I think the more interesting thing is 'why' people go and buy this gold or power leveling services. Its very risky (I have a friend who used to work for Blizzard and loved tracking down these 'gangs and breaking them up / shutting them down, they do seem to close down a lot of these organisations but they just keep reappearing) but I guess they are economically viable in poorer countries.

Maybe we need a virtual world with something different in which to 'reward' more casual players for coming back. For instance, I haven't played WOW (World of Warcraft) in a few months now mainly because I refuse to until I get a proper job at least (unless it is with Blizzard, come back to me again you guys :-p ). I'm at the maximum level with two characters and nothing will have changed for them when I go back apart from there being new content to explore. Now if say that all the 'gold' I have deposited into the bank was earning interest or I was given new powers for my time away 'meditating' or something then I might be more inclined to go back and check it out!

There is a system in most games like in 'WOW' where if you spend time away from the game while leveling a character. The character will build up a bonus for when they come back to help them level faster for a while. This is good but there is nothing to replace this at the maximum level.

This would lead to people being less stressed about not getting their goals fast enough and not having the time to commit. Then again you will always have people who want everything for nothing and this is why there will always be some level of 'cheating'. These people are just different types of players, i'm not saying this is a good thing but this is what allows them to enjoy the game in their own personal way.

What I'd really like to know is that if this black market was to disappear over night, would people migrate away from WOW in larger numbers and head to MMO's with faster progression? I think that would make for a very interesting case study! 

I also have some great ideas with big earning potential for MMO's as I don't think they are as vast and in depth as they can be quite yet.

It is all fault of the game designers. A game should not be so focused on the economical aspects and require so much gold to play.
Repairs, consumables and other aspects ask people to "farm" for gold and/or ingredients. Somehow the game companies feel that we are playing more like this and stay more on like this which might be true but most Europe/US subscriptions are bases on per-day not a per-hour method.
I wish some day Blizzard and others will wake up and make a game more content focused and less "farming" oriented.