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I agree with Ned that neither ~/.local nor /etc are a good fit for OSX, 
sadly enough I wasn't paying attention when ~/.local was added as python 
already had a per-user directory on OSX: ~/Library/Python.
The common unix directories are often not a good pick for good OSX 
citizens, even if OSX is build on Unix.
The OSX filesystem structure should be described somewhere below 
<http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/
BPFileSystem/BPFileSystem.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000185>, although I 
haven't found a clear explanation yet.
Technically configuration files should be stored in /Library/Preferences 
(system wide) or ~/Library/Preferences (per user), but I'd say 
practicality beats purity here and I'd store configuration in 
/Library/Python/etc or ~/Library/Python/etc. 
BTW. I haven't read most of the discussion yet, I'll probably have more 
to add when I do. What I did notice was a proposal to store the 
distutils cfg file in ~/.local/lib/pythonX.Y/site-
packages/distutils.cfg. IMHO that way to hidden and an unexpected 
location for storing configuration files.