[arin-ppml] Q1 - ARIN address transfer policy: why the trigger date?

[Owen DeLong]

On Jun 20, 2008, at 10:10 AM, Paul Vixie wrote:

>>> isn't this inevitable in times of shortage, ...
>
>> I don't accept your premise that a market is inevitable.
>
> what else have you ever seen humans do in times of shortage?  you  
> have all of
> recorded human history to draw from.  show us some alternatives.

I have seen the following in history:

	Cooperative rationing
	The Donner Party
	Markets
	Black Markets
	Gray Markets
	Enforced rationing
	War
	Famine

Obviously, some of these approaches have yielded better results in
some circumstances than other.  The Donner Party being an example
of a particularly poor  outcome.

However, most of human history that you are referring to applies to  
shortages
that were temporary in nature.

The current legitimate market in Ivory in the US would be a good  
parallel
example worth considering for something which will not be replenished
at some future point.

There are actually very few shortages in human history which are
parallel in this nature, but, the ones that do exist which I am aware
of show how markets drove the price up until we finally hunted the
animal to extinction and then the market collapsed.  In this case,
we have the option of just watching the extinction occur without
creating a market and all of the economic damage that follows
as a result of such a markets bubble and eventual collapse.

OTOH, the perceived shortage of tulips provides another interesting
and potentially entertaining study in why natural human market
behavior may not exactly be a good thing.

Owen