[ppml] Policy Proposal 2007-15: Authentication ofLegacyResources

[David Conrad]

On Jul 30, 2007, at 3:28 PM, Paul Vixie wrote:
>> So, you have 100 people and water for 50.
>>
>> It isn't a question of storage, it is of allocation.  What would you
>> propose?  FCFS?  "To each according to need"?  A market?
>
> can you define more of the constraints?

Why?  The statement was that "water should never be rationed."  Your  
response is asking for what would constrain the rationing, not  
whether the rationing was necessary.

> i can't think of an example where rationing was used for a fixed  
> resource
> which was going to run completely and forever out at a predictable  
> moment.

?

Any limited resource, land, gold, food, water, oil, etc. are all  
subject to rationing when the demand outstrips supply.  The mechanism  
used for rationing varies, from market distribution to non-price  
rationing such as queues, bureaucracy, or edicts.  The fact that a  
resource will "run completely and forever out" at a predictable (or  
un-) moment is irrelevant.  The point is to distribute the resource  
as "equitably" (for some value of that variable) as possible during  
the period of scarcity.

Rgds,
-drc