#define SOAPBOX
Please remember ARIN covers more than just the relatively prosperous United States. There are places like Jamaica, which are also in the ARIN region, where the average annual income is $2,337.
indeed i find this thread to be depressing. the economics you mention, of course. but also folk being rude, judgemental, and blaming the user for being confused by the complex and jargon-infested bureaucrazy we have created in the rirs. and yes, props to the rirs for trying to document rules and processes. but that often seems to create even more documents. and, of course, if you have to deal with multiple rirs, expect no parallelism, similar nomenclature, etc. it is very easy for a new rir user to get confused by corner cases, terminology, quirks of history, and the detritus of our amateur policy wonkage. give 'em a break. and see if we can round off the rough edges where they got caught. randy --- note that i use the first person plural