Gates evidently feels that, because he may not be personally mean-spirited, and because he does not drive his car at 60 mph along muddy streets on his way to the club, splattering all the poor folk along the way, he cannot be compared to Dollar Mark Hanna, John D. Rockefeller, and the other famous monopolists of yore.
He also seems to think the government is categorically out of line in attempting to regulate his business practices, and his general contempt for the government belies the fact that in the computer industry generally, as in so many others, the early part of the learning curve was travelled courtesy of the taxpayer.
He needs to stop listening to his coterie (chiefly Ballmer and his head lawyer, I forget his name) and realize that under any reasonable system, government has to reserve the power to scrutinize and even regulate entities such as Microsoft, who have the power (through ignorance, avarice, or both) to block innovation in a key industry. God forbid Microsoft should become like Detroit in the 50s.
That is my expanded answer. I don't want BG's head on a pike, and will not engage in a prolonged discussion of Gates, Microsoft, etc. |
