Try looking at it from an outsider's point of view instead. If you're new to dealing with ARIN, it is not uncommon to find the process is absolutely baffling, frustrating, slow, expensive, and requiring intrusive disclosure just shy of an anal cavity probe.
as is dealing with pretty much any bureaucracy for which you are a novice. (FedWire/CBD anyone? :)
In any kind of free market system, competition would have bitchslapped the current ARIN way of doing things a long, long time ago. Personally I find the single most compelling reason to move to IPv6 to be the removal of any justification for ARIN's continued existance in its current form.
but its not "free-market" is it.
Somehow I suspect the only folks who wouldn't welcome this are the ones who benefit from the one thing ARIN is actually good at doing, namely paying for frequent business class travel and accomodations to exotic locations around the world under the pretense of "meetings". Hrm guess I had better offer dinner in St Louis is on me for whichever one of my friends on the "ARIN travel plan" complains about this post first. :)
while not i'm particularly enamored of the current status quo, it has the distinct advantage of being member-driven. and that means if the members want a change, there is a clear path for that change to occur. and perhaps its my particular POV, but arin members do seem adept at making "disruptive" changes in general RIR policies. --bill
-- Richard A Steenbergen <ras@e-gerbil.net> http://www.e-gerbil.net/ras GPG Key ID: 0xF8B12CBC (7535 7F59 8204 ED1F CC1C 53AF 4C41 5ECA F8B1 2CBC)