Note that a secondhand IP address costs $10 to buy, not $10/month.
IMO Postel's allocation of IP addresses can be rationalized from a capitalist viewpoint as a form of homesteading. Some people end up with windfall profits three decades later, but it's a small price to pay for a peacefully functioning market. Owning a $100M asset that's underutilized is already an economic incentive to free up addresses (just don't tell my company); a Georgist property tax on IP addresses would provide even more incentive but it would also likely cause a revolt.
Since there are going to be 4B devices on the Internet soon if not already, talking about "there would never have been a need for IPv6" seems to imply the existence of an address-less underclass.
Note that a secondhand IP address costs $10 to buy, not $10/month.
Yeah I really screwed up on that one!!!
I got confused because often the retail price is in that range. E.g. Comcast Business will give you a static IP for $20/month.[1] But reading further, they will give you 13 extra IPs for $40/month, so clearly I didn't think it through.
IMO Postel's allocation of IP addresses can be rationalized from a capitalist viewpoint as a form of homesteading. Some people end up with windfall profits three decades later, but it's a small price to pay for a peacefully functioning market. Owning a $100M asset that's underutilized is already an economic incentive to free up addresses (just don't tell my company); a Georgist property tax on IP addresses would provide even more incentive but it would also likely cause a revolt.
Since there are going to be 4B devices on the Internet soon if not already, talking about "there would never have been a need for IPv6" seems to imply the existence of an address-less underclass.