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michigan@abraham.senate.gov Dear Member of Congress, Perhaps one of the most challenging aspects
for someone in your position is dealing with the various factors that might
influence the decisions you make while in office. In particular, should one base their decisions on receiving the
most votes, or should one act on moral principle? The latter of these two is, of course, the more difficult. It requires that one be honest, has
integrity, and expends the mental effort required to discover and recognize a
proper moral principle. It is this
honesty, integrity, and intelligence of yours to which I now appeal. The antitrust laws that Bill Gates is being
persecuted under are a grave violation of individual rights. These laws punish the competent, the able,
and the productive for being just that.
They are designed to destroy those who succeed in the free market by
taking away market freedom. The principle at stake here is the right of
each individual to live his life for his own sake and to be free to choose
which people he will associate and deal with.
Man’s tool of survival is reason.
For man to live, he must be free to think and to act on his own judgement. The product of his actions is the material form that results from
his productive, life sustaining efforts. Justice demands that each man receive what he
deserves based on his actions. This
means that if a man is rational he should be free to profit from his actions
and to keep the product of his efforts.
If he is irrational, he should be free to fail by his own hand. Each man has a right to that which he
creates, yet no man can claim a right to that which he did not create. If a man claims the unearned, he makes a
slave of others and violates their right to sustain their own life by robbing
them of their productive efforts.
In a free market, each man can benefit by
trading the results of their productive efforts. The material form of this productive effort is money. Money is a token of production. Those who produce the most and make life
more sustainable earn the most. Those
who do nothing have none and must rely on the voluntary efforts of others. In a free market, every individual is free to
associate or not associate with whomever he pleases. If he finds value in another man’s achievements, he can trade
value for value and both parties profit.
However, they do not make this exchange at the expense of others who did
not take part in the exchange. They are
no worse off than if the exchange never took place. The proper role for government is to protect
the rights of individual and guarantee their freedom. To do this, government holds an exclusive monopoly on the use of
force, which it must only use in retaliation.
As a result, a proper government has an important responsibility. It must never, under any circumstances,
initiate the use of force. At this time, the Senate Judiciary Committee
and Microsoft’s competitors are violating all of the above principles. They are persecuting Bill Gates and
Microsoft. They are sacrificing a
productive and competent man for those who are less productive and less
competent. They are punishing him for
creating a product which 90% of all PC users freely chose. In addition to violating his individual
rights, they are violating the rights of everyone who chose to buy his
product. They are telling them that
they and he are not free to choose with whom they will trade. His competitors are not only asking for the
unearned, they are asking government to initiate force to prevent him from
acting and dealing with whom he pleases.
In addition, they threaten to take his money and his freedom away from
him. As I have already mentioned, you, as a member
of our government, have a great responsibility. I ask you now to act on principle and protect Bill Gates and the
rest of us from this gross violation of justice. What is more, I ask that you review these irrational antitrust
laws and judge them for what they are--immoral. If and when you finally see this, I hope that you are honest
enough to say so, and have the integrity to act accordingly. Thank you for the time that you took to read
this. Sincerely, Eric J. Lakits |
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