I was a gold member the first 3 months I had my 360. I thought it would be cool to play games with some of my co-workers because we all talked about it and bought 360s at the same time. We played Gears of War... once.
When I looked at all the stuff on Live, they still charge you whether you are a Gold or Silver member. So here I am paying for a Gold membership and not using because I'm not playing multiplayer with anyone. Therefore it's a complete waste. If some or all of the things on Live were cheaper as a Gold member, I feel like I probably would have bought more stuff and maybe even remained a Gold member longer to hold onto that benefit of cheaper items.