IF YOU NEED A TLDR: CTRL + F, "TLDR - "
“The great cause of inequality in the distribution of wealth is inequality in the ownership of land. The ownership of land is the great fundamental fact which ultimately determines the social, the political, and consequently the intellectual and moral condition of a people.”
- Henry George, Progress and Poverty
Indeed, as Henry George published his 1879 work ‘Progress and Poverty’, a treatise on inequality and market inefficiency, he identified a major problem with then contemporary markets: The stifling of free enterprise under the monopolistic control of uncreated value in land, space, and natural resources. He believed that as land and its resources became less plentiful, the ensuing rise in economic Rent (not necessarily petty apartment rents) would eat away at both the productive enterprise of capital and the wages of labor. This phenomenon was the cause of depressions and the cyclical nature of the business cycle - Speculation on the value of assets whos value is created by demand like any other good or service, but unlike them, is not produced or created. A value owned and dominated by one person, made by everyone but him.
Without going too far into the moral ideas, or the real world data and examples inspired by his ideas (late 20th Century Detroit, Philadelphia in the late 1970’s, modern Singapore, among many others) his ideas ultimately culminated in a movement of people with an interest in breaking up monopolistic and aristocratic-first privilege in the market so that free enterprise and individual freedom alike would be able to flourish through fair competition. This thinking is natural as well: Even Blizzard implements some level of protection against “landlordism”, forcing old character names back into pool of free names.
I have come today to bring attention to the unruly speculation of the Auction House, and how the insane level of market manipulation ultimately damages the economy and forces casual honest players into abject poverty. I also offer a solution below.
It is very simple: Large gold whales are able to buy up massive amounts of goods, only to flip them for 3x, sometimes even in my experience, 15x the price. What is the effect? They continue to get richer, and the newer or more casual players are stuck selling low and buying high.
You might say “Well they put in the work! They are shrewd and smart!”. They do not work. They do not create anything. They merely speculate and create inflation at the total whim of their mood on any particular day. They did not farm(produce) the materials, they do not create opportunities for the economy with their gold. In their massive greed, they effectively destroy farming as a legitimate method of playing the game and force players into buying gold, only compounding the problem by either quite literally printing gold out of thin air, or pushing said desperate players to shady, risky third party gold sale sites that break the EULA. They are the reason content is gatekept by gold prices, them and the botters that is. It is a sick and twisted mindset that finds this not practical, but valuable and moral.
MY SOLUTION; A TLDR -
In short, the auction house is structured in a way that allows rife abuse of massive gold conglomerates that allow pricing to swing wildly based on their petty speculation. In this process they impoverish other players, eliminate legitimate playstyles, encourage third party gold sellers, and suck valuable server bandwidth in their millions of auction house calls.
I propose that based on an accounts use of the auction house (ie, the server bandwidth you demand), the auction house cut should be adjusted dynamically. The more you use it, the higher percentage you pay. This would not affect 90% of people who play the game without speculating and hurting their fellow player: Posting even dozens of posts a day from herbs you have farmed, or buying your guilds flasks, whatever, are not the issue and should not be the target. But these gold-changing lunatics are absolutely castrating the economy of wow in all versions and should be stopped, allowing accurate auction pricing to exist freely for all players to enjoy.
