I was skeptical about the future success of such an expensive venue as SL when I migrated here from ActiveWorlds 3d chat in 2006, and for good reason. Having gone from a non-paying 'tourist' in AW in 1998 when there were thousands of 'worlds' and Members, to a world owner/builder/modeler in 2006 when on any given day the User count was below 200, I saw that program evolve from boon to bust. The reasons were numerous, and all through this implode the Users sounded much like all of you on this blog. The interesting part was AW Corp not only wasn't suffering financially, they had simultaneous 'test' universes where entire worlds were given to select AW users for testing purposes - myself being one of these lucky 'secret' members. I understand the personal investment many of us have in this 3d environment as Users, but ...
What many of you may not realise, it's a big cyber world out there, and countless people are working on it 24/7, and this is truly only the beginning. The ultimate success of SL as we know it is far from assured at this point.
My suggestion is that we use the internet for the phenominal tool that it is, and educate ourselves in this medium we now obviously love. The venue may change, but the cyber culture will continue, and there are options. Sadly life as we have known it on OS sims is over. Rants and petitions will do you no good. LL may hear you, but they have other fish to fry. This particular blog may be of interest to you >
http://blog.mindblizzard.com/labels/ibm.html
Given the current situation of the global economy, and the fact that Linden dollars are connected with real currency, why are you surprised at the squeeze? Educate yourselves. There will still be a place for everyone in cyberspace, as it continues to 'come of age'.