"David Kastrup" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
Robert Heller <[email protected]> writes:
At Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:56:25 -0500 "amicus_curious" <[email protected]> wrote:
"Rjack" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> With the advent of the Obama administration, it is generally
> expected that the Justice Department and the FTC will become much
> more aggressive in antitrust enforcement matters.
I don't think antitrust enforcement is going to 'destroy' Microsoft.
It is not the point. The problem is that this "enforcement" has far too
much time lag at the current point of time. The educational value of
measures is simply not there if instead of a slap on the wrist at the
time of someone overstepping the bounds you get a vague threat of having
him shot decades later.
If the regulations are supposed to actually _achieve_ something, its
effects need to much more immediate. Just jotting down a scalding entry
into a Doomsday book record is not going to change a thing.
If every administration change just changes the proposed penalties but
never actually gets the process finished, the exercise is rather
pointless.
The notion that commercial progress is served by creating an envionment
where a lot of companies are beating one another up on price is a false
picture and one that politicians and jurists alike should re-examine. Real
progress occurs when there is something new and fresh that creates more
enjoyment, leisure, or efficiency in people's lives. That was the case with
the PC and other recent tech phenomena such as game consoles, cell phones,
iPods, and the like. The product message for all the successful versions of
these products was at least at first that the consumer had to have them to
improve the consumer's life. They were not touted as being less costly, but
as being better than the old thing being replaced. If there is some kind of
monopoly stifling of such innovation, then it needs to be struck down, but
if the power of the monopoly is that the original innovator bringing the
product to a mass market has an advantage over the copycats, then it should
be left alone.
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