL wont survive without premium members.

edit:



Emphasis mine. I suggested that soem time back..taking a set amount a month based on lindex. Even then it would require more cash flowing in new to balance the sinks.

reserve heres a thread you might like:

/130/aa/92730/1.html

millions flowing in weekly.. and millions flowing out daily

if anything stipends need increasing to balance sinks..

I'm not sure if he cares but they are there. I'm rather happy to see the Linden hold steady as it is the last week at 280. It's been that way 7 straight days.

I think we're on the verge of seeing an increas emyself..slight dip come monday/tuesday, but slow increases..

one step back, two steps forward

Unlike yourself I don't have an alt - I'm doing stuff in Real Life... as for the entire argument...

Hmmm exact same rate it was last week..

...yep thats 'falling'

haha carry on.

I once played Monopoly with RBD, but it was no fun, when he landed on my most expensive property, he claimed the money still in the bank created a surplus of Monopoly money, and therefore instead of £400 he said the property was only worth £50, and he scribbled collect £200 off of the go square.
what a killjoy.

For that work would require that prices for goods inworld would have to be equally flexible, and there is no way that would happen.

Also something to consider is those who can only afford to purchase Lindens once in a great while. As there are no doubt residents who can only allocate so much RL funds to SecondLife. Lowering the stipends would only lead to begging and despair amongst those who see very little additional Linden income with in world sales.

In the past 6 monts I've managed to make an additional $120 Lindens selling what few items I have on sale. Not exactly the kind of $L one would need to purchase that avatar or shiny thing anytime soon.

Why would they hire someone who bought in when the $L was at its inflated peak?


Sell. Cut your losses.