Second Life Capitalism - First Look

As a newbie, I do not have great experience with Second Life capitalism... but there is evidence that it is thriving. Today, on the non-official site Second Life Herald, I read that the SL identity of one of the succesful fashion designers of SL was stolen, along with L$400,000 (that is four hundred thousand Linden dollars, about 1,500 dollars in U.S. currency) in this person's SL account. That is no mere petty larceny!

While I still have to encounter various means of making money and doing business on SL, one thing seems amply clear... the voluntary efforts of SL residents keeps this metaworld going. Sure, the basic stuff has been created and put in place by Linden Lab, the company that owns SL, but most of the different objects and trinkets that appear in this environment are created bySL users or residents. In fact, the whole system is one of growing spaces and objects and encounters, all designed to bring revenue to Linden Lab coffers while also providing some incentives to the builder-workers who are able to monetize their wares. Not too different from the mushrooming, self-fuelling expansion of capitalist markets...

But wait, in capitalism, the workers are paid wages -- and rising ones in situations where they are able to bargain collectively or are able to exert pressure on capitalists via regulations. In SL, workers work for free...

Is this feudalism under Lord Linden? Or worse, slavery under Master Linden? But it cannot be... slaves do not pay to be that way, they are coerced into labor. This is more like fetishism, a voluntary submission to please Mistress Linden -- along with payments to her; and she allows the subjects to trade stuff and make money on the side, especially if such trade brings more avatars in her servitude!