Sink and Sources seems to be the problem, Not stipend

Doing away with stipends is nothing more than another quick fix, making some rich until they can scream we need more linden in the economy.

pretend there was no stipend last month...
sources of linden: 74,722,420 (total) - 65,465,100 (stipend) = 9,257,320
total sinks: 22,147,473

total "burned" linden: 12,890,153

(april would have been "burned" linden of 8,442,900)

Following that kind of trend, more people would start having to buy linden, just to pay sinks... an average of 10 mil a month, leaving about 70 months until there would be no linden in the system. Of course, buying would stop long before that when l$/us$ gets too low.

Seems to me, that increasing the amount of sinks would give a much longer, better outlook for SL, would keep the non-content creators happy with their stipends, and would keep content creators happy with a more value. Unfortunatly, most sinks affect content-creators; classifieds and upload charges being above 50% of sinks now, would probably have to cost more to make things, so prices would still have to increase a little to cover costs.

Perhaps some fee for snapshots, or prim creation... seems to be the two most used to me other than current ones.

Theres already a fee for snapshots. And a prim fee was tried and failed.

What other sources are there aside from the stippend? And what will people bitch and moan more about, cuts in their stippend/dole, or an increase in taxes to play the game?

thats a good question, what will be more upsetting to the populace? "Free" money taken away or taxes?

I dont know, it reminds me of the people who dont claim as much on their taxes so they get a huge tax return. They claim its free money but its basically an interest free loan to the government for the year.

Anyways... either way youre going to hear a lot of bitching no matter what. you can't make everyone happy at the same time.

https://secondlife.com/currency/economy.php

will show most of the current info on sources and sinks, viewing the raw data you can go back a bit further. I find it helps to look at all the figures, not just the ones that jump out like totals.

It's my opinion that most people are thinking in absolutes, super high "taxes", or no stipend. There is a big difference in who benifits and who gets the shaft with those. Both would affect me, since some weeks i depend on stipend, others i sell my extra linden to pay my teir; enough to keep me around without takeing RL cash from my pocket. We need a balance to reduce the differece of Sources to Sinks.

The removal of the free basic stipend, is a good step in reducing the sources a bit, considering that if there was only 10000 alts logging in a basic, thats a 26 billion reduction /year.

Also, people are always going to complain, but everyone would feel it less when costs of taxes slowly rise, while income slowly decreases, until the Sinks to Sorces ratio is very close to 1.

Why don't they just reduce the premium stipend to L$400 per week that is a tax of 20%?

Because people paid for the 500 a week.

If sinks to sources ratio was 1, there would be deflation.

Very soon, the Linden is going to stablize. That stability point isn't 361 though.

361 is what you get when you consider a yearly premium account buying only the 500L stipend.

In reality you get the stipend and 512 of land which is (will be) worth about 768L a month.

That puts the stabilization point at 489. When the Linden goes above 489, two things happen.

1. The Linden will stop devaluing, since Linden Lab will no longer be selling it out under market value.

2. There will be absolutely no reason to have a premium account, if all you want is 512 meters of land and the 500L stipend. It will be the same or cheaper to just buy your Lindens on Lindex.

Linden Lab loses money as people both cancel premium accounts, and throw a fit if LL suggests selling their own new Lindens on Lindex to make up for their shortfall (or raising stipends).

As it stands right now, 361 is the tipping point if all you have premium for is the stipend. 489 is the tipping point if you actually use the 512 of land, and don't need land otherwise.

At that point (489) people that DO need land higher than 512 meters will really storm the doors of Linden Lab demanding they end premium stipends. They will be paying *above* market value for Lindens they don't want or need.

So remember that number. 489 is as important a number as 361. These are natural barriers in the linden price right now. As it devalues through these price points it will hit more and more resistance.

Basically the Linden will be safe, but Linden Lab is going to be between a rock and a very hard place with the linden at 489. They need to act now and end premium accounts, so they can sell lindens into the deflationary linden that will result. It's the only long term viable method.