The problem with the address space as it is now, is that WAY back in the day, certain for-profit companies were given incredibly huge IP address blocks. These should be reserved for ISPs.
Almost every company will use one or at most two IP addresses. The only time you need more than that is if you host your own web servers, etc.
The "problem" of the "shortage of IP addresses" was solved back in 98. It's called NAT.
(I.e., you could take this article and it would be at home in any geek magazine in 1998).



