[Am-info] Reuters: Microsoft: Asia Windows Rival Would Raise Concerns

[Erick Andrews]

On Mon, 8 Sep 2003 20:47:49 -0500, John Bryan wrote:

<snip>

>Their complaints are such a crock -- but that is standard operating  
>procedure.
>
>I had read this and managed to get to the end, but barely.  "Let the  
>markets decide" ???  Please.   Are not these governments customers ?   
>Are they not consumers in the market?  What if I and three of my  
>wealthiest pals, (ok, for me, in reality, that ain't sayin' much, but  
>play along), decided we would up and do the same thing?  Ok, so we  
>three are not capable of passing national legistlation mandating or  
>strongly encouraging the use of our product.  But what if we can by way  
>of lobbyists ?  Hasn't this practically been done already here in the  
>US ?
>
>Don't other countries have the sovereign right to do what they dang  
>well please in this respect ?

I think some are already saying so, and even doing so.

>Does Gates' want the US Govt to make things tough for these governments  
>by the way of trade "pay back" ?

I deduce not.  Gates fits Jim Hightower's definition of a "Kleptocrat".

>I really believe they don't understand Fair Competition as the most of  
>the sane world does.  It seems anything is Fair unless and until you  
>actually include homocide.  That seems to be the limit to which they  
>have been, and apparently are, willing to go.
>
>I recall a Gates quote, "There isn't anything we won't say to get  
>someone to go our way."  Or something pretty close to that, but the  
>first 6 words are accurate, and for Gates, "anything" literally means  
>ANYTHNG, and that can be a very big word indeed, and I am sure he meant  
>it in its fully infinite connotation.

I recall some "bumper sticker" or pronouncement from the early 1970s:
"He who has all the toys when he dies, wins", or some such.  That's Gates.
It's a game for him.  He has enough money and does less patriotically
or societally useful with it than all his monopolistic predecessors.

-- 
Erick Andrews