Chris, 20 years ago a nuclear physicist named A.J. Galombos gave a lecture in Carmel, CA in which he predicted that, in 20 years (from then) people like us would be having just this kind of electronic exchange. He also suggested that the role of "government" would have to shrink to just policing "the crazies" and maintaining a standing army to defend against international "crazies". The rest, he suggested, should be left to the individual. Not the state, not the city, the individual.
Privately owned toll roads, pay-for-service fire departments, and increases in charitable donations and insurance would replace the concepts of "taxes" and "government"). In his world, honesty would replace the "justice system" because lies would become nearly impossible to hide.*
If people didn't like what MSFT was doing, they could refuse to buy their products, sell their stock, send critical e-mail to MSFT and their friends, etc. They could post until they were blue on public forums. And, so long as they spoke the truth or their own opinions (stated as such), they would be heard. If enough people disagreed with MSFT, a Net-based "movement" would commence and MSFT would either straighten up or go out of business for lack of customers.
I've heard an awful lot of people express their opinions in favor of MSFT, but not one in favor the the Justice Dept. I'm not saying that A.J. was 100% right. But, if people's opinions mean anything, in this case the government is 100% wrong.
Craig
* A competitor, called our office this afternoon in the guise of a potential customer to request information on our products. We did a backward search on his telephone number, discovered his misprepresentation, and E-mailed a note to let him know that his P.O. box would be empty. |
