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Technology Stocks : MSFT Internet Explorer vs. NSCP Navigator
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To: Reginald Middleton who wrote (16558)1/22/1998 12:26:00 AM
From: Keith Hankin  Read Replies (2) of 24154
 
Which is why you enact anti-trust after the consumers have been harmed, not when your
crystal ball says it may happen.

The problem I have with this is that how do you know when the customer has been harmed in the way of lack of innovation? The only way you can prove this beyond a shadow of a doubt is to play out history twice: once laissez-faire-style, the second with intervention. Then you can compare to see if there would have been more innovation with intervention or not. This is obviously not a practical alternative, unless if someone invents a time machine. Can it be proven that innovation slowed by MSFT's elimination of competition? No. But it is widely recognized that lack of competition in any market generally leads to stagnation. The monopolist moves onto other markets that it does not yet dominate. If any competition pops up in an area that it already dominates, because of its power, it can eliminate the challenge without much effort and with the result of stifling of innovation. Moreover, it is difficult to figure in the numerous times that people came up with innovative software ideas but decided against executing on them because they felt that the only way that their ideas would have any success is if they sold out to MSFT. Or else they felt the risk of being one of several entries in a nascent market, knowing that only one would be successful because it played MSFT's game, rather than letting customers choose.
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