[arin-ppml] Encouraging IPv6 Transition (was: Clarify /29assignment identification requirement)

[Owen DeLong]

On May 11, 2012, at 11:06 AM, Mike Burns wrote:

> +1
> There is a lot of thrashing about to solve problems most naturally solved by a market.

-1


That depends on your definition of solved. In my experience, markets often (always?)
create many problems along the way to that so-called solution.

Markets are very efficient by the economists definition of efficiency, but, that is a
very specific definition of efficient which doesn't necessarily parallel what everyone
might expect nor does it necessarily indicate that the market optimizes for the
parameters that most concern the community.

Instead, the market tends to optimize for equilibrium between those with the
ability to pay and those with resources desired by those with the ability to pay.
For those whose ability to pay is below the threshold of that equilibrium, they are
left out in the cold with no recourse. Should someone or a group of someones with
an extreme ability to pay desire to reduce the size of the market, they have the
ability to do so in order to better manipulate said market to suit their motives,
at least for near-to-medium terms.

So while markets do, indeed, naturally offer a set of solutions to some of the
problems being described... The solution they offer is often contrary to the
good of the community the market should be serving.

>> the arin community's local austrian-school economist is dr. milton
>> mueller, and he has indeed made the points you describe. unconvincingly
>> from my point of view, but let's not forget about him altogether.
> 
> Indeed.  I'd revisit his suggestions.  A market, when left to its
> devices, solves these problems with remarkable speed and little
> difficulty.  It does so by leveraging all the knowledge, experience,
> requirements, and resources of its participants in a way that no series
> of conjectures, assertions, plans, and surveys are able.


That's a nice pipe dream. However, what it leaves out is the fact that a market
is driven by the participants with means to the conclusions and solutions that
best suit those with the most means.

In an environment where profit is the primary motivation for the existence of
the market, that may even bey somewhat optimal. In an environment where
the desired solution is more egalitarian, markets are incapable of producing
an ideal solution and will often trend quite far away from a solution in favor
of a profit.

Owen