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Re: Return Economics

To: am-info@essential.org
Subject: Re: Return Economics
From: Bruce Scheidemantel <bruce@javalobby.org>
Date: Sun, 02 Nov 1997 11:19:36 -0800
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.95.971030054852.25310C-100000@superfly.ntlug.org>
  I don't know how I got on this discussion list, but I need to be removed
  from it asap. Thank you
  ---------
  
  
  
  At 06:55 PM 10/30/97 -0500, you wrote:
  >I, for one, read email with an email client, which expects plain text, not
  >HTML. HTML is for the Web. If I had wanted to read your web site, I would
  have
  >used my browser.
  >
  >But what's with all the html markup?
  >
  >Plain text would have made your point just as well, that is, if you have a
  >point. I can't tell because I'm not going to wade through all of the
  >unnecessary html markup in your message.
  >
  >Best,
  >
  >	Kendall Clark, President
  >	North Texas Linux Users Group
  >	http://www.ntlug.org/
  >
  >
  >On Thu, 30 Oct 1997, John Robert BEHRMAN wrote:
  >
  >>This is a cryptographically signed message in MIME format.
  >>
  >>--------------ms0C9101F92AF29C1F478664BD
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  boundary="------------B067021B95F20CB9C954D1BB"
  >>
  >>This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
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  >>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
  >>
  >><HTML>
  >>Thnx fr ths post. Will revrt if I can trace wsj refs. Pls post whatever
  >>you find.
  >>
  >><P><B>Strategical and Modular Economics</B>
  >>
  >><P>My own view is that the economics of digital <I>media</I>, ie storage,
  >>transmission and switching, can be correctly analyzed in <B><FONT
  COLOR="#000099">strategical</FONT></B>
  >>terms, a sort of macroeconomics, and in <FONT
  COLOR="#000099"><B>modula</B>r</FONT>
  >>terms, a complementary sort of microeconomics. I suspect my analysis
  overlaps
  >>return economics in some appreciation of interleaved economies of
  <B><FONT COLOR="#000099">scope,
  >>scale, and cycle</FONT></B><FONT COLOR="#000000">, a sort of three-body
  >>problem common to the union set of technology markets and market
  enterprise.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000"></FONT>
  >>
  >><P><FONT COLOR="#000000">My question, relative to my own analysis or any
  >>other, is whether what anything as pedestrian economics can say really
  >>bears decisively on the strategical, political, and popular issues raised
  >>by Microsoft's aggression. It may be that century-old laws concocted by
  >>rude farmers, merchants, and mechanics a century ago in the context of
  >>coal-fired railroads and steam-ships still apply pretty much
  straightforwardly.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000"></FONT>
  >>
  >><P><FONT COLOR="#000000">We pretty much know what a tie-in sale, a
  conspiracy,
  >>predatory pricing and boiler torts are. The jails are full of low-class
  >>or non-white people who prey upon even lower-class and less-white people
  >>with what <I>Dragnet</I> used to call "bunko" and consisting of what
  Microsoft
  >>seems to do, albeit in their white-bread, nerdy way. Off-hand, I am not
  >>sure why rich kids used to getting mama and daddy to fix their traffic
  >>tickets should be exempt from the law generally. I know that the PC and
  >>the Internet and so on have changed <I>almost</I> everything, but I wonder
  >>if the more things change, the more they stay the same.</FONT><FONT
  COLOR="#000000"></FONT>
  >>
  >><P><FONT COLOR="#000000">I am a fancy-pants economic consultant who would
  >>love to get in on either side of the Microsoft litigation at my usual hourly
  >>billing rate. But, as just a plain, old Texan, I am not sure but what
  Microsoft
  >>should not be given what Orrin HATCH would recognize as a fair trial in
  >>the morning and be hanged a little after noon for simply and flagrantly
  >>doing exactly what they are accused of doing for pretty much the old-fangled
  >>reason of getting a lot of money in a hurry with less actual work than
  >>other "low-bandwidth" folk might have to engage in to achieve the same
  >>result.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000"></FONT>
  >>
  >><P><FONT COLOR="#000000">The fact is that hardware outfits in Texas could
  >>make more money by buying a cheaper DOS/Windows upgrade like Win95 without
  >>the cost of IE bundled in and by reselling the sort of build-to-order
  systems
  >>people want and, apart from Microsoft's oppression, get from Dell, Compaq,
  >>IBM and other Texas companies. Texas firms should be free to bundle
  <I>IE</I>
  >>or <I>Doom </I>or whatever or not as they see fit, pay a marginal cost
  >>or not, in order to get and gain a marginal profit or not.</FONT><FONT
  COLOR="#000000"></FONT>
  >>
  >><P><FONT COLOR="#000000">What amazes me in all this is the sheer laziness
  >>or cowardice of the Attorney General of Texas. He has stood around with
  >>his finger up his ass while firms like Microsoft and Intel engage in acts
  >>clearly detrimental to Texas commerce and industry. His fine, old elected
  >>office has long been empowered and expected to take action against those
  >>as would violate common carriage and anti-trust laws that Texans pioneered.
  >>However, the last big case here was brought privately by a coal-slurry
  >>pipeline against a conspiracy of railroads. The pipeline prevailed and
  >>got about a billion-dollar verdict. But, the Attorney General of Texas
  >>was a pathetic spectator then as, I suspect, he will remain in present
  >>or future action against Microsoft.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000"></FONT>
  >>
  >><P><B><FONT COLOR="#000000">Law, Economics &amp;
  Engineering</FONT></B><FONT COLOR="#000000"></FONT>
  >>
  >><P><FONT COLOR="#000000">I wish economists and engineers were in the
  driver's
  >>seat when it comes to action against Microsoft. But, the best chance for
  >>that slipped by when the FTC failed to act some time ago with the sort
  >>of rather simple measures that would have facilitated more competition
  >>then, less litigation now. But, the FTC was more lazy and cowardly then
  >>than even the Texas Attorney General is today. All we are looking at, in
  >>the decrepit FTC and Texas AG's Office, are a bunch of government lawyers
  >>looking to get into private practice by sucking-up and
  copping-out.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000"></FONT>
  >>
  >><P><FONT COLOR="#000000">The one thing I obviously identify with is
  Microsoft's
  >>complete contempt for the sort of lawyers they have had to contend with
  >>up to now: Clintonite fund-raisers, IBM's thundering horde of bloody-hands
  >>defense lawyers, and, of course, all those intellectual property lawyers
  >>just like themselves at Borland, Sun, Novell.</FONT><FONT
  COLOR="#000000"></FONT>
  >>
  >><P><FONT COLOR="#000000">No wonder the Microsofties feel invincible. They
  >>have never been eyeball-to-eyeball with a Texas Trial Lawyer or, for that
  >>matter, an old-style SEC lawyer. So, they are the Little League Champs.
  >>Big Deal.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000"></FONT>
  >>
  >><P><FONT COLOR="#000000">Nader can whip 'em, if he has still got any spit
  >>or piss left.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000"></FONT>
  >>
  >><P><FONT COLOR="#000000">Good Luck and PLAYON JRBehrman
  sends.....</FONT></HTML>
  >>
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  >>n:              BEHRMAN;John Robert
  >>org:            TETRA ENGINEERING, Inc.
  >>adr:            1436 West Gray, Nbr 298;;;HOUSTON;Texas;77019;USA
  >>email;internet: jbehrman@netropolis.net
  >>title:          Chief Analyst
  >>tel;work:       713 610 1162
  >>tel;fax:        713 610 1161
  >>tel;home:       713 524 4154
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  >>version:        2.1
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  >>
  >>
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  >
  >
  >
  Take Care, and Give Some Back
  
  Bruce Scheidemantel
  Bruce@javalobby.org
  Unite for Java! -- http://www.javalobby.org
References:
- Re: Return Economics
  - From: "Kendall G. Clark" <kclark@computek.net>
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