Traffic maybe, I really can't see them cutting stipends. If they did, it would be a seriously bad move. Where do you get the 1 in 5 figure btw?
Taken together, these two changes reduce the amount of new currency flowing into the Second Life economy by approximately L$6.8 Million per month. This is a signifigant change, corresponding to a reduction in overall monthly economic incentives by roughly 19%.
Philip Linden
Lets put it all together.
6.8 million was 19% of the total growth of the economy (if you want you can use the ratings equations to double check the 50k users);
growth not related to ratings (the other 81%) is about 29 million.
CODE
29 million = stypends + traffic + events
monthly stypends = 4 * (500 * users_premium + 50 * users_basic)
29000000 = 2000 * users_premium + 200 * users_basic + traffic + events
in a week there are about 5 educational events
events = 500 * 5 * 4 = 10000
traffic on the other hand i have no idea about, lets say 240000 L$ monthly
users_premium + users_basic = 50000
users_basic = 50000 - users_premium
29000000 = 2000 * users_premium + 200 * (50000 - users_premium) + 240000 + 10000
29000000 = 2000 * users_premium + 10000000 - 200 * users_premium + 250000
18750000 = 1800 * users_premium
users_premium = 10416
or roughly 1/5
course i forgot to take into account charter members and referals, which would all push up the number of basic users.
From the 1/5 stat you can estimate that LL makes about 6 Million US$ a year. Which is why I say LL won't spend 1.5 Million balancing the economy.
LL doesn't sell L$ on GOM; to LL they are just an integer. If they mint 10 Million or destroy 10 Million L$ they don't make a penny. Selling land for L$ doesn't make them money because they don't sell L$. They can't cash out their L$.