KREMER, SL - The recent LL blog announcement by Jack Linden that LL is holding off any new mainland land sales indefinitely, due to flat land prices, indicates that there is little new interest in land buying by the general public. This means literally zero economic growth in SL for the past two months. The game gods have succeeded in killing an economy that previously had grown at rates of over 400% annually.
While many could explain it as a reflection of RL economic circumstances impacting individuals disposable income, there are other factors at work here.
It is a proven fact that tyranny begets reduced economic activity. Former users of SL have either left SL, or reduced their usage to the status of free accounts with no land not just due to real life circumstances, as many are well paid professionals in RL who have plenty of disposable income. The reason they are ceasing contributing to the SL economy is they are sick and tired of the creeping fascism in SL.
Lets face it, the casinos, the ad farming, the banking, was all a sign of a healthy, growing, vibrant economy. People joined SL because they liked the idea of earning at least a part of their living in SL, and they were willing to invest their savings and free time here to make that possible. Linden Lab even promoted SL for this very purpose. Unfortunately, people from economically repressive states and countries also joined SL, brought their ranting demagogery with them, and have succeeded in destroying the economy and driving away capital, much as is the case in their real life nations.
In the real world, cultures that ban economic activity such as these wind up in the economic dustbin. The Muslim world, many argue, is underdeveloped specifically because the Islamic prohibitions on charging and paying interest on loans or deposits makes obtaining capital difficult, even in supposedly oil rich countries. If Islam dropped the prohibition on interest, those nations would flower economically, their middle classes would grow with industry, and the supply of disenchanted underemployed individuals to islamist jihadist organizations would dry up because they would be too busy working.
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Many people sign up for online social networks using their Secondlife avatar names and use these networks as a way to keep in touch outside of SL but beware 'Facebook' is cracking down on fake identities.
