[2063] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
pricing
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Alex McKenzie)
Thu Jan 23 10:14:36 1992
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 92 9:49:04 EST
From: Alex McKenzie <mckenzie@BBN.COM>
To: com-priv@psi.com
IMHO pricing plans (or tariffs) _must_ be viewed as mechanisms for
implementing policy. No other view is consistent with reality. Those
responsible for developing prices/tariffs must be clear about what
user/consumer behavior then want, and this is policy. Given a desired
user behavior, one can implement prices/tariffs which increase the
probability that the users/consumers will behave the way you want to
close to 1.0. Of course, if the policy makers have conflicting goals,
they may not be able to develop prices which are effective in achieving
ALL (or even ANY) of the goals.
Dan Schlitt wrote about "a game of measure and counter-measure between
the [academic computer] center and the users" as though this were awful.
In fact, economic "games" between sellers and buyers are natural and
inevitable; developing price/tariff models must be based on the
expectation of such games. It is never useful to ask buyers to behave
one way and give them an economic incentive to behave another way.
I think much of the discussion about both computer center pricing and
network pricing ignores what we know of human behavior.
Alex McKenzie
