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3 Mar 98 Letter to the Editor After the recent committee hearings involving Microsoft and Bill Gates,
it should finally be obvious to all just who the bad guys are and what course
of action we should take. The bad guys
are the competitors of Microsoft who, through political pull and manipulation,
have begun an inquisition against a great man.
The proper course of action is to boycott their products. CEOs Scott McNealy, of Sun Microsystems, and Jim Barksdale, of
Netscape, want us to believe that Microsoft is guilty of “unfair”
competition. By “unfair” do they mean
that Bill Gates earned his way by being competent and innovative as opposed to
destroying his competitors with the help of the government? Barksdale reveals exactly what he means when he insists that Microsoft
is guilty of intimidating PC companies to use their products over his. Just how were they “intimidated?” Did Bill Gates turn a government committee
against them? What Barksdale
cannot accept is that in any competition there are both winners and
losers. By “unfair” competition, he
means one that he has lost. It is like
a child losing a foot race and yelling “no fair! You were faster!” Microsoft’s rivals claim that it has too much power and is forcing out
the competition. What they fail to
recognize is the distinct difference between economic power and political
power. Economic power comes from being
productive and efficient, while political power involves a monopoly on the use
of force. In a free market, economic power can only come by appealing to the
interests of the people. That is, each
individual decides whether he will buy a product or not. If he does not want to buy a product, he is
free to walk away. However, Microsoft’s
competitors want to take away that choice.
As evidenced by the fact that 90% of all PCs run on Microsoft Windows,
most of the people chose to buy Microsoft.
What gives the competition and the government the right to decide
otherwise? This shows us that antitrust laws are an absolute violation of the
rights of every individual to choose whom he wishes to deal with. As Ayn Rand reveals to us in her book, Capitalism:
The Unknown Ideal, America’s persecuted minority is in fact big
business. Antitrust laws punish the
productive, the competent, and the efficient for being just that. What they are now asking us to do is punish
a man who has provided more jobs and life enhancing products than anyone else
in his industry, while we reward those who did not. We should all respond by casting our votes in the free market once
again. Let us all band together to
boycott those who resort to the most unfair of all business practices--relying
on the government for handouts. If they
thought that our choice to buy Microsoft was hurting them before, wait until
they see just how much power the free market can really yield. Eric J. Lakits |