RE: icc comments in text

["Roeland M.J. Meyer" <rmeyer@mhsc.com>]

At 03:07 AM 1/20/99 +0800, Dave Crocker wrote: 
>At 11:33 AM 1/17/99 -0800, Roeland M.J. Meyer wrote:
>>I disagree. Flat-rate is the most fair way. Anything else is discriminatory
>
>In reality, ANY scheme is discriminatory.  Some discriminate implicitly, 
>some explicitly.

I minor quibble, agreed. It is the degree and complexity of the
discrimination that matters. Yes, any time you take a sub-set of anything,
you are being discriminitory. I was using a narrower definition of the
word. The broad definition is almost useless in this context.

>Consequently, we need to look at matters of "reasonable" fairness and 
>balance it against "unreasonable" complexity and enforcement difficulty.  
>Administrative difficulty is a seriously non-trivial issue.

My other point, and one I have not stated clearly, is that setting
discriminatory pricing, is politically contentious and adds complexity to
the debate. Every contentious point breaks consensus. Adding to that the
non-trivial administrative nature, of such a pricing scheme, it becomes
progressively more difficult to support. In an organizational support cost
context, the administration could concievably add up to a substantial
portion of the total revenue stream. 

>For starters, let's note that this organization does not need to cost a lot 
>of money.  As such, low fees should be attainable, especially if a large 
>membership is achieved.  Then the average fee could be quite low.

This is true, however, the definition of "low" varies. Low, in the US
economy, is in the region of $25US, or less. In certain parts of the world,
this is still a substantial number.

>A fee that is low enough does not need to be scaled according to the 
>geography or economics of individual members.
>
>In other words, a flat fee is likely to be both most fair and most easily 
>administered.

Are you agreeing here?<grin>
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