the economy is at the state it is currently
because shops are crap.
thats all there is to it.
nanos stop at 120, everything else at 125.
and good luck trying to find a complete suit of non rubbish armor EVER.
fix that and watch the free money dwindle like snow in the desert.
as long as money only gets shuffled around in auctions, it is not removed from the system - the cash just sits on another character who cannot use it for anything but bidding on a rare drop or hoarding it to buy grid armor for his l33t phixxor twink.
the day comes when all your char slots are full and they have good implants and yalms and use armor ql 125+ and nanos 120+.
from that moment on their cash starts to pile up.
and up.
and higher...
you get the idea.
What about those of us that are dirt poor?
My 93 engineer has never, EVER, had more than 300k in his bank. Engineers have to (or are supposed to anyway) buy a new bot crystal every couple levels, and the crystals around where I am cost anywhere from 500k up. (I've afforded these through the kindness of my guild.) I would imagine the same goes for crats and MPs.
Pet based professions can't blitz mission because of pet pathing, our pets are dumb, and slow us down considerably, especially for engineers, who have no strong weapon skills with the exception of pistols, and ALL base abilities are blue skills.
On top of which you've got people who really want to get into tradeskills, myself included. Not only is this not worth the IP required, it's IMPOSSIBLE to find certain items absolutely essential, i.e. the PPPE, or find someone with one who's willing to convert an MRR for you so you can make armor.
Maybe there's some magical way to make millions of credits, I don't know, I really wish someone would tell me if there is, I'd really like a yalm :P.
And I know I do NOT want to fight through a dungeon just to get basic tools at my level.
On the flip side, I definetely dig the social armor hologram idea, some armor is really ugly :)