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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Charles Tutt who wrote (37499)	2/7/2000 12:59:00 PM
From: miraje	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Given that we need government (or would you prefer lawlessness?) Government, yes, but at a much lower and less intrusive level than currently exists. it's clear it has to be paid for. That's the role of taxes. Agreed. If they're assessed in a fair manner (flat tax or sales tax). The present "system" is used to reward and punish according to congressional whims. Right now taxes don't seem excessive to me. They do to me. The one unwarranted "tax" is the one Microsoft is levying at every opportunity on the free flow of information. There has never been a freer flow of information than exists now, in all of history. And if I were the best software programmer in the world, it would take me far longer than my lifetime to design and code an OS and browser that gives me the functionality and freedom that Windows and IE does, at a cost that is peanuts in comparison to what I'm getting. You call it a "tax". I call it one of the most productivity enhancing bargains around. Do you see even a small correlation between the relatively unfettered explosive growth in IT innovation and the current state of our economy? Let the government regulate, meddle and intervene, and see how long the golden goose survives. -JB

To: Charles Tutt who wrote (37499)	2/7/2000 2:18:00 PM
From: Jim McMannis	Respond to of 74651

RE:"The one unwarranted "tax" is the one Microsoft is levying at every opportunity on the free flow of information."... Just about every time money changes hands some form of government gets a cut. That money doen't necessarily find its way into something that pushes a technology forward. Microsoft, OTOH, doesn't have the power to levy a tax. Like so many, you are misinformed about the governemnt and the private sector. When I see my tax money going to fight a private company at the benefit of a slew of lawyers I think something is very wrong. Jim