@OP: Now there is a stupid idea! No offense. If you give people near-unlimited resources or lower the prices, there wouldn't be any traders at all, except for the ones who actually like trader RP. Miners don't have RP since they are too busy with shooting rocks. So no, that isn't good. The server would be overfilled with pirates, possibly Corsairs and Outcasts. Then RPing a trader would be utterly boring and annoying. In the end, the server would shift to PvP. (I mean more to PvP)
You'll punish the kids after they crash and possible kill themselves? I hope you live somewhere in a forest, without a female counterpart or a car.
And mining has nothing to do with the population, AFAIK.
And that's my view, unstained by personal desires.