In article , Dave
wrote:

On Fri, 03 Mar 2006 16:40:47 -0500, DSK said:

It's called "the common good." The concept may have expanded
beyond reasonable boundaries, but if you deny the basic
concept, try going out in the woods and living totally on
your own.

Indeed, I'm not rejecting the proposition that it's a good idea for
taxpayers as a group rather than by individuals to bear certain costs. I'm
all in favor of the guvmint's compiling the data and preparing the charts in
the first instance. I'm asking whether there's a good reason why taxpayers
as a whole should be expected to pay the entire cost of producing and
distributing the little pieces of paper you and I use to stay out of harm's
way as we pilot our pleasure craft about on the weekend.

The problem here seems to be one of the cost of distribution.

Now, the cost of collecting the hydro data is a sunk cost. If it's
needed for the common good, or just military purposes, or whatever,
it's needed. The surveys are done and the charts are put together,
updated etc etc.

If you want paper charts, there's a cost of printing, mailing,
handling, storage, middlemen'd margins etc etc etc. You should have to
pay for that.

If it's an electronic file d/loaded off a Web site, the cost is the
storage on disk, extra wear & tear on hardware, bandwidth and
bugger-all else.

So what's the problem in providing data that taxpayer's dollars have
collected, to those taxpayers?

I have a vested interest in this. Unlike most of you, including Dave,
my organisation is a data *providor*. We provide the data we collect to
anyone who wants it, for free. The cost & aggravation of setting up the
s/ware and management structure needed to bill people for data is way
in excess of the marginal cost to us of just making it available for
free. I just upload it all into a big Oracle database and that's the
end of it. The stuff I collect is for places where the surveys have
been either sparse or nonexistent, of no use to yachts etc, so I doubt
anyone here would be interested, but the principle remains.

So Dave, unlike you, I know the cost of giving out data that taxpayers
have already paid to collect. It's minuscule.

PDW